We’ll kick it off with the babies. Two of our classmates write in to say that they have welcomed their third child, which is, honestly, astonishing. Neil Willis and his wife, Lilly, had their third kiddo in December, Ryder Jett Willis. “Brother Asher (5) and sister Ava (3) are already corrupting him,” says Neil. Meanwhile, Emi Ito Ortiz had another baby! Zoe Hana Ortiz was born on November 10, 2020, and is a little sister to twins Lucas and Arielle (2 years old). “Three under 2 is as crazy as it sounds!” says Emi. I can’t even imagine.

We have a few first children to announce as well. Gregg Rubin and his wife, Roxanne, welcomed their first child, Layla Marin, in November. “She can’t wait to visit Hanover!” he says. Congrats, Gregg!

Elise Braunschweig Kaufman and Zak Kaufman share the news of the birth of their first child, Claire Skye Kaufman, on August 28, 2020. She was born in Geneva, Switzerland, where they’ve lived for the last (almost) seven years. “We’re all doing well, getting the hang of parenting, and looking forward to the days when she sees more faces than just ours! We have a small chalet in the French Alps and would love to host visitors if anyone fancies a ski trip or great hiking when we’re all traveling again,” says Elise. Sounds lovely.

Kate Eklin is finishing up her tour in Japan this summer as a foreign service officer and will be headed to Santiago, Chile, in the fall as the next assignment. Kate and her husband, Kevin, also welcomed their first child, Owen, born in Tokyo in June. Kate, Kevin, and Owen will be back in D.C. in July and August and hope conditions will allow for some meetups. Don’t we all! Congrats!

And Liz Spence and her husband, Pete, welcomed their first child, Otto, on a cold, pre-Covid February day in 2020. They live in Minneapolis and really enjoy seeing your class secretary, Chris Barth, his lovely wife, Ashley Thorfinnson, and their jolly baby, Rhys, at outdoor hangs at Chris and Ashley’s urban farm or their backyard fire pit. Can confirm these things are true and these people are lovely, even if they sometimes miss deadlines to send in updates for the Class Notes column.

Tami Martin was promoted to legislative director at Equality California—the largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization in the country—after having served as legislative manager since January 2019. She lives in Sacramento, California, and is proud to be a voice for the LGBTQ community in her home state. Keep up the great work, Tami!

And Matt Mackwood is enjoying a mixture of work-life balance, where his two little ones (Langston, 3.5, Willow, 1.5) dominate his home life and his work is a never-ending mix of interesting problems to solve. He’s been enjoying academia far more than he expected, doing half-time clinical work in primary care and the rest a mixture of teaching and research at the Geisel Schoolof Medicine at Dartmouth. “Dartmouth Medical School is so 20th century, and Dr Seuss School of Medicine, I guess, didn’t pass muster with the board,” he observes. Matt’s really thinking hard lately about a stronger pivot into research focused on telemedicine and says the pandemic has made for some really nice opportunities there. Always good to have a silver lining.

Thanks to everyone who wrote in! And thanks to everyone else, just for being you. You don’t need to write in an update for me to appreciate you, although it certainly can’t hurt.

—Chris Barth, 315 14th Ave. NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413; (609) 405-9153; cbarthrun@gmail.com