Tobias Timothée McLaughlin

Over four months ago, Rachel told me that the ideal date for our baby to be born would be April 1.  She didn't want another March birthday (she and Ben are in March), but she didn't want to wait any longer than necessary, and that way, true to McCropder tradition, the baby could share a birthday with Sarah.

Never mind that it was 8 days prior to her due date, and thus 15 days prior to her French due date (they use 41 weeks for some reason).

Yet, lo and behold, months later, more or less during Sarah's birthday celebration, the contractions kicked up in earnest.  Several hours later, Tobias Timothée McLaughlin was born at the Albertville hospital.  All has been well.  Rachel will provide her take on being a patient in the French system later on.

It may be remembered that Ben has two middle names:  "Kenneth Kipruto", the first being Rachel's dad's name, and the second being his Kenyan name, meaning "boy born while traveling".  Timothée (pronounced Teem-o-tay) is in fact the French spelling of my father's name, thus keeping the same pattern, but combining both elements into one.

Questions from the peanut gallery:

• Was he a chunker like the others?  8lbs 9oz, in between the others
• Does Tobias has a really cool-looking French birth certificate?  No, it is in fact the most underwhelming legal document I have ever seen.
• Is he eligible for French citizenship?  No, you must have a French parent to be eligible for citizenship.
• Could he be president of the United States?  This was actually the first question he asked me after being born.  It's funny how the answer to this doesn't seem to be straightforward, but the most reliable answer I've been given is that, since he acquires citizenship at birth (by virtue of being born to American citizens), that he could be president.

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us.  Please continue.

Psalm 126:3 - "The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy."

Benjamin's Passport Photos

1 week old is never too young to get working on your passport. With the help of a friend, I went down to the Bomet district office when Ben was 3 days old, and landed him a Kenyan birth certificate. Complete with correct spellings. Much thanks to Musyoka, because I certainly never could have navigated that place myself.

And so now that we have it, we are working on getting Ben a US passport and a Social Security Number, which is a process formally known as "Consular Report of a Birth Abroad", which first involves emailing a million forms to the Embassy (15 megabytes of attachments, you can only guess how long that took on our internet), then an appointment at the Embassy, which we're hoping will be early April, when we next go into Nairobi.

So it was time for Ben's passport photos. Maggie has been through this drill twice. Here's the first time and then the second time. They actually have a couple similar photos. In Ben's case, I think we might have a better photo, all the better since Maggie's newborn photo is still her passport photo, and will be for a while.

Little Boy

Being at Tenwek, we have limited ultrasound capability. The first two ultrasounds looked like a girl. The third thought maybe a boy. The fourth confirmed a girl. The fifth called it into question. The sixth seemed to clinch a boy, but how sure can you be after needing six scans. So we stopped looking. Nevertheless, we will always have this lovely gift to remind us of the saga. I guess Maggie can wear hers and maybe some other later girl will enjoy the other.

Nevertheless, here's our little boy, decked in blue, which has no gender connotation whatsoever in Kenyan culture. He's looking a little tired, but he's doing fine.

Our Kenyan Daughter

Yet another milestone. As of today, Maggie has spent more than half of her life within the country of Kenya. One of the interesting things about this is that, since we will leave before she's three, she still may have no memories of Kenya. The other day she got her dependency pass finally for Kenyan immigration, so I don't think she could get any more Kenyan. And it's pretty much a tie whether chapati or ugali is her favorite food.

Behold her Kenyan transformation: Here she is on our departure from Tennessee, sitting atop our luggage in all her 7-month glory.
A couple months ago, donning a Maasai shawl.
Now at 14 1/2 months, feeling quite at home in her new environs.

"Maggie Smile"

This picture was from a while ago, but Phil Uttz, my sister's father-in-law, who took it, just sent it to us, and we love it and wanted to share it. It was Brian Beise who said that Maggie smiles like a muppet, i.e. straight open-mouth. Sometimes it looks a lot more like a smile than this, but it's still very cute. Here's a tribute to the Maggie Smile by various members of the McLaughlin family just last month, on the other side of the world.

Pumpkin Tale

One of the nice parts about living at Tenwek is the availability of fresh produce. We may not be able to drive to the grocery store, but there are plenty of little wooden fruit and vegetable stands near the hospital, and even people walking up to our doors on a fairly regular basis, selling stuff. I've been making Maggie's baby food since she started on solids several months ago, and now figuring out what to feed her has gotten a bit more challenging. We decided to see if she liked pumpkin (as she was already a fan of butternut squash, which is not very accessible here). One of the first days after our arrival, our house helper Ruth took us to the market and we mentioned that we wanted to buy a pumpkin. She walked us by a few shops and deemed their pumpkins, priced around 120 shillings (or $1.5), too expensive. She assured us she could find us one for 50 shillings instead. But she had no luck at the market the next week either, and so told us she was going to buy a pumpkin at a shop near her house, around an hour away.

The next day she arrived at our house, pumpkin-less. "I have bought you a very nice pumpkin! Very big!" she announced. However, it was so big that she could not carry it to our house. So she said she would keep it at her house until she could find a car to bring it. What? We were wondering if this was some sort of pumpkin scam. :) But lo and behold, on Christmas Eve, she brought the pumpkin. She wasn't working for us that day, she was working for another family, who didn't need her until 9am (we have her come at 8) so she could "walk slower" and carry the pumpkin. She was right, it was very big. And very tasty. It's now all baked and pureed and waiting to be either eaten by Maggie or turned into bread, muffins, stew... All for the low low price of 75 cents.

Requested Photos (of Maggie)

Thought we'd share some cuteness here from our first days at Tenwek. Here's a new Moby wrap hold: Africa style.

This is Rose, Maggie's new Kenyan nanny. She's a very sweet lady, and Maggie seems to really enjoy her, which is a relief for Mommy.

Mags and Mommy sporting 1/2 pint shirts courtesy of Aunt Jena and Chunkle Brian (Clumpie's Ice Cream, yeah!)

Daddy gets to read to 2 little girls now! Maggie seems more interested in Anna than the book (and vice versa!).

Christmas morning, we skyped Grandma and Maggie got to open some presents while Grandma watched, still on Christmas Eve, in Arizona.

Maggie and Abi, in their Christmas finery. The matching colors were not planned.

Maggie, enjoying her new toys (a block set, a puzzle, and 2 books)

Halloween Cuteness

We really weren't thinking much about Halloween this year (since we were planning on being in Kenya by now), but when Maggie and I were out in Nashville several weeks ago, Aunt Mariah came through and picked out a really cute pink leopard costume. We decided to trick or treat at the hospital since Eric was working, and skype the grandmas, but not walk around the neighborhood. It seemed a bit embarrassing to me since a six month old obviously doesn't eat candy, and thus it would all be for me, benefiting from her cuteness....but anyways, here are just a couple of pics. Couldn't help myself! There's also a little detachable tail on the backside, not featured in the photos, but just adds to ensemble.

Solid Food!

We are often asked, from a professional medical standpoint, "How does one know that their infant is ready to start solid food?" Experience has taught us thus:

1. Usually 4-6 months old

2. Mealtimes have become more unmanageable for the rest of the family, since the infant is so interested in food that they grab at anything they can find.

3. The infant is willing to eat anything in their hands, including pieces of a red envelope. (No worries, we are quite confident it all made it's way, recognizably, through the alimentary canal.)

4. The booster seat/high chair thing arrives in the mail from Babies R' Us.

5. Basically, when one's infant has all the characteristics of the infant seen above, one Maggie McLaughlin.

This morning, Maggie ventured formally into the world of solid food, with a meal of rice cereal. She did really well with it, and she mainly loved chewing on the spoon, with the effect that some food got into her mouth and into her stomach. She was, as usual, quite active, and wanted to use her hands to grab at the cup of rice cereal or to manipulate the spoon on her own, thus necessitating the two-handed method of baby feeding seen below. We picked up a sweet potato and a squash from the grocery store today, and we look forward to a new type of food adventure over the next couple weeks!

Babyophile

Maggie has a new book from Dave and Liane Brinkman, with some title like "Peek-a-Boo Babies". That book is gold. The point is that it is full of photos of babies, and Maggie is enthralled by it. In fact, we've been noting that she seems especially fond of all the babies she has met in her life so far. To some extent this seems natural, as perhaps all of us gravitate towards people in our similar life stage. The difference is that I don't think Maggie has a concept that she is a baby. It's like "Hey, look at that unusual little person. I've never seen anything like that."

-Above with Calvin Rocke, and below with Adam and Kelly Rogers' newborn peanut, Andrew.

This moment with Wilson Page at the Pacific Ocean was the closest thing to a conversation I've ever witnessed Maggie engage in. Maybe it was the romantic atmosphere.

Here with Skyla Wilson in Loma Linda.

Gratuitous Maggie Photos

We do realize that a substantial portion of the readership of this blog cannot understand why we are posting anything besides photos of Maggie, and are constantly clamoring for more. And we want to pander to that - I mean, honor that.

Above, in the boppy. Below, in her swimsuit from her Grammy.

Precocious

Despite our best efforts to instill only the most Victorian values into our daughter, she really did seem to be enjoying the company of little Calvin Rocke. Yikes.

Maggie Meets The Workmans

Our friends, the Workmans, proprietors of the Aces Wild Blog, got to meet Maggie, and put up some fun pictures and commentary of the event. Click here.

The Maggies Two

We never could figure out where Maggie got her knack for the furrowed brow. Mom's side? Dad's side? It wasn't until the advent of the new Simpson's stamps that we realized the truth.

I Wear People Clothes!

Celebrating the "Mousey"

I'm not sure how many of my (Eric's) cousins have a "mousey", but I know it's most of them. Made with love by my Grammy (Maggie's Great Grammy), this elephantine/mouse hybrid stuffed creature has been an object of affection for all of us. Thus, an amazing gift when, a couple days ago, we got a small package from Minnesota, containing Maggie's very own Mousey, complete with her name embroided in the classic ear location.

Thanks so much, Grammy, for such a wonderful treasure!

Maggie Mania

Back by popular demand: less about us, and more Maggie, all the time! Starting out with a trick she will grow out of soon, and never be able to recover.

Lucky me, I'm getting to hang out with my Grammy.

And I've already gotten to hang out with my Grandma Jean!

And even Aunt Mariah came, but I was distracted by something on the ceiling... Other than that, life is just going on. By the way, did I mention that I'm up over 10 pounds. I didn't mention it? Well, it's true. I'm huge. Oh, and I did go out on a date. It was casual, but Calvin Rocke is pretty cute. Maybe we'll see him again before he moves to North Carolina.

Passport

Yesterday, we applied for Maggie's passport. We needed to get it as soon as we had a Social Security Number, to give ourselves as much time to procure her Kenyan visa, as the timing on these things can be unexpected.

We weren't sure how this application would work, but it's the same for anyone under 16 years old. Thus, she needed a passport photo, 2x2, eyes open, white background, the whole bit. Despite the fact, that when she's five years old, and still has this passport, she's going to look just a little different.

So we laid her down on a white bed sheet, a couple nights ago, when her eyes were wide open, and did a paparazzi number on her. Which photo did we choose? What do you think?

More events in the Life of Maggie

Last week, I got to take a special trip up to Bay City, MI, to meet my great-grandparents Selle. It was cool, because I am the first member of the fourth generation there!

Yesterday, since my cord finally fell off, I got to take my first non-sponge bath. In the kitchen sink! I loved the soaking part, but I must say I still have mixed feelings about the whole washing part of the bath...

Lullaby for Maggie

Embedding this video is turning out to be complicated. The YouTube link is here.