New Baby Daughter!

With appreciation to The Almighty, my wife and I were blessed with the birth of our second daughter this morning. It was really excellent to, after having gone in to the hospital early yesterday morning and waiting out the entire day and first part of the night, to have our new daughter emerge healthily. Not only that, but my wife is also, thank God, doing well :)
Although being a father is nothing new, since my wife gave birth nearly two years ago, it is still a very wonderful feeling to be a new father again :)

My Theological Conundrum on What to Say In Response to a Baby Compliment

So, we get compliments from people on our daughter - yay. Initially, when people said something nice, I would amusingly make some noise, not sure what the right thing to say was.

Then, my wife said that the proper response is to say, "Thank you", since they are proferring a compliment.

However, my problem with this is that while we were involved with creating her, a rabbinic statement says that there are three partners involved in the creation of life: a male, a female, and God (Niddah 31a), so why are we necessarily accepting the compliment.

Furthermore, any glance at the Bible will yield the obvious result that the proper response should somehow entail a recognition of God's blessing and handiwork and that this is surely it.

Personally, I don't feel comfortable saying "Thank you" on people complimenting the cuteness of our daughter, because I think that we should say "Thank God".

The one problem with this is that it may sound weird for two reasons: 1) I may come out sounding like a religious freak and 2) someone expecting an appreciate response such as "Thank you" may feel slighted at not being properly acknowledged for their proffering.

Oh well, I guess I will have to figure it out situationally.

Now a Father

This past shabbas, my wife and I were at a hospital for my wife to give birth. She did, indeed, give birth. She gave birth to a healthy baby girl, making us parents together!
I must say that although being at a hospital on shabbas made it difficult to do some things (fortunately we were there before shabbas and had food ready [for me (Rachel wasn't eating since she was not allowed to)]), nevertheless, we realized that it made it more calm and peaceful: we didn't have to deal with people's phone calling, texting, and my twittering, not to mention no picture-taking (the hospital has a prohibition against videotaping, so that doesn't enter the discussion).
Anyways, I'm now hoping to get some sleep before going to the hospital to visit my new daughter and wife tomorrow.