Richard and Vanessa McLaughlin are having a baby!!!

This is awesome news.  Yesterday evening, my family had our bimonthly world skype-fest, which involved simultaneous video-calling from Toronto, Vancouver, Sydney (Australia), and Hong Kong.  After all the technological issues were solved, my eldest brother Rich had an announcement: Vanessa (his wife) is three months pregnant!  The little critter should be saying hello sometime around April 6th, 2012.

Obviously this is huge event in the McLaughlin family, and one that I’m still figuring out.  First off, it’s great to know that McLaughlin men are fertile.  On a more serious note, though, I guess it means everyone moves up a generation.  Mummy will become grandma or granny or something like that; same for dad; Nick and I will be competing for who is the cooler uncle.  Let’s be honest, Nick’s going to win that one hands down – I’ll probably be the boring uncle that’s asked for math help and career advice.  Despite being quasi-respectable at this point in my life, I still feel kind of weird to be “Uncle Tom”, and not just because of the literary connotations (look it up, see picture below).  I didn’t realize that a potential niece or nephew could stir such paternal feelings, but I’ve been feeling them all day.  I’ve wasted a huge amount of time looking up baby videos on youtube, and found myself reading through some old books my mum used to read me (e.g. The Velveteen Rabbit, Love You Forever).  I even perused some old pediatrics notes for some reason.  If this is how I’m feeling as a potential uncle thousands of miles away, I can only imagine how Rich and Vanessa are feeling (see comic above)!

Anyhow, high fives all-round for new life, family, and being able to see each other laugh and cry over vast distances.  Congratulations, Rich and Vanessa.

You’ll be outstanding parents.

Love,

Tom