In which Crazy Aunt Sarah meets the baby, and we go Mission-ing.

The entire "Normal" Laleman clan was here this weekend, and what a weekend it was. We started off attending Maria and Gregg's wedding, then Sunday we went downtown to Rivercenter Mall with the millions of other tourists who were trying to get out of the rain. Monday, we let Monica rest so Grandma Connie, Grandpa Rick, Crazy Aunt Sarah from Brooklyn, and I took Rachel on her first trip to the missions and the Witte museum. A lovely time was had by all...

Aunt Sarah meets Rachel



Family with a sleeping Rachel at Mission San Jose



Some modeling shots of Mom and Sarah from Mission San Jose....




Some gratuitous mission shots...it was a beautiful day.

Congratulations Maria and Gregg!

Yesterday, we were part of the wedding party for our good friends Maria and Gregg. For those of you who don't remember, Maria was Monica's maid of honor last year, and 357 days later, we stood in their wedding. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was a lot of fun.

Welcome to the world of being married!

Time part II

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?

Shhhhh....

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.

Cousins

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.

Just kicking it...

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

Rule #1: Sleep when the baby sleeps

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

Rachel's first week

I changed the video to it's own page so you're not forced to watch it every time you come to the blog. Click on the picture below to see the video.

You must have Quicktime installed to view this movie. Give it a couple of minutes to load.

click here to see the movie

One week

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.

Home sweet home...

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.

Hello baaaaaaa-bee!

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"

Like Christmas Morning

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.

Still waiting

Tomorrow is B-Day for us, and still no sign of this little one. At least we know that she'll be arriving sometime this week.

Rest in Peace

It's interesting how the past comes back to hit you square between the eyes. People whose names you haven't heard in a decade or so suddenly bring back memories of times gone by.

Chris Straukas was a sophomore when I was a senior in high school. He hung out with our "group" that year, and I found out yesterday that he died in a motorcycle accident over the weekend.

I only knew the guy for a year or so, and we never kept in touch after high school, but his name is forever etched in my memory as part of that senior year of high school. I hope that he finds peace where ever he may be.

I gar-ohn-tee

By next Friday, we will have a child. Monica had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and told her that if she hadn't delivered by next Wednesday, June 7 (her due date), she'll be induced on Friday.

So one way or another, we're having a baby within the next week. Guaranteed.

39 down, 1 to go...

Or so they tell us.


Oh yeah, and we've decided to change her name. Relcha has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Are we there yet?

You know, the last couple of weeks of a pregnancy is just a huge waiting game. All of your plans get put on hold, you can't commit to anything, and it's all a guessing game.

Right now, everything is tenative.

We can't leave town, and I can't even go across town (or to work, for that matter) without worrying that she's going to be born while I'm away.

We have contingency plans if I'm not home, but it's just one of those things that you want to be there for.

We just want to meet her...NOW!

Done

Monica started her maternity leave today. We went to the doctor yesterday, and he told her that she was done. She had been complaining of pains, which the doctor told her were Braxton-Hicks contractions. She was plannig on taking next week off, but since she got yanked two days early, she had some planning to do last night.

So now the waiting game is on. With less than two weeks to the due date, we can hardley wait to meet our little one, and ask her why she's been kicking her mamma so much.

Happy Birthday Sister!

It still seems weird to me that my sister is over 30. Today she turns 31, but to me, she'll always be that little brat that yelled for dad after she picked fights with me. Of course, by admitting that my sister is 31, I'm admitting that I'm getting really old.

Anyway, happy birthday, Sarah. You're one classy chic.

Do they still play the blues in Chicago

When baseball season rolls around?

The answer this year is yes, if you're a Cubs fan. This is pretty much how our year is going so far.


My parents raised me as a Cubs fan, which means that I'm a pessimist. Even when the team is doing well, I always have a feeling that it's going to go south. That carries over to every sports team I like.

The other night, Monica and I were discussing the Spurs must win game 6 against the Mavs, and I said that I was sure they would lose. When she asked me why, I said, "Because I'm a Cubs fan, and that's how we work."

We never expect to win, which is why winning is so much sweeter for us. We don't expect it, and if we start to expect it, they're bound to disappoint us.

That's why the Cubs win over the Sox today was so sweet...because we all knew in our hearts that they were going to get swept.

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom is one of those cursed by having a birthday near another holiday, so I'll say Happy Mother's Day along with with this birthday wish...

Some nature photos

OK, not really...maybe one.

Ch-ch-ch-chia! Some of the new grass I'm trying to grow under the hammock.


My way of making my backyard a little more like Wrigley...


This is what they really mean when they talk about the "yellow rose of Texas."

The final month...

Let's review, shall we?
January--4 months...was she even showing?


February--5 months


March--6 months


April--7 months


And May--8 months

Another step forward in "The March of the Babies"

Pete and Carol had their baby yesterday. For those of you unfamiliar with mi familia, Pete is Monica's brother. They have two girls, Rebecca and Claudia, and now they have a boy, Matthew Aaron.

He was born at 5:02 yesterday, weighing in a 6 lbs 10 ozs, 19 inches. Moni and I got to practice today for a couple of hours. As you can see, we're already pros.

Rain, rain, come this way!

It rained in San Antonio today. Strike that. It poured. Most of the city got a deluge right around rush hour. It was such a huge event that they spent the entire 6 o'clock newscast talking about how it was raining outside.

It was one of those summer storms that just pops up...an isolated storm, if you please. This one happened to pop up on the northeast side of the city and tracked right across the center of town. I recognized the signs when I left from work. I knew it looked like it could rain, and when I got home, it was confirmed with the images coming in from the traffic cameras around the city.

I decided to hold off on watering my grass seed, and that, evidently, was my fatal flaw.

If you notice on the image below where I've marked the location of our house...it's the only spot in the whole city that didn't get rain.


While it was a biblical storm in most of the city, we got all of 12 drops of rain. After waiting for almost an hour for it to do something, I decided to go out and water.

Next time it looks like it's going to rain, I'm watering AND washing the car!