Hurrah! Welcome, Raphael ;j
What wonderful news! Congratulations!
Congrats on the new addition to your family 
Mazel tov! ;j
Tov M’aod!
Shalom little Raphael. ;j
Will you be calling him Raffi for short?
Kong-rats, my friend.
'Tis a blessing and a curse, but one we cannot help to bear once we see them.
All the best to you and yours, for now and ever.
Congratulations!
Welcome, Rafa 
(Gal is a brand of cologne, here… gotta love that kind of coincidences)
Heartiest congratulations, Alessan - best wishes to your wife and the little 'un: Raphael does have a cool ring to it. The first three months are the hardest, the second three aren’t much better, but don’t worry: it all passes in a hazy blur of sleeplessness and poo.
Congrats!
I love babies. And when they cry, I can give it back to its parents. I don’t think you can give it away when it’s your own though.
Well, you can, but only when they’re tiny and cute and you still want them! Once they’re old enough for you to want to give them away (read: teenagers) no one will take them!
Alessan, congratulations to your entire family! I may joke about teenagers (and at this point I have two of them), but having children is the most wonderful thing I’ve ever done, and I hope you and your wife will always feel the same way. In fact, if you can find something more wonderful than raising kids, whatever it is is probably illegal.
Oh, and Raphael is a very cool name!
Congratulations! Best of luck and enjoy every moment.
Congratulations. Gazing into your child’s eyes is a very rewarding hobby.
My GOD! They had to get him out with a plunger?! :eek:
Congrats! 
Congratulations Alessan :).
- Tamerlane
Congratulations, Dad!
.מזל תוב
Mazel Tov! ;j
Many congratulations! smooch for Alessan, Mrs. Alessan and baby Alessan
Now where are those pictures already? 
Nice try with the Hebrew! (but not quite)
מזל טוב לאלסן, לאשה ולרפי הקטן
דני
Dani
Warmest congratulations to you and your family.
Sounds just like my little boy when he was born. He also had a rather rosy complexion so he soon became known in our household as the angry, hairy tomato.
Yep - those admirable traits soon wear thin in a newborn.
Thanks, everybody. It really means a lot to me.
We had a fascinating day today. The Liitle One learned some important skills - like how to breastfeed, or how to hold onto my finger really tight, or how to quiet down when he hears my voice, or how to get rapt attention from everyone around him by doing such complex actions as opening his eyes, or sneezing. It’s really quite amazing. We’re sure he’s a genius.
My father-in-law’s going to bring around his digital camera tomorrow, so I’ll have some pictures up by afternoon your time. Any recommendations on where to post them?
It wasn’t the vaccuum-cleaner attachment itself they were using that scared me. It was how hard the doctor seemed to be pulling - she was literally leaning back and straining. I tried to keep my attention on my wife’s face and left hand, but my glance happened to slip once or twice, and I really wish it hadn’t.
The medical staff was great, though. Very professional, very calm. At no point did they ever give us the impression that anything was wrong, that what they were doing wasn’t standard procedure. As far as I know, maybe that’s what it was.
Absolutely. Raffi G., in da house.
The name is my father-in-law’s, who is a very happy man right now. My wife’s family is Sephardic, and it’s custom with them to name a child after a living relative. It’s fine by me - I like him, and I like the name. We’ll have to get a nickname to avoid confusion, though.
We chose the name Gal (Hebrew for “wave”) because we like the name and like the alliteration with Raphael (our last name has an L in it, too). No connection to Gal Fridman, although my kid brother - the windsurfer - likes to think there is.