Roryworld

HELLO ANNA

2008-11-30T21:06:00.005Z

Well. It's been a while. Since we last posted...

Baby Anna arrived after 12 somewhat effortful hours [NB: full details of the event are available on request, though I don't necessarily recommend it, especially if you're having a baby any time soon].

She was immediately the best thing we had ever seen, ever, except perhaps Baby Rory when he was first born.

Awww, look, i'n't she teeny??

This was 11.29pm on 31 March. She was very, very nearly April Fool baby, but not quite.

Also, this is very nearly the same birthday as Ali and Cousin Isla (2nd April), and pretty darned near Rory's birthday too (14 March) which leads me to conclude that March/ April is going to be a fearsomely expensive period for us from now on. Consider Easter (spring equinox/ whatever) celebrations cancelled...

Here seen with Stephen - check out the halo of fatherhood!

And also with her loving (well, "bemused but willing") big brother...

More - much more - to come on this subject...

GINGER CAT CAKE

2008-03-25T11:25:00.005Z

LOOK AT THIS!

YUM YUM YUM.

There was total candle-blowing-out success.

Also...

Chilling at the party...

Eating a pretendy sausage...

Chuffed!

Rory turns two - and Bean isn't born, on an ongoing basis...

2008-03-25T10:24:00.006Z

One of Rory's presents. But what can it be?

Ali's currently looking like she's nicked a football - due date for Baby Mark 2 is tomorrow. But no signs of movement yet - we think she's going to go long again (Rory came along 2 weeks late...). Rory got a baby doll and a buggy to practice with for Christmas - but still has no real idea what's coming, poor little guy...

With a great fanfare the boy Rory turned 2 on Friday 14 March - 2! I know! - and had great fun opening cards and presents and getting doted over by various adults over a period of two or three days. He also got a ginger cat cake - which deserves a special post of its own, I think (plus this one is BROKEN and won't let me add any more photos...)

ooh, a card...

It's been a long time...

2007-09-03T21:25:00.000+01:00

Lots to report.

We went on holiday to Coll with Diarmid, Ellen, Colm and Catriona. Here are Diarmid's favourite pics of it! Much Rory cuteness in evidence, you'll surely agree, especially when he helped with building a sandcastle (by sitting on top of it, as if he were a flag): http://s90.photobucket.com/albums/k264/diarmidmogg/

Rory found the 6:1 ratio of adults to baby very satisfactory on holiday, and has been quite huffy since we got home ("just you, again? Where are my admiring hordes??").

Our photos aren't uploaded yet (and don't make the weather look nearly as nice as Diarmid's do) but hihglights will follow, whenever we find the camera...

Talking of losing things - we've moved house - altogether it was a streeeeeesss but to be fair the removal guys were great and did all the packing for us. (We are never, never packing our own house up again. It took them 3 hours in total. Amazing.) It's the unpacking, or lack of it, one month on, that's causing a problem. Boo.

Anyway, more importantly, in big but belated Rory news - he learned to walk on our last day in Orkney, and that must be 6 or 7 weeks ago now. He's now acting very insouciant about the whole thing, as if he's never not known how to walk. Still suffering the occasional catastrophic falling over episode, but he's getting there. In Coll he very much enjoyed it when everyone was sitting around the kitchen table drinking tea, as he would go on parade round and round and round, and wave personally at each of the aforementioned 6 adults.

Also - he has 10 teeth! Which is tons.

HOLIDAYS

2007-07-14T19:59:00.001+01:00

Rory has been off on his travels, and has much to report.
First he went to London. Not to see the Queen - can you guess what it was for? Here's a clue..

OK - here's another one...

Right - once more for the hard of understanding..

OUI - it was for the Tour De France Grand Depart. V Exciting it was too - and Rory is clearly developing an interest in bike racing that means next summer we have to take a trip to the great Alpine climbs. Or at least that what his Dad says he said.

Then - barely pausing to launder his small smalls - it was off to the other end of our great nation - the Orkney Isles. We can't give full details of his triumphal tour, but it is clear that there is not a woman of childbearing age in the Islands that hasn't been hiya'd and waved at by the Ginger charmer...

His first day showed Skara Brae beach off at it's best..

(Rory's own tribute the island of Sanday..)

But Orkney weather has a habit of surprising you - here's the next day..

The change resulted in Rory being treated to that ancient Scottish family holiday standard..

THE PICNIC IN THE CAR!

THE AMERICANS ARE COMING!

2007-06-22T22:07:00.000+01:00

Rory and his Dad went to darkest Fife last weekend. Not only were they not killed and eaten - it was sunny and they went to the beach!

The reason for breaking Dad's self-imposed moritorium on travel to the Kingdom of baked goods and heavy set pensioners was to see Neil and Jocelyn and their kids Elizabeth and Ramsay.

Here is photographic proof of said meeting - including Rory beginning with a cute hug and quickly shading into inappropriate behaviour that would have seen a timeout called at kingerdergartens across the Continental US.

HIYA

AAWWWW

OOfff...

Oh, and isn't it wonderful when two young mn who've made the brave decision to adopt can openly sit together with their child at Aberdour beach. It's like Fire Island!

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Milk

2007-06-10T11:51:00.000+01:00

Rory's cousin Niamh, ready for a storm at sea here...

Aaaarrrr, that she be...

And here's an illustration of the career in deep sea fishing she naturally aspires to...

Hide and seek at the Treefest

2007-06-10T11:34:00.000+01:00

Here's Rory and Diarmid playing hide and seek at the Treefest yesterday, where all the woodworking hippies were... It was great fun, not least because:

someone gave Rory a red balloon!
And we all sat in a Yurt, which was covered in felt!
And it was gloriously sunny!

http://www.edinburghtreefest.org.uk/

(Nearly) walking latest

2007-06-10T11:27:00.000+01:00

So... still not walking... but look how close!

We just need to lure him away from holding on with one hand - perhaps with a delicious carrot puff (aka posh Wotsit). Caroline has discovered that a carrot puff in each hand confuses him long enough that he will stand up on his own. The addition of a third one should get him moving...

STEP ONE

2007-04-22T22:15:00.000+01:00

Now don't get too excited - this is not walking. As such. But it's a step in the right direction. Ho ho...

HELLO GREAT GRANNY

2007-04-22T22:02:00.000+01:00

General Rory Headlines first..

BONG Rory was a bit sick in the tummy for a while (boo....)

BONG Now he's better (yeah yeah yeah..)

BONG Police advise do not place valuables near Rory as of now as he is likely to EAT them due to growth spurt.. or possibly tapeworm...

Also too - on a flying visit to his Mother's land Rory had an audience with his GREAT GRANNY.. Picture Proof follows..

NEW NEW NEW

2007-03-27T20:26:00.000+01:00

Some of the things Rory is doing NOW HE IS ONE.

..pointing... he will point at pretty much anything - the pointing is usually accompanied by an increasingly insistent ah ah ah AH...

Cruising.. (steady..) In the baby world this means clambering about hanging onto tables, sofas, baggy trouser legs etc and every now and then forgetting what you are doing and letting go.. Boof...

Handing things to folk, taking things off folk, putting things into things...

Drinking from a cup.. admittedly this is still a bit of a work in progress. As often as not it's blowing bubbles into a cup - or casting the contents of the cup across the room. But he's getting there. Slowly.

ALSO HE HAS GROWN SIX TEETH..

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY RORY

2007-03-17T10:24:00.000Z

It was Rory's first birthday on Wednesday.

Happy birthday, Rory!

We had a party. There were balloons...

And 13 babies. Which is a lot of babies..

And Alison continued her development as a domestic goddess by baking a baby-friendly birthday cake..

And of course it's not a birthday without presents. Rory says thankyou very much for all the brilliant gifts. But what he really likes, inevitably, is the shiny paper.

One is whole lot more than none - which is what he was a year ago. It's all a bit overwhelming for Mum and Dad. But he took it all in his stride.

One last thing - Diarmid and Ellen also made Rory a brilliant present which can be seen here on you tube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WQBiSW7TRg

How techno techno techno techno are we, by the way...

On the move

2007-02-25T12:46:00.000Z

Hello

We have a new camera. Hooray! At flipping last. The problem occurred on the way up to Ali's folks' house at Christmas, where the old camera "got wet" (no names, no blame). However the insurance has now come good with a new one, so we think it's about time you saw Rory ON THE MOVE.

He's been crawling properly for about a week and a half now, after an apparent sudden revelatory moment last Thursday when he suddenly figured it out, and is also cruising round the furniture with something of a vengeance. He can also push his little wooden baby walker around the place - which is of course ultra, ultra cute.

Here he is making his way to the coffee table. Note determined new facial expression in the last photo! This baby has a will of steel...

I'm King of the Table!!!

raaarrrgh

2007-02-06T19:16:00.000Z

(just a wee tribute to Rory's Roaring there. His favourite method of communication at the moment.)

The news in brief today:

The fifth tooth est arrive... bottom left, next to the front one. Boo to you, Dr Miriam Stoppard, with your confidence that the fifth one would be on the top! (You're otherwise our light and guide, though).

Rory crawled across the room today. Well, squirmed slowly across the room, really. In the graceful manner of an elephant seal on the move. He's still pulling himself up a lot, as well, and today used this skill to investigate the contents of our recycling box (nice!). In the bath he's taken to spending his time doing pull-up/sit down reps. (Getup.. Get dowwwnnn...) It's like the training scene in GI Jane... except with a big round tummy and a cheeky grin...

And now tiny scientist corner: the latest experimental data suggests that "ah! ah! ah!" sounds much better if shouted directly into a tin cup whilst in the bath.* It is also good to shout this in Granny and Granda's close, which has a groovy echo. These results are being submitted for peer review (those other babies can be harsh critics, I can tell you) and publication in the The Proceedings of the Royal Society of Shouting At Things in due course.

Oh and here's Rory pretending to be a musical prodigy at Ali's Mum and Dad's house. (Of course we've since explained to him that being very talented at a young age is no longer the fashion, as we recently found out in this, frankly ungracious, article:
http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/story/0,,1997387,00.html. Having read this, he has promised not to bother trying.)

"Start spreeeaaading the neeewwwsss... I'm here all week - AAAhhhmmm leeaaaving todaaaay... try the beef... "

*Those results in more detail:
Hypothesis: when having a bath, it is better to shout in a tin cup than just shout in general.
Experiment phase 1: "ah! ah! ah!" out of the cup. Result: fairly loud but you wouldn't call it fantasic.
Experiment phase 2: "ah! ah! ah!" into the cup. Result: brilliant!! Baby has hysterics.
Conclusion: hypothesis holds water (in the manner, indeed, of a tin cup)

News from the General Register Office for Scotland

2007-01-30T15:20:00.000Z

GROS publishes a list each year of the first names given to babies in Scotland, and, since our boy obviously features in the 2006 report, I would like to report the following news:

This is the list of all the names given in Scotland in 2006...

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files1/stats/pop-names-06-t4.pdf

... there were 139 Rorys this year. Hello to the 138 other baby Rorys! I'm sure your babies are very nearly as nice as ours ;-)

As you will see, rather more courageous spellings included Rori (2 babies in 2006); Rorie (1); Ruaidhri (2); Ruairdh (1); Ruairi (8); Ruairidh (26); Ruaraidh (6); Ruari (11); and Ruaridh (19). Hmm! That's a lot of choice. In the hospital, we had thought about going for a less Anglicised-type spelling but, frankly, looking at this list, I am now glad we didn't... I'd like him to be able to spell his name confidently before he's, like, ten...

Here's the top 100 names ranked by popularity...

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files1/stats/pop-names-06-t2.pdf
... this puts Rory, with our plain vanilla spelling, in 54th place in terms of overall popularity, just above Christopher (hah! eat my dust!), and just below Jay (Jay! I mean, it's a fine letter and everything, but really!).

Here's the top 10 names by council area...

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files1/stats/pop-names-06-t3.pdf

... Rory is nowhere to be seen, of course, though the variant Ruairidh was seventh most popular in the Western Isles (but that's not too hard to achieve - that was on the basis of 3 babies!!).

And Rory's cousins? Isla's a pretty popular name, 19th overall for girls, and Niamh not far behind at all at 24th most popular.

I also noticed that there were 6 Noahs - and I know 2 of them! What's the chances?! But baby Cathal's probably got the rarest name amongst babies I know - there were only 3 of them last year... (so, if they ever had a reunion, you wouldn't need to hire a hall...)

CHARGE!

2007-01-24T17:04:00.000Z

Rory of the Swan Mounted Regiment (with thanks to Diarmid for the photo..)

La La La, Coat of Many Colours..

2007-01-20T16:02:00.000Z

One benefit of the current cold weather is that it's an opportunity for Rory to wear all his lovely new furry gear...

And, as you can see, healthy yomping in the cold weather has been made compulsory - evil parents that we are (though he cheered up shortly after this picture was taken, honestly).

In other news, still no crawling, or not as such, but he has developed a sneaky way of getting to things (especially hazardous or edible things) when we're not looking. Having reluctantly ruled out teleportation, we think he has developed some kind of a crazy backflip/ bumshuffle/ tummy wriggle/ rolypoly combo.

Basically, he's doing his own moves, man.

Meanwhile, his standing up and shuffling around stuff is getting better all the time, so the smart money's on him taking a short-cut to walking... but watch this space...

The evidence of Rory's success

2007-01-15T21:07:00.000Z

Crumbs, we weren't dreaming, Rory really won...

http://www.littletrekkers.co.uk/shop/index.php/where

Happy New Year (yes, I know it's the 13th)

2007-01-13T19:14:00.000Z

This is my belated chance to report that Stephen and I celebrated New Year this year by drinking champagne, at home in Edinburgh's Shandon area.

Yes, that's right, it was Moet...

... in Shandon!

ahahahahaha!

Interestingly, the box the fizz came in is probably Rory's favourite thing just now - so much for expensive toys, huh?

Anyway, those weren't nearly enough Christmas photos, right? Here's more...

During our pre-Christmas visit to my parents' house, here's Rory plus his Great-Granny at dinner...

... and Isla checking out one of the gifts she gave to Rory (just to make sure it's good enough for him, naturally).

Not strictly Rory-related but here's one of my favourite presents - fancy wellies!

Oh, I was the toast of the canal, stomping in puddles on Christmas day, I can tell you. The wind and the rain now hold no fear...

Here are Magees aplenty on Christmas day... L to R, you can see Rory's: Uncle Matthew, Auntie Susan, Cousin Niamh, his Dad, the boy himself (head of the table, obviously), his Mum, Susan's Dad, Rory's Granny (and, taking the photo, invisible Granda!)

Post-Christmas visit from Uncle Alex and Auntie Carrie, here admiring Rory's new toy animals...

... and not forgetting Harri of course! She didn't seem to mind too much getting prodded by the boy.

'Mon the Wee Man

2007-01-12T20:39:00.000Z

Ah yes.. the cordite, the wailing of the defeated - THE ACRID BUT HEADY SCENT OF VICTORY!

They came from across the globe - but they couldn't handle the Woo ("YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE WOO!"). Rory has won the Little Trekkers photo-competition. Of that there can be no doubt.

For those of you who missed it here is the AWARD WINNING entry..

And in a storming week for the Woo - he also got a BADGE for swimming.

And, er, had some yoghurt...

THIS JUST IN

2007-01-02T16:13:00.000Z

Should have said earlier - for those of you keeping score/a wallchart/money on it at the bookies Rory's tooth count is now a mighty FOUR. Two up, two down...

Another two hovering menacingly in the upper jaw. Hence him chewing EVERYTHING..

In other developmental news

(BONG) He ate broccoli..
(BONG) He used a spoon to eat soup
(BONG) He's puling himself up on stuff and enjoying a wee stand..
(BONG) The Ginger Cat is now established as his private obsession. True love.
(BONG) His new gig is flirting with randoms everywhere he goes. Particularly the ladies...

And in sport..

He can catch a little - throw a lot and kick a fair amount. Aussie Rules here we come..

AWAY WITH A GINGER

2007-01-02T15:52:00.000Z

First Christmas, by the way. Tho Rory, being honest, got present fatigue after about 2 minutes and only had eyes for shiny paper and his Gran's sausages thereafter.

Having had time to digest - he's now thoroughly delighted with his massive haul - so thanks to everyone who was kind enough to get him something. Slightly tight-lipped thanks from us to those of you who got him something that makes a noise.....

Anyway - extra special thanks to Rory's Great-Grannie who made him his own stocking. With his name on. So no danger of Santa missing Rory out over the coming years...

Vote Rory!

2006-12-13T14:51:00.000Z

Well, we're just beside ourselves with excitement today. Rory's photo is on the Little Trekkers website, to illustrate their Christmas photo competition. Take a look!

http://www.littletrekkers.co.uk/shop/index.php/where

So, the closing date's not till New Year but fingers crossed...

And doesn't he look lovely in the leaves? ('Leavly' perhaps?)

Meanwhile, in a related piece of baby competitiveness, cousin Isla's in hot pursuit of the title in the Aberdeen Evening Express's baby photo competition... We've all rung the premium rate hotline to offer our support, so now we can only wait... She does have the benefit of being actually very cute, though, which, alas, can't be said for quite a few of the other entrants (but their mothers love 'em).

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

2006-12-09T18:38:00.000Z

Well, neither of us has a license. But what harm can it do? Daddy says I can drive in the Car Park. There's no way I'm going to make an arse of parallel parking as much as him. Right just get my feet on the pedals.

There we go - now I'll just park in front of Mummy - she'll be pretty impressed. This is fun.

Hang on - is this the brake? That sounds brilliant. I'm not sure it is the brake though, because we seem to be getting faster. Here comes Mum. You'd think she'd be pleased to see me.

ooooopppss.. (THUMP THUMP) Cripes. Call Barnardo's - I'm an ORPHAN!*

No persons real or imaginary were harmed in the creation of this picture story. Though it is posible Rory's dad wet himself when he first saw picture 3...

At the Crimbo Market

2006-12-04T11:50:00.000Z

Authentic seasonal experiences around Edinburgh (no.1 of an occasional series):

Yesterday we went to the charming German-style Christmas market in Princes Street Gardens, which featured:

Actual Germans, selling small painted wooden thingies!
Sausage in a bun, lots of sauerkraut and many ways with fried potato!
Crowds!
High winds!
Driving rain!

We huddled together with Diarmid and Ellen for warmth, eating our fried potatoes and trying to stave off grumpiness from the Rory corner.

It's what we laughingly call "a nice trip to the shops".

Anyway, this is all just an excuse for these photos of the three of them, indoors and out of the wind...

JAWS

2006-11-30T21:44:00.000Z

(altogether now...) Daaa da... Daaa da.... Daa da..dada da da da da da... blah blah blooooooo....

Yes - he has teeth. Two, in fact.

All the better for BITING you with..

mwaahahahahaha.....

Also - here is Rory in a box. No reason....

Go West!

2006-11-29T20:04:00.000Z

Two weeks ago Rory went to the Weege to visit his cousin Niamh and his pal baby Cathal.

And just look at Cathal! He's about 9 months here, and crawling around like a big grown-up lad.

Rory was purdy impressed, as you can imagine. He could learn a thing or two from Cathal about the usefulness of crawling forwards (as opposed to pinging randomly backwards using his head).

Here's Rory's auntie Susan having a go of Messrs Cathal and Rory...

And now, for the purposes of comparison, and cos it's vv cute, here are Rory and Cathal back in, I think, April, when Rory was a couple of weeks old and Cathal only 5 weeks older than him.

(and this photo also comes from Cathal and Tanith's first visit to our house - the very picture of "tired new mummies" don't you think?)

Meanwhile, Cousin Niamh continues to get big at a rate of knots and - what's this? I think she's been copying her big boy cousin and is learning to suck her thumb...

The Box of Delights

2006-11-28T12:34:00.000Z

Reading what is possibly the most absurdly right-on parenting magazine in the world, http://www.thegreenparent.co.uk/, I came across the idea of a Treasure Basket. Here's some more on it... http://education.ex.ac.uk/music-one2one/docs/handouttreasurebaskets.pdf
(Interesting sidebar: this turned out to be an idea that our friend Ellen's mum, eminent psychologist, has been instrumental in popularising and introducing to nurseries across the land - good huh?)

So gave it a go and what do you know? Rory really digs the big basket of miscellaneous household objects (aka "crap from round the house"). He'll actually sit still and play with it for quite a bit, and that has been wonderfully good for my ability to have a shower...

Talking of the Box of Delights - I'd very much like to see it again, as we come up to Christmas... It reminds me of warm Chrimbo fuzziness and EVIL WOLVES. I wonder if there's any prospect of a repeat? Or would it be rubbish now I'm grown up? Views welcome...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/box/

Winter Walks

2006-11-28T11:54:00.000Z

Oh, he's quite the outdoors type is Rory. Here he is with his loving Granny and Grandpa Magee, just about to go for a walk in the Botanical Gardens... (while his mother drank lots of tea in their house and vegetated watching Deal or No Deal...)

And here he is enjoying a very early introduction to birdwatching from his Daddy, last weekend in Cramond...

(Secretary's report on expedition: lots of gulls. No ducks of interest. The possible Purple Sandpiper turned out to be a Turnstone. Or perhaps it was a Purplestone that turned out to be a Turnpiper...? [DN: We may need to do some factchecking here])

Wow!

2006-11-21T10:15:00.000Z

The boy has been doing the following fun new things recently...

1) Two weeks ago, his first tooth appeared on the bottom, front left...

2) And then last week, a second tooth next to it, bottom front right! He doesn't yet appear to realise that it hurts when he bites people with them.. but he's slowly getting the idea from our yelps

3) He's a mini tigger! He's gone mad for jumping up and down on our laps, just for the joy of life. It's incredibly infectious fun.

4) He stood up in the bath! Entirely unexpected, and slightly alarming at the time. But you have never seen a little chap look so delighted with himself.

We don't have a photo to illustrate this momentous occasion, but here is a rather silly naked man competing at the World Tin Bath Championships on the Isle of Man, instead.

How does Bob Marley like his doughnuts?

2006-11-14T11:35:00.000Z

Wi' jam in... (this joke was first broadcast... etc)

Look at this. So young, but so creative... (Rory, I mean. Not Stephen...)

Podge!

2006-11-14T11:24:00.000Z

These are for Granny Magee, really - she loves our boy's podgy arms...

Tiny little shoes

2006-10-30T22:12:00.000Z

Nothing more guaranteed to make a person melt than looking at TINY LITTLE SHOES, and how cute are these ones? Not just cute but well-travelled - they're from Australia! (Thanks Catriona and Colm!)

The Locomotion

2006-10-30T19:09:00.000Z

Moving about in Roryworld is an elaborate, slightly hazardous and backwards process. Not for him the classic baby "roll to get the toy" nor the "shuffle on your tummy" movements: no. Instead his wee ginger bonce offers ideal rearward traction. See illustrations below.

Oh yes indeed. Everybody's doing a brand new dance now (c'mon Rory, do the locomotion...)

Step 1: gather your resources (viz, your thumb, your feet and your ginger cat...)

Step 2: AAARRRCCHH that back. Yogis the world over work for years to achieve this posture but you can do it at age 7.5 months! Impressive. Roll onto the top of your head. Chuckling merrily throughout is optional...
Step 3: Rest and wave at the camera
Step 4: Arch that back again and - whoah! - you're making excellent progress! Very nearly off the end of the bed there.

Pears beware

2006-10-16T17:12:00.000+01:00

Yes, turns out he likes pears too. This photo records for posterity the teeny wee bit of squishy core that was left after he got torn into a whole pear today at lunchtime... Believe me, it was twice that size when he started...

Oh, and the results of that competition are now in

2006-10-15T21:35:00.000+01:00

Thanks to all entrants for your guesses as to the identity of the MYSTERY ANIMAL.

No, it wasn't an elephant. Or anything extinct, thanks Diarmid.

No, the sticky bun prize goes to Ali's Dad who correctly identified it as a rhino although it's neither a baby or a white rhino so points deducted on those scores, I'm afraid. It's a Greater One-Horned Rhino. The crazy-looking armour-plated one. From India!!

TOMMY TIPPED-OUT

2006-10-15T20:51:00.000+01:00

This is a cautionary tale for any of you thinking of believing the claims of baby crap manufacturers. We gt this wonder device - manufactured by Tommy-Tippee - which claimed it would keep a baby bowl stuck fast to the table.

"Oh, really?" We thought..

"Why, yes.." the bowl and related apparatus said.

Onyways - the results are detailed below. Now, weaning is meant to be about food being fun. But not like paint or playdo is fun. And I slaved for hours over that chili..

See also further discussion on this point on a baby-led weaning blog: http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2006/10/12/2409300.html

Still, though - he's getting the hang of the whole eating thing, slowly but surely. Yesterday he enjoyed some dates... as witnessed in triumphant photos below... and today there was evidence of dates having been ingested (you know, at the other end...)

RORY@ZOO.WOO.FUN.UK

2006-10-07T15:28:00.000+01:00

We went to the ZOO. There we saw many animals in the back of their enclosures sheltering from the showers.

This visit was not for Rory's benefit. He's not bothered. It was in fact his Dad's birthday treat.

Anyway we saw a CASSOWARY

But actually - some of the best things were the starlings at the picnic tables..

But you don't want to see that. You want to see this..

Rory did like the Penguins, though...

Also you will want to see this which was taken by D Mogg who it turns out has quite good Flickr page - as well as the blog we've already linked to. He's very ladida and metrosexual and urban and with it and hip isn't he? Mr Flickr, blog, interweb trousers..

Now in a bid to generate some interactivity - we will be publishing below a mystery animal.. And you can use the Comments function to guess what it is. The answer will be in the next blog entry.

Bring me the Lobster Thermidor and a bucket..

2006-10-01T19:25:00.000+01:00

Well - Rory is starting down the slippery path that leads to sausage suppers and Pickled Onion Nik Naks.. Solids..

He is - as any of you unfortunate enough to get either of us going on the subject will know all too well - following a process called Baby-Led Weaning (http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html).

Essentially this means he does as he likes. He tries out foods we're having. And no puree..

so he has taken pretty well to weetabix; bread; bread with Katherine's home made soup; tomato slices; sooking on bits of chicken and Rice Cakes.

He's so far lukewarm on green veg and cheese.

Raspberries are a little tart for his tastes it turns out..

The downside to this process is that it results in a bit of a culinary Paschendale. A lot of mess. Witness..

Blah Blah Blog

2006-09-25T21:12:00.000+01:00

Rory has started to "babble" a lot. This is some kind of term of art which apparently refers to forming phoneme-type things rather than just gurgling and stuff.

In practice it goes like this...

RORY Bla blah blah bleugh bleugh GMA GMA

ADULT what?

RORY Bla blah blah bleugh bleugh GMA GMA

ADULT Uhu.. what?

RORY Bla blah blah bleugh bleugh GMA GMA

There is some suspicion that he is saying "Excuse me, do you - or anyone else here - speak baby? Dammit it's a perfectly straightforward question..Brain the size of a planet... anyway I appear to have soiled myself - could you have the staff do something about it?.."

If you squint a bit and only listen with one ear you can just about hear Ma and Da coming through. Or at least we can.

Also - he makes a particular face when he does it - turning down the corners of his mouth like Winston Churchill - or creature from the Black Lagoon..

The cute countdown for week ending 17 September 2006

2006-09-17T21:03:00.000+01:00

In at five this week...

Holding hands with other babies. Aw! (However, trying to take out the eyes of other babies - that's not so cute).

At four...

Feety battles with cousin Isla on her playmat (she won, and then stole his bunny and rolled off. The shame of it!).

No movement at three...

Trying to crawl. Not managing, obviously. But what a good effort that boy has been putting in. He can't help it if his fat wee tummy is stuck to the ground...

This week's number two...

Chatty baby. Think "Charley says" and you'll have a good idea of his current range of yelps, "whee"s and "woo"s. Also "ma ma ma" and, occasionally, "da". He knows how to butter up his doting parents.

And straight in at number one, yes, you guessed it...

Foot in mouth syndrome - something he may have inherited. (I'm not saying from whom...)

RORY'S BIG DAY OUT

2006-09-12T22:21:00.000+01:00

Another baby first - Rory went to a wedding last weekend. A V Posh wedding too. He had a pretty good time being fussed over by about 120 women over the course of the night.

Here he is dancing with his Mum...

Anyway - we all had a lovely time - and hopefully so did Jemima and Occy - who were getting married.

PS I said it was posh - but get a load of this. Here's us at an actual folly-type thing in the grounds..

0800 BABY XRCISE

2006-09-06T19:31:00.000+01:00

Tonight we have the pleasure of bringing to you a new concept in home fitness.

BABY XRCISE tm

BABY XRCISE is a revolution in exercise technology. Designed by top sports scientists and employed by elite special forces like Mossad, the SAS and the PQ Security team. This system will transform you from a flabby muffin hustler into a bronzed adonis in a matter of picoseconds - OR YOUR MONEY BACK.*

On a trial basis we are able to offer a sample of just some of the trademark moves.

BABY CURLS

This works the pectoral muscles as well as the lymphatic system (ed - please check as I'm not sure there is such a thing as the lymphatic system..) and will transfrom your self-worth.

FIG 1

FIG 2

BABY TRI LIFT

This exercise tones flabby triceps and improves your night vision as well as removing anti-oxidants from the blood stream and ending the conflict in the Middle East.

FIG 3

FIG 4

Also to cleanse your shakira and free your yogic bear we can exclusively offer BABY YOGA - courtesey of a shadowy lentil based Eastern Cult. When I say Eastern - I mean Granton...

FIG 5

Call now as this offer will only be available until Trading Standards track us down again. All major credit cards accepted as is barter and payment in healthy human hair.

*some restrictions apply..

PREDESTINATION AND OTHER GENETIC HAND ME DOWNS

2006-09-02T20:58:00.000+01:00

Poor old Rory. There's no escape. Already there's a bunch of stuff he's inherited from us...

* Most obviously - he looks like Ali - in fact he really looks like Ali's Mum..

* Ginger hair - or strawberry blonde/auburn/autumn gold if you're being euphemistic..

* Photic Sneeze reflex - which is a posh name for sneezing at bright lights. This is something Stephen has always done - and Rory does every time we leave the house. Onyways - here's the wiki for it. Quite interesting.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photic_sneeze_reflex

* He's v ticklish. As are we. Again these genes my have come disproportionately from Stephen.

* He really likes having his head stroked when he is sleepy. This is still the case for Stephen.

On the other hand - things he didn't get from us include thumb sucking and big hands and feet,,

s'lotteryinnitkeef..

ROGUE TRADER

2006-08-31T22:16:00.000+01:00

No effin' photos, mate

Also - here's Rory with baby Madelaine, whom he loves to hug in Mother and Baby group. He really does. Note the conversational approach he's taking here.

SOCIAL BUTTERFLY

2006-08-27T10:29:00.000+01:00

Rory has again been receiving guests from around the globe. Or the British Isles at least. A couple of weekends ago it was James - up from London. He was quickly pressed into service as a punkah wallah...

Also - the eagle eyed amongst you will notice Sarah poking in the shot. That's her and Martin's actual canal boat. No bad eh?

Then - this weeek - the giddy social whirl continued with a diplomatic mission from Ireland. And that meant another battle of the babies with Rory this time taking on Meabh (sorry blogger doesn't do Irish punctuation type accent things - would an umlaut do?..)

Turns out baby equation goes:

(Blond Viking descendent Pete (and he can prove it with his freaky finger!)) + (black haired Irish person (whose surname actually means black haired stranger or something to that effect) Una) = sweet little ginger baby. Ain't genetics grand?

Hobbies and interests

2006-08-27T10:07:00.000+01:00

Rory's been expanding his range of hobbies and interests this week.

On Mondays we're going to Baby Music. Lots of cushions, seven or eight mums (occasionally a dad too - right on!), and a lady with a guitar. Could have been very twee but, actually, it's rather good fun. The guitar lady is lovely, and there's substantial amounts of bouncing the babies around, swinging them in the air and dancing - all of which Rory finds highly entertaining. This week he particularly enjoyed pretending to be a kicking donkey, and a choo choo. Oh, and "playing in a band"... (hitting self in face with rattle and then eating it). Lovely!

(STEPHEN SAYS - Ali told me that there was a chap with a beard at the class and Rory was v excited and kept waving at him - obviously thinking it might be me. Which is interesting given that the chap was also black. So anyone doing a PHD on developmental psychology might be interested to know that for a 5 and a bit month old baby beard sits above skin colour in the hierarchy of identifying features. Of course the Woo-man could just have been being friendly...)

Not only that but, in the spirit of baby education, we've also just started at Baby Swimming at the Commonwealth Pool (the local monument to the hosting of expensive sporting events in the eighties). My thoughts about this before going were largely concerned with the difficulty of disguising post-baby tums in swimsuits... but all was swiftly forgotten in the nice warm baby pool (it's like a huge bath!) when we started to SWOOSH the babies and SPLASH the babies and OOOH BABIES UP IN THE AIR and BABY ARMBANDS went on... what a giggle. Best moment: towards the end we blew in the babies' faces and then DUNKED THEM UNDER THE WATER! Rory came up looking shocked and then splutteringly outraged - poor bub, but it was fairly funny.

Talking of hobbies and interests - we've always been impressed by the fact that one fo those dating agencies that advertises in magazines has "smoking" as a potential hobby... that's a hobby? Not, say, a slightly antisocial addiction, no?

A PROMISE FULFILLED

2006-08-19T20:16:00.000+01:00

Now - some time ago we promised you maximum aaawww factor. This was linked to the birth of Rory's new cousin, Niamh. Now - as regular readers will recall - hospital policy kept the babies apart. But today we can - in a web exclusive - bring you the first pictures of them together.

Eat your liver out Hello magazine. On a digressive note - what ever happened to the Tartan version, Hiya? I suppose there's only so many times you can interview Lorraine Kelly about Carol Smillie. And vice versa.

In other cousin news, Rory has been on a mini-break up north. As well as quality grandparental and great-grandparental time, he's been socialising with a couple of other babies - oh yes, he's quite the social butterfly these days. To illustrate, here's Ali's mum (on the right, with Rory) with Ali's auntie Judith, cousin Catherine and Catherine's boy John.

And last but certainly not least in this comprehensive baby round-up... Rory and his lovely, mellow, baby cousin Isla. They're much the same age but, wow, she's really quite a bit bigger than him. In fact, is it my imagination or does he look a bit alarmed here? She appears to be flinging out her arms in an effort to force him off her playmat. A taste of things to come in their future relationship, perhaps. (Sorry this is the wrong way round. Technical problems...)

Quick morning update

2006-08-14T08:47:00.000+01:00

While he's having a nap, here's a quick update on Rory's weight and length as measured on Thursday 10 August:

Weight - 7.02kg (15.07 lbs)

Length - 64cm

Point to note: Rory was 7lb 11oz at birth so I do believe he's doubled his birth weight! Hooray! Meaning he's officially the size of two Niamhs. And about 0.8 Islas, but that's another story.

His weight may in fact be more than that by now, as he's possibly having another of those infernal growth spurts. Something's clearly bothering him, as for the last week he's been waking up yelling at night. A lot. Seems we spoke too soon about the sleeping being sorted... If it's not growing, it may be teething... who knows? No further comment except argh!!!.

Here's a thing we know today that we didn't know yesterday: Stephen says that the park is "very quiet indeed" at 5am (the point this morning at which he headed out with the baby as a last resort)... we didn't know that, but, hmm, did we want to? Rory, however, reportedly found the park"very interesting" - sad to say, the early morning walk of desperation didn't in any way send him to sleep.

That's all for now from sleep deprivation central...

RORY BEGINS HIS MODELLING CAREER

2006-08-11T19:38:00.000+01:00

Tonight Rory is modelling some of the fantastic creations given to him over the last few months. The stripy collared jump suit is apparently all the rage in Canada - so thanks to Stephen's Aunt Anne for that. It comes with its own little soft plane to play with!

The darling little white button up romper is fresh from the Paris collections via Stephen's Mum.

And the blue hoodie (so urban, sweetie..) was knitted - yes knitted - by Pat - a Magee family friend.

This presents us with an opportunity... to say thank you to everyone who was so generous, when Rory was born, with gifts of clothes, books and toys. We recently had to buy him some clothes for the first time - it came as a bit of a shock to the system. Prior to this he's had a full Spring/Summer collection to work through, and that's not even getting onto the amazing range of animals with crinkly bits and little bells he's got to play with.

Another new cousin for Rory!

2006-08-06T20:15:00.000+01:00

So this is Rory's brand new cousin Niamh. She was born on Friday in Glasgow. We were hoping to bring you a web exclusive - the first pictures of her and Rory together. But technical difficulties ( Rory is apparently unclean and not allowed on the baby ward..) mean you'll have to wait. Nevertheless - we have posted a couple of shots of Niamh and her proud Mum.

Altogether now... aaawww....

Now, in the eerie stakes this is quite high. She weighed 7lbs 11oz - EXACTLY the same as Rory did when he was born. Spooky.

Onyways - this now means that Rory has 2 female cousins. So we can expect him to be dressed up as a princess, made to sit through tea parties and generally bullied for the rest of his puff. Resistance is useless....

And given this is Rory's blog - here is a previously unseen photo of him too. Can't have his girl cousins stealing all the limelight..

DROP AND GIVE ME TEN..

2006-08-05T22:16:00.000+01:00

Rory is now working on an exercise video including his patented press ups.. Witness..

Apparently this is a developmental milestone - tho given that neither of his parents can do press-ups at all, I'm not sure what it says about their progress to maturity..

In other news - Rory is continuing to be a v flirty baby - today charming the socks off the wifey in the baby dept at John Lewis. And let's face it - she sees a lot of babies. His wee sleep breakthrough (see blogs passim) is (whisper it..) continuing..

TEASE TEASE TEASE TEASE

ALSO - no promies - but tune in later this week for what may prove to be some v cute and fairly momentous photos.. Say no more.. nudge nudge etc..

Zzzzzz (snuffle, grunt, snuffle)

2006-07-30T16:14:00.000+01:00

(On special request from Great-Granny, this pic is a bit bigger and hopefully a bit easier to see!)

Tentatively, we can report positive movement on Rory's sleeping. Don't want to jinx it... but he's been pretty well sleeping through the night this week. By which we mean: bedtime at between 7.30 and 8.30; being woken up for another feed before we go to bed; and then, apart from occasionally half waking up and having to be shushed back to sleep, that's him asleep till a feed at about 5 and getting up between 6.30 and 7.30.

This is all very exciting, though, perversely, the extra sleep has left us very tired - probably our bodies trying to catch up on a bit of a backlog...

He's also taking a fairly predictable 3 naps a day - also a new development! Hooray!

But let's not get too excited. If past experience is anything to go by, it's going to be a case of two steps forward, one step back - a good week of sleeping is normally followed by one or two dodgy ones. Still, though - it's all moving in the right sort of direction.

On Thursday the boy also got the hang of rolling onto his tummy, and he's clearly pretty pleased with himself. Once he's there, he's stuck, right enough - uh oh! - so a minute or two of cheerful peering around is normally quickly replaced by a slightly panicked expression. It's easily fixed by rolling him back onto his back, though.

Spent Saturday daytime with one set of grandparents, his uncle Matthew and auntie Susan, and his new cousin-to-be who is currently a really enormous bump. Due date tomorrow (Monday 31st)! Everyone's on red alert. Especially Susan, it probably goes without saying. Rory had a good old stomp on the top of the bump - as the baby's head is now engaged, he was essentially booting the baby up the rear end. Won't be the last time, we predict.

Final bit of weekend update - Rory can sit unsupported for maybe two or three seconds before he topples over. He looks roundly furious every time this happens - how unjust everything is! Anyway it's given us the opportunity to trial his new, very groovy, high chair - loving that Scandanavian design. He can sit up the table with us like quite the big boy... for two seconds at least until... floppo...

CRIVVENS - LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT

2006-07-26T20:48:00.000+01:00

Rory got his new baby gym today. Talk about putting the mental back into developmental..

It's a major bit of real estate, innit? Luxuriously appointed with spinning, shiny distracting things. And inflatable to boot. Kids these days.. don't know they're born.. All we had to play with was a lump of coal and a tuppeny veruca lance...

NOTHING OF SUBSTANCE TONIGHT...

2006-07-26T20:40:00.000+01:00

...just these photos. Rory made big splashes with his hands today at bath time - on purpose. It was kinda fun.

Thanks to Susan for the towel with ears!

Translations

2006-07-23T22:07:00.000+01:00

The boy is making himself heard. Here's some of Rory's four and a half month old language...

(Bottom lip petted, brow furrowed) "Mwoo" = I'm sad.
"Bwwoo" = this is worse.
"Mwoo bwoo" = call social services, these idiots clearly can't be my real parents.

"Mum" = probably just the product of Alison's fond imagination (but I'm telling you, he said it!).

(Eyes and mouth wide open) "Ah! Ah! Ah!" = FLYING IN THE AIR IS THE BEST THING THAT'S EVER HAPPENED TO ME.

(Softly) "Urgh... Urgh..." = due warning, I'm about to get pissed off being left here in my cot.
(Loudly) "A-A-URGH!" = I told you so.

Any or all of licking lips/ wide eyes staring at Alison's chest/ pawing at her t-shirt = not so subtle hints of hunger.

(Satisfied) "Hum." = I have captured my little lion and it's not getting away this time. I'm gonna eat your head.

(Beaming) "Heuww..." = good morning, world!

Cough, cough, splutter = I am so going to vom all down you in a minute... just let me get into position here at the neck of your t-shirt... bomb doors open... that's the hit of the whole vom...

Looking up and not making eye contact, apparently doing really hard sums or something = something really bad landing in the nappy in about two minutes.

Roly Rory

2006-07-19T22:58:00.000+01:00

Rory rolled over onto his front today a couple of times while lying on the sofa - much to his surprise and mine. The sofa's a bit squishy and bouncy, though, which definitely helped - next step will be for him to do it on a flat surface. He tried until red in the face while in his baby gym but no banana.

(PS - Stephen wishes to say that the title of this posting is designed as a direct pronunciation challenge to Tanith Muller... tee hee)

HOT CHAT

2006-07-18T22:32:00.000+01:00

Hot house.. Hot baby..

Cos of how Rory has our genes he is not evolved for hot weather. So the last few days he's been a bit troubled by all this heat. What is cool (no pun intended..) is how breast-feeding has allowed him to get through it. He's adapted by taking lots of short feeds - just the fore milk - through the day. Then when it cools off at night he puts the hammer down and fats up on the good stuff.

Which is apparently what babies do in India...

Which is in Asia...

Where it is hot

Do you see?

Also today Alison ordered a Tripp Trapp.. Which is not an Austrian pastry - but a posh high-chair. It is coming from Lewis' (Never knowingly undersold - cos of how they never go out I assume cos everything there is like it's priced in feckin Lira..) This was bought with vouchers given to her by her workmates when she left. So ta v much...

Here is the website for said posh chairs. Being Scandewegian it is a little severe and worthy... But there are pictures of babies on it..

http://www.stokke.com/

Rory's photos

2006-07-14T16:54:00.000+01:00

These are a few of the photos that Anna Dickie, the photographer, took of Rory and us the other day. The photos are awfully slow to upload so we can't post too many at once (so none of the nice black and white ones are here, for example), but we might put others of them on the blog from time to time over the next wee while. Or get in touch and we can always burn you a disc with them all on it (including the slideshow which is cracking!).

Anna did these ones in return for a donation to charity - but would of course also be happy to hear from anyone who wanted photos done in return for, you know, a more conventional financial arrangement... ! She can be contacted on madick@supanet.com.

Rory's been all about faces the last couple of days. He can quite deliberately swipe my specs off my face (super!), twines his hand round and round in my hair, and has just figured out that we both have noses... which he either tries to screw off our faces, or just puts his fingers up our nostrils. It's actually very funny, if a bit painful...

Have at you, Mr Elephante

2006-07-11T17:34:00.000+01:00

Rory's baby-gym has four cute (if odd) animals dangling above his head - a blue elephant, a green lion, a purple hippo with a mirror for a tummy (that is really weird) and a relatively normal-looking yellow giraffe (cf. previous comment about prevalance of giraffe-related toys for babies).

They're attached with velcro and, though he's previously managed to pull down the elephant and giraffe, today, for the first time, he managed to pull down all four at once. And he then did the same thing three times in a row!

Here he is a couple of months ago, at about a month old - playing with his uncle Matthew in said baby gym. (Aw - I used to love that cow-print baby-gro Rory's wearing - but it was teeny tiny newborn size.)

He has grown just a bit since then..

Rory, that is - not Uncle Matthew..

NOW as you can see - he has defeated all the animals.. Mwawawahahahahaha...

Some nice things

2006-07-09T20:43:00.000+01:00

First nice weekend thing: Alison's Granny - Rory's Great-Granny - sent him some nice new shorts and a t-shirt yesterday, which came as a nice surprise. We liked the cute little car on the t-shirt... it's almost as cute as GG's wee blue car, which now lives outside our house and takes us on weekend trips!

Second: Anna (Dickie) came to take some photos of Rory. She'd donated a photoshoot to Anna (Donald) and co's fundraising auction for Macmillan... we didn't manage to place the winning bid, actually, but in return for a donation she very kindly did it anyway! Fab! Saw the first one today and it's B&W, slightly grainy and really nice. Rory's snoozing sweetly. Looking forward to seeing the rest.

And finally: A viewing of Katherine's Bump... 28 weeks and counting... awww! Much baby-related blethers, and then scones. What could be nicer...

In Rory news, today he picked up in both hands the rattle that Ali's cousin Catherine gave him - good co-ordination that boy.

A near miss

2006-07-07T22:22:00.000+01:00

We were in the Botanics today, and Rory nearly got to see the Queen. We left just before she got there. Anyway, on hearing the news of the royal visit, Rory cried uncontrollably until we left. Clearly a pocket-sized republican... here's one good reason to be...

Also we visited Rosslyn Chapel, which is a lot smaller and more full of Eurokids on language holidays, lounging around in a miasma of teeny hormones and illicit cigarette smoke, than I'd remembered. And it now costs £7 to get in! Pshaw. Rory slept soundly through the entire (non) event. Again, fair comment by the boy.

Tomorrow we see if he'll do the triple when we take him fox-hunting with the young Tories.. here's hoping he pukes (sorry, "possets") in their punch-bowl...

Rory height and weight latest

2006-07-06T19:17:00.000+01:00

Went to baby clinic today and at age 16 weeks he is 6.6kg (14.09lb). This means he's still hovering around the 50th percentile - which makes him nice and average (or possibly mean, or median, or one of those. I forget which. Don't write in).

His length was 60-something cm but they didn't write it down and, oops, I can't remember. He seems pretty long to me so I bet he's at least average for that, too.

Otherwise, he's now venturing the occasional real chuckle - very cute - and is grabbing things and holding on to them for longer than before. For example, he's been cuddling with an air of some determination his little blanky with a giraffe on it. Also, he's giving his feet hard looks and occasionally a wee hand is heading towards a foot - only a matter of time till it's foot-grabbing time.

But this hot weather is winding him up something rotten... possibly cos it was snowing heavily when he was born, and so he's not used to it. Also his colouring is, shall we say, quite typically Scottish. (Pinky skin, "strawberry blond" hair).

The latest in a short line of useless observations about parenthood. (Following hard on the heels of the sock thing..) Most everything has a pigging giraffe or a penguin on it. Now when I were a lad it were bunnies and bears and maybe - in extremis - a dogggie. Now the Boy will be expecting to go to the park and see critters of the savannah and ice-cap. Well he can make do with lame pigeons and fat ducks.. in my day it were all fields.. don't policemen look young.. nurse, where's my pills....

The story so far

2006-07-05T21:33:00.001+01:00

Now, this is a joint blog so references to "me" should be taken to potentially mean Ali, Stephen or even both of us... but in this case, for avoidance of doubt, it's Ali writing. The references to my pregnancy are likely to have given it away here, I guess.

Rory is three and a half months old at the moment and this seemed as good a point as any to sketch in the story of his wee life so far...

He was born on Tuesday, 14 March 2006 at 3.01am - some 13 days overdue (we were expecting him on the 1st of March!). He weighed 7lb 11oz (3.49kg in new money) and was 53cm long. Longer than your workaday ruler at school, then, but probably not the size of the big ruler you might have used in Technical Drawing class.

He was born by emergency C-section, due to possible foetal distress (he turned out to have been absolutely fine). This, and having to be induced, was the only hassle of an otherwise pretty nice pregnancy.

Actually, the anniversary of us finding out I was pregnant has just passed and it's amazing to think that it was over a year ago - the thrill of it is really fresh in my mind. I had just come back from a trip to Aberdeen with work - it was our first consultative event on the National Transport Strategy, since you ask (!), and very useful it was too, so there - and on the train on the way back I was tired beyond and in a different way to anything I could remember feeling. Highly suspicious. The next morning we did the test and it was positive. That was a happy day.

After he was born, Rory wasn't called Rory until he was a couple of days old. We weren't sure what his name was, at first. He had been going to be Innes, perhaps, but didn't seem to suit the name when he was born. He was a very self-possessed little bundle with big blue eyes and a steady gaze. And an understandable focus on drinking as much milk as much as he could possibly stuff in his mouth. This is still very much a big part of his life.

Quite a few of our friends are having babies at the moment, which is lovely. But he's particularly blessed I think because he also has a beautiful, dark-haired baby cousin in Isla - born this year on my birthday, 2 April, and the best birthday present a doting auntie ever had - and will have another one soon when Matthew and Susan have their little one in about four weeks. So looking forward to it. Aren't babies brilliant?

Advice to new parents

2006-07-03T22:17:00.000+01:00

Our entire joint collected wisdom thus far (and we stole it from Anna anyway)... get baby socks from Baby Gap. They're the only ones that stay on. Here's Ali looking wisely at a sock to illustrate this point.

And get a tumble drier. Turns out babies create a lot of laundry.

Er, that's it. If you're looking for stuff about eating, sleeping or crying - try someone who knows...

Top Five Cute Things Rory is Doing

2006-07-02T23:06:00.000+01:00

Gross self-indulgence. These are what we think the five cutest things about him just now are...

1 He's just learned to suck his thumb and is loving it.

2 When he's asleep he pumps his cheeks as if he's feeding. Milky Dreams.

3 Sometimes he smiles at you and then hides his face with his hands. Flirty.

4 When he thinks something is really funny - being held up and pretending to dance, or playing Humpty Dumpty - he has this deep full-throated sort of laugh. "Huh! Huh! Huh!" Not quite a giggle yet but he's getting there.

5 He likes to look athis hands. As if they're someone else's. What are these again????

First posting on our new Rory blog!

2006-07-02T19:00:00.000+01:00

This is a blog about Rory... for those who don't get to see him too often.