Regular readers of the Daily Blog have had a burning question since last weekend.

What happened to our weekly helping of Hoopes?

Here’s why Register Executive Editor Tom Hoopes failed to file his usual quota of weekend commentaries: He is currently on paternity leave following the birth of Tom and April Hoopes’s eighth child, Charles Albert Hoopes.

With a 5:11 a.m. delivery, Charles was born last Friday morning.

Mom and baby are now back home and doing well, but Tom reports he has been even busier than usual with domestic tasks during this paternity leave.

As a result, Tom’s not sure if he’ll be able to resume his weekend posts on Saturday. But he’ll be back in his office Monday morning, so his commentaries definitely will return by next weekend.

One final detail, for those of you keeping score: The arrival of Charles evens the girl-boy tally among the Hoopes kids at 4-4.

Older sisters Cecilia, Olivia, Dorothy and Maria, and older brothers Tom Sinclair, Benjamin and John Paul joined together to give baby Charlie a warm welcome at the hospital, as you can see from the picture below.

Congratulations and best wishes to April, Tom and all the other members of the growing Hoopes household!