Meabh's first Christmas

Well, it's been a while since the last blog, but we couldn't let Meabh's Christmas go by without another edition of 24Legs. We were over in Ireland (Newcastle, Co Down) for Christmas itself, after a bumpy ferry crossing from Liverpool. Great Grandad waved us off and we soon corralled some seats near the bar and settled in for the eight hour crossing. Unfortunately, eight hours allowed plenty of time for Meabh to contract some kind of nasty stomach virus and spent most of Christmas having her nappy and/or complete outfit changed. She was distracted for a while by the huge pile of Ferguson presents on Christmas Day, but soon resumed her alternating rounds of sickness and diarrhea. On the plus side, it did mean that Mum and Dad caught up on some TV classics apparently only shown at 3am, Huckleberry Finn being a notable highlight. Unbeknown to her, Meabh slept through some great long walks along the beach with crashing waves and winking lighthouses.

After an otherwise great five days in Ireland, we spent another bouncy and eventful journey back to England. Meabh was zoomed off to Selby hospital to check she wasn't dehydrating and have some samples taken, and Mum and Dad continued to battle away, washing at least 12 baby grows a day and wondering whether she would ever get her previously phenomenal appetite back. After three days at home she finally started to look a bit better so we headed down to Peterborough to see the Hulls. Luckily, she continued to get better and had yet another huge mound of presents to get to grips with. We all spent a great new year sipping away at the bubbly and waiting for Jools Holland, then a distinctly quiet next day watching the Thunderbirds.

I'm beginning to learn about toys. Apparently, you can get singing crabs that dance sideways and swivel their eyes, pull-along telephones that squeak, Noah's Arks complete with most of the known mammal species, and music centres with hi-hats, bass drums and a flashing keyboard. She also got a tiny drum kit and a push-along dinosaur, a singing Dumbo and two tambourines. I'd never previously heard of 'activity socks', but Meabh loves them and has had them on every day since she got them (miraculously dodging the flowing quantities of poo). She's suddenly gone from a set of toys that were largely fluffy, quiet and innocuous to a huge moving mass of flashing, singing, moving and jingling objects that seem to move around of their own accord when we're out of the room.

Sadly, one of the chickens died over Christmas, in spite of heroic attempts to revive it by Guy. We've buried it by the apple tree and will get a couple more in the spring to keep the other two company.