And then there were four

After a month of unpacking boxes, starting jobs and generally finding out where stuff is, we were were just in time for our little son to arrive - two days early, as it turns out (he clearly doesn't take after either of us). After reluctantly agreeing to forgo the lovely Chinese take-away that Dan had had bought for him, we sped an hour up the road to Belfast, and discovered we were only just in time for action stations. Dan bravely sat on a chair and fetched cups of water while Marie-Claire did the easy bit for four hours. At 2.34am on Saturday, our little man arrived safe and sound.

All is well with Mum and baby, apart from the lack of a name for the latter. However, progress has been made in that we've tried out a name for him over the past 24 hours and it seems to 'fit'. Meabh wasn't initially super-impressed with her new little brother, trying her best to ignore him at every opportunity. Having brought him home on Sunday afternoon though, she seems to have warmed to him a bit, and had her first 'hold' yesterday. This morning, she can't stop kissing him and seems besotted.

In case anyone is concerned, Dan did get to eat his (reheated) take-away the next day - phew.

In other news, Meabh has started nursery (and seems to like it), Dan's started his new job (and also seems to like it), and Marie-Claire's started organising in earnest. Lots of domestic tasks lined up for Dan this afternoon like moving (yet more) boxes and putting up mirrors and pictures.

This blog sometimes seems like a register of births, marriages and deaths. And so it goes on. Last week Squirrel (our rabbit) died. I'm not sure whether the Guinness Book of Records has been contacted, but I'm sure she was the world's oldest rabbit. She's been buried in the garden (that, and the insertion of some squash plants, has been the only activity in the garden so far).

Meanwhile, Mr Jelly continues to thrive, and has discovered that next door has a special 'cat shed' for their moggies, equipped with a cat flap, an old armchair and plenty of food. He's not daft.

So that means we've gone from 24 legs down to 12 now. Six new chickens would redress the balance nicely :)

Over the water

Well, a number of momentous events have happened in the last week. The greatest of these is that the 24Legs blog has been re-started - back by popular(?) demand.

To summarise since our last blog post, Meabh has turned one, and then two, another baby is on the way (the stork circling overhead as we speak), Sister Bernadette (she of the great double-yolkers) has passed to the big nunnery-chicken coop in the sky, and Orra and Clementine have joined us. Jamjar, alas, decided to run away last month never, it would seem, to return - hopefully she's managed to board a ferry and has returned to her native Norwegian forests.

More recently, after four happy years at the CBA I decided to quit in favour of a job in the Northern Ireland Assembly, and we've sold our house (nearly), packed up all our worldly goods, and are busy settling into lovely Newcastle, County Down. The chickens have been packed off to a green hillside in Helperby (courtesy of Geoff), but Squirrel and Mr Jelly bravely headed over the water with us. They're looking a bit giddy, but are finding their feet.

I'm currently sitting in a half-set up office surrounded by at last 40 boxes listening to Blue Moon of Kentucky - the Best of Bill Munroe. The sea front (15 paces away to my right) beckons shortly and the sun is shining.


Depicted are Meabh and I packing up our lovely cast iron bath for the road (and having one last go in it on the patio), Meabh leaving her home in Cawood for the last time, then us hunting for crabs in sunny Carlingford Lough at low tide, and Newcastle beach yesterday evening.

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.

Meabh's christening!

At long last we managed to get the Hulls (well, most of them), the Fergusons, some godparents (most of them) a priest, another priest and a church all in the same place at the same time. On September 13th Rosa Meabh was christened (or baptised, or, from Meabh's point of view, held awkwardly over a bath while 4 pints of cold water were poured over her head).

Meabh seemed to enjoy getting dressed up in her fineries, and the wonders of the sat nav miraculously guided everyone to the church on time. Father Gerry did a grand job of explaining what the whole thing was all about, even managing to bring over an impressively large picture of Jesus which he'd borrowed from a friendly parishioner's house in Ireland to explain what we were all there for. His slight mishap with the sharp candlestick was resolved by Mum's ever-resourceful handbag and some plasters. Although Meabh didn't exactly 'enjoy' the experience, after a mere 1 hour 48 minutes all was well, and we all emerged into the daylight again ready for some lunch.


Huge mountains of food and far too much bubbly then ensued, and everybody seemed to have a good time (especially Marie-Claire's Uncle Paul who snuck off to the pub to catch the second half of Liverpool beating Man Utd 2-1).

Here are some pictures of the day, including some great ones of Meabh in her super-hero cape, and one of the three us (with a very tired-looking Mummy and Daddy!) at the end of the day.

Nic and Doug's wedding

We've just been in Peterborough for the weekend for Nic and Doug's wedding. After a two-week build-up of stag dos and hen dos, the big day finally arrived, and my big sister married my mate Doug at Orton Waterville church on Saturday. Marie-Claire had made at least 372 hats (including two for herself), the best of which I think was Meabh's big pink flower. She managed to keep it on for at least 20 minutes, before getting cross and wriggling out of it - just long enough for us to take some photos to embarrass her when she's 18.

The day went really well, thanks to loads of carefully laid plans (and patios), and an amazing set of caterers who seemed to spend most of the afternoon doing the washing up. Well done Dad for the speech, and Meabh says sorry we missed it, but she really enjoyed being wheeled around the streets of Eye by her slightly-over-dressed parents trying to get her to go to sleep. In the end, the succession of almost indistinguishable bungalows and front gardens lulled her off and we were able to head back and get a few glasses of bubbly with everyone else.

It was great to see everyone, and to swap lots of baby stories, tips and suggestions with all the other Mums and Dads - something I never imagined I would enjoy doing until 4 months ago!

Here are some pictures of the happy couple too - currently on their Honeymoon in Cuba and having a great time no doubt. Congratulations to em both!

Morecambe and Meabh

I got soaked today coming home and York was plunged into chaos with roads closed and mini flash floods springing up all over the place. To cheer everybody (and me) up, here's another video of Meabh enjoying the bouncer (taken at more or less the same time yesterday, lest you all think we dress her in the same clothes everyday -tempting though it is). In this one, she gets a good jig going with the feet, or maybe she's tap dancing? It must be all those Morecambe and Wise videos we watch.

As we speak, Meabh is going back in her bouncer as she refuses to sleep so we thought we'd experiment in wearing her out. We'll let you know the results... The next step will be one of those perspex hamster rollers.

24Legs...Relaunched (and bouncy)

24Legs are back - relaunched, reloaded and, er, refreshed from our little break from blogging. The last two months seem to have been a blur of bottles and babygrows, and in the meantime at least two of our legs seem to have grown bigger and longer. Meabh's insatiable appetite seems to be getting her somewhere and she's growing up super fast.

Last weekend, we collected a baby bouncer from Granny and Grandad Hull and have then spent much of the last two days laughing at our funny daughter working out how to bounce up and down. I'm sure we should be looking on admiringly, but frankly she's just funny. After bouncing for about 10 minutes she then gets bored and frustrated and the more she gets restless the more she bounces, and the more she gets frustrated - endless hours of fun for us! Here's a new-fangled video of her bouncing, and a good ol' fashioned snap.

Meabh is now exactly two feet long, and according to the latest measurement weighs in at a hefty 14lb 9oz. Hopefully the baby bouncer (and the doorframe it's attached to) will survive the onslaught a bit longer...

In other news, Mr Jelly and Jamjar have taken to sleeping out all night now - dirty stop-outs. I'm not sure what they get up to but they come in starving in the morning and covered in vegetation that doesn't seem to be evident in our garden anywhere.