Half a Cucumber

I was asleep by midnight, but awake just after 1 am and got up soon after, when it was obvious that I wasn’t going back to sleep.  Since the alarm was set for 5.30, there wasn’t much point in dozing off for half an hour or so.  At 6 o’clock I went to take care of Squiffany and Pugsley so that Al and Dilly could set off for the hospital.  I was interviewing teachers all morning, so had my phone on silent, but happened to stop for break just after Al sent me a text announcing the news and asking me to pass it on to the family.

Their baby was born just before 9 o’clock this morning, weighing 7 lbs 8 oz.  His name, funnily enough, is one I suggested to Weeza on Sunday, but not to the parents themselves.  His blog name – well, I’ll explain.  At Roses’ party I met a couple whose children “my little birds,” the mum said, are called Raven and Phoenix, which charmed me mightily.

Accordingly, our little boy will be called Hadrian Swallow.

Dilly is very well and so is he, and they should be coming home on Saturday.  Al has taken S & P to visit them, and we’ve asked them in to supper when they come back.

Hadrian looks just like his mummy.

25 comments on “Half a Cucumber

  1. Rog

    Shouldn’t it be Dave Swallow?

    One Swallow doesn’t make a Summer but half as prake is better than none.

    I’m intrigued that you and your husband both have cool modern names – your parents must have all had foresight.

    Reply
  2. Z

    It would be very confusing to call the baby Dave, besides I built the wall too.

    I was called after the Lady whose silkworms spun the silk for the Queen’s coronation robes, and a singer who sang about everyone going out and getting drunk at the end of the war, who shared a first name. Also because it means ‘life’ and my parents had almost given up hope of having a second baby. We have no idea why the Sage was given his name, but his parents did have very good sight, especially at a distance,

    Reply
  3. Sir Bruin

    Congratulations to all concerned! I think it must be a woman thing, this being able to see family resemblances in babies. I thought that my three boys all looked like a cross between Winston Churchill and a pickled walnut when they were born.

    Reply
  4. Z

    That must have been disconcerting, then, to have all the women say that the lads looked the image of their father, Sir B.
    Funnily enough, my son-in-law, to whom I sent photos, emailed back to say he looks just like Dilly, too.

    Thanks!

    Reply
  5. Sir Bruin

    Disconcerting, but not surprising. I should add that all three of them hold me personally responsible for their rapidly receding hairlines. On a positive note, they are saving a fortune in shampoo. Never…..in the field of human conflict etc etc…….

    Reply
  6. Z

    My sons eye their father’s pate uneasily too (that is pate, not pâté) too.

    Boy, welcome back. A lot has happened here, but nothing has actually changed.

    The Sage and I will visit Dilly and Hadrian this afternoon. I don’t think I’ll mention yet that he’s named after a wall.

    Reply
  7. Roses

    Congratulations again!

    A new baby to welcome into the Fold. Marvellous. Just marvellous.

    I suppose it would be weird for you to pass on our best wishes…?

    Reply
  8. Z

    No weirder than anything else that happens here – I’ve passed them on to Al already and I’ll certainly tell Dilly. She’s got lots of messages from school too for me to pass on. They gave her lovely flowers when she finished there last week, which was really sweet as she only worked there a day and a half a week.

    Reply
  9. Alienne

    Congratulations; it has been a longtime since any babies were born in my family. You’ll have to add him to the list of family on the side of your blog now.

    Reply
  10. Christopher

    Sorry to be so late – many congratulations from J. and me, observing to no particular purpose that in this year’s calendar of saints May 26th is St Bérenger’s (or Ste Bérengère’s) Day.

    I think his blog name could well have been Zarathustra, as in Thus Sprake Z., but you’d be spoilt for Zs then, wouldn’t you?

    So pleased for you.

    Reply

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