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As most of you know — but we still wanted to do a blog entry anyway — Rachel finally joined our family on May 20, 2004. It has taken us so long to get the news out because we had a very hard time deciding on a name. We were ourselves tired of referring to her as “the baby”, so we waited until the name was finalized to publish our announcement. Interestingly, as I write this, Rachel is almost 2 weeks old and we still only call her by her name about 40% of the time.

The baby hadn’t moved at all for most of the day on the 19th and so we called the doctor for advice. He asked us to come in, so we made it down to Hopkins around 8 pm. Of course, once we got to the hospital the baby started moving. Nevertheless, because Susie was already almost a week overdue and scheduled for induction 36 hours later, they decided to go ahead an induce Susie while we were already there. After about 3 hours of labor, Rachel Anne Jones was born at 2:59 am on Thursday, May 20, 2004. She weighed in at 8 lbs, 1.8 oz and she was 20 inches long. We feel so grateful and so happy to have the blessing of another child in our family.

Lisa had come up on Monday prior to the birth, and we are so grateful she did. She was a lifesaver. She fed, clothed, entertained, comforted, and otherwise took care of Allie, Camryn, and Seth while Susie and I took turns trying to sleep. Rachel, moreso than any of our other kids, has no sense of responsibility when it comes to sleeping. Thank heaven for the swing and car seat (thanks family!!!), which are Rachel’s favorite places to sleep, if only for short periods of time.

It has been both fun and interesting to watch each of the kids react to the new baby. I would love to know how they assimilate what they see in the world around them with what they actually know about how things work based on their life experience so far…

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Seth, much to his credit, has taken it all in stride, but you can tell he’s feeling a bit displaced. Mom leaves one day, comes back 36 hours later with a new thing that spends most of its time crying and/or sitting on Mom’s lap. He is actually very good with Rachel most of the time. He enjoys holding her and kissing her (especially when she’s asleep). We did catch him inserting a 24 oz water bottle into her mouth. Luckily, we caught him before he squeezed.

Camryn mostly gets it. She is excited about having a new sister and is quite loving towards the new baby and very helpful. She has been a bit baffled by the whole process of getting the baby here. She heard Susie and I talking about the �bag� breaking. Poor Camryn stewed on this for a couple of days, and then while driving home from the store I mentioned something about a grocery bag. Camryn, quite concerned, asked if that was “the same bag that the baby would be coming in”. I said no, but I know it provided her with no clarity whatsoever. All she knows is that the baby was not stored in a Safeway bag. She is also fascinated with the process of breast feeding. She continually reminds me (she did again just a couple of minutes ago) when I’m holding Rachel that I cannot actually feed the baby because I don’t have �the milk fings� — pointing to a region around her belly button while saying this. I’ll spare you the details of all the questions, but, in her defense, if you are only 4 years old and the only solid thing you ever see leave your body is *ahem* “processed food”, then I think you have every right to be totally confused about how the baby �gets out�.

Allie, of course, gets it. But then, Allie gets everything. In fact (this is a digression) I continue to be amazed at just how much Allie understands about…everything. A few nights ago we took our nightly stroll around the complex. The cicadas are at the zenith of their short eat-mate-lay eggs that will lie dormant for 17 years-and die cycle, and so we spend much of our walk trying not to step on the cicadas that have fallen on the sidewalk. The kids are fascinated by the cicadas, and during our walk we came upon a a couple of cicadas flagrante delicto. Camryn asked what they were doing and I made some lame comment about how they were “playing”. Allie, ever tolerant of her stupid Dad, knelt down, surveyed the situation, and said “Dad, I think they’re mating”. Susie and I didn’t know what to say — did we even want to open that can of worms? I have no problem talking to the kids about the facts of life, I just wanted to do it on my terms (read: when they’re 21, several months before their first date). I mumbled something lame like “Yes, that is indeed two cicadas mating. How do you know about mating?” She looked at me so tolerantly and said “I think I read about it”. Guess we have to be more careful about leaving reading material unattended in the bathroom (I assume she learned this from a US News & World Report article).

Thanks to all who have called and emailed. We love and miss you all.

— J.B., Susie, Allie, Camryn, Seth, and �the baby�