Once upon a time...

You were born on January 11, 2005 in Seattle, Washington. While that is the day you were born, you really 'began' 9 months earlier on the Eastern coast of Australia, in a place called Cairns (pronounced Cans). Your mother and I at the time were on our honeymoon. We were married just a few weeks earlier on April 3, 2004. We had decided beforehand that as soon as we got married, we would start a family. And so our honeymoon was our first chance to do that.

When we returned from Australia we weren't sure if you had been conceived and so we bought a product to test if you were in mommy's belly. The picture on the side is of that test after the result showed. If you look in the picture, the white stick has 2 red lines across it. This meant you existed! I knew you were there but your mom was shocked. She thought for sure she wasn't pregnant yet. I had predicted she would get pregnant on our first try and I was right. Your were tiny then. Probably the size of a small grain of rice. But you were alive. Working backwards we figured you must have been conceived somewhere around April 16 or so.

We had a tough time coming up with your name. We like Sophia and Rhiannon and Rachel. We eventually decided on Sophia. It was then a long 9 months of waiting for you to grow up so you could be born. For most of that 9 months, we lived in Seattle at 2929 1st Avenue in a condominium downtown. Your mom and I had met in Seattle while working at Microsoft and had been living there about 3 years. All that was about to change early in the summer. I decided to take a new job at a company called Bernstein in New York City. And I was supposed to start in August of 2004 before you were going to be born. But mommy liked the hospital in Seattle and her doctor, so she wanted to stay before moving out. So for 5 months I would fly back from New York to Seattle and stay with both of you while you were growing bigger. And then on January 10, 2004 I got a call from your mom at 6AM in the morning that you wanted to come out...