Copia

If I've disappeared from correspondence over the past few days, here's why:

Lori did her amazingly quick labor miracle thingie and brought the new boy into the world at our home at 21:16, Monday, 25 July, 2005. (It was a planned home birth, expert midwife in attendance, and all that). We haven't named him yet, in part because we had hoped for a girl and really didn't give the other 50% contingency much thought, and partly because I, and surprisingly Lori, tend towards the Igbo tradition of waiting to meet the little one before you burden him with a life-long name (Jide wasn't named until a few days after his birth).  Update: he is Udoka Julian Melayo Ogbuji.

Mother and child are doing quite well. Eldest boy Osita is very excited to have another baby brother, and middle son Jide is largely concerned with his own affairs (we do have a few pictures of him playing with his new brother). I appear to be continuing evidence of the Ogbuji Y chromosome entrenchment: My parents had three children, all boys, and now they have 5 grandchildren, all boys. But putting my three sons side by side, I find quite marvelous in fact what Lori and I had considered scary in imagination. We are most emphatically not trading this batch in, least of all the newest household terror.

More pictures on my Flickr photo stream.

[Uche Ogbuji]

Lo! the cat with ball of string
Winking and jinking
Winking and jinking
Winking and jinking
Like Eddie Johnson

In other words, that boy bad! Naw, that boy bad! Running past CONCACAF defenders like they're wearing cement moon boots. Can't wait to see him at the World Cup in Germany next year.

We Ogbujis, proud Colorado Rapids season's ticket holders, went to see the home opener against F.C. Dallas Saturday night. I'll be honest, though. Eddie was the expected highlight. All the images have captions (titles, technically): just hold your mouse over them.

Hmm. Eddie threw up some nice moves, Joe Cannon (should-be MVP and should be national team starter) made some spectacular saves, Carlos Ruiz did his usual flopping flounder impression, but it all ended up 0-0.

So what was cool was that Rapids staffers were going around spotting kids and giving out passes to a post game autograph session with Mr. Johnson himself. It's never hard to miss loudmouth Osi, so we copped some for the family. After the game we went to the tunnel for the event...

And we got our brief, but cool bonus. Osi knows Eddie Johnson from watching his father cheer him on through the television set, but upon meeting the man and getting his autograph, his only words were...

"Hey, I can't read those letters." Eddie Johnson replied: "So what, dude, you want me to print my name for you or something?". We laughed. We jetted. Fun night, all around.

[Uche Ogbuji]

Jideobi Maxwell Dike Ogbuji was born at home at 12:13 on 28 August 2002 weighing 8lb 8oz and 20 3/4 inches long.

Jideobi "ji-doh'-bee" (sounds somewhat like "adobe") is an Igbo name. It can be shortened to Jide (jih-day, almost like Aussie "g'day"). It has a manifold meaning, depending on the exact pronunciation used. In one form (rising tone on "bi"), it means "one who holds the family, clan or household together". In the other form (descending tone on "bi"), it means "one who holds the heart"). We have chosen to use both pronounciations and thus meanings. Dike is another Igbo name meaning "strong one" or "honored one".

Jideobi is our second son, after Ositadimma.

Ositadimma Nigel Ogbuji, our first child, a boy, was born at 9:43 a.m. on the tenth of February, 2000, weighing 7 lbs. 4 oz. and 19 and 3/4 inches in length.

Ositadimma (commonly "Osita", or even just "Osi") is Igbo for "things will be good from now on." "Osita" is, of course, not to be confused with Spanish for "teddy bear". "Nigel" comes from Latin for "dark" and "Ogbuji" is Igbo for "yam farmer", approximately. So it seems one could translate as "a brilliant start for the dark yam farmer".