My sister posted a thing about how time flies a couple of weeks ago. Here’s my version:

A month ago, there were only two of us living in this house.
A year ago, we were a week away from being married.
Two years ago, we were preparing to move back to San Antonio.
Five years ago, we were preparing to move to Oak Park.
Ten years ago, I was preparing to move to San Antonio to do my student teaching.

Can someone please slow down this crazy train?

I know I’m going to regret putting this down in writing…

Rachel slept the entire night last night. And when I say the entire night, I mean from 11 to 6:30, which means that we got 7 glorious hours (in a row) of sleep.

I think it helps that she stayed awake from 6-11 last night.

Here’s some extreme baby closeups for ya’ll.

This is Rachel and her cousin Matthew. They hung out together on Father’s Day when we went to Pete and Carol’s. He’s about 5 weeks older than she is.

Good thing I own a Mac, otherwise I might be showing you how we kick it using a pie chart.

This is pretty much what our days have been like lately.

At some point last week, I was looking at Rachel and decided that the hospital had measured her wrong. So like any other man, I went to the toolbox and got out the trusty Black & Decker tape measure, stretched out my little girl, and lay the tape down next to her. She was 21 inches.

We had a doctor’s appointment yesterday and my measurements were confirmed. Not that I doubted the accuracy of my measurements…it was just nice to have it confirmed medically.

I can’t believe we’ve had her for a week already.

So we’re finally home after 4 days in the hospital. Monica and Rachel are doing great.

She got to meet all her grandparents…

And Daddy finally got his picture taken with her after 2 days…

In case she forgets her name…

The cradle that Great-Grandpa Al made for her (she’s not really throwning gang signs)

Basking in the sun…

Ten fingers…

and ten toes.

I know every parent says it, but I think she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

Rachel Alicia, 6-9-06, 8:34 PM, 7 lbs, 12 oz, 19.5″

I should still be asleep. I should have slept a lot more than I did, but I feel like the kid in the Disney commercial: “I’m too excited to sleep!”

In a matter of minutes, the insanity is going to start. I’m going to repack our bags, make a final check of the house, make sure we have everything, put gas in Monica’s car, call the hospital to make sure they have room for us, and finally, off we’ll go.

I told Monica yesterday, that maybe Rachel will come quickly and be born at 9:09 on the 9th, since I was born at 15:15 on the 15th. Nine seems to be our number. We were married on the 9th (just 11 months ago!), and now our child will (God willing) be born on the 9th.

The next time we wake up in this house, it will be to the sound of our daughter needing attention, and I couldn’t be more excited. I’ll post pictures soon.

Thanks so much to all of you who have given us support and gifts and advice through this whole thing. It mean so much to us to have such caring, loving people around us.