That is one adorable miniature human, heebs. Well done! Also, I love the blanket (I assume) LB knit for him. That is really very fine work, isn't it?
He's darling, just like all the rest. And yay for the blogname Rascal!
I know this has been mentioned 100,000,000 times, but it's really bizarre that this particular baby blanket has what seems to be a 100% monopoly on hospital newborn baby blankets nationwide. How did that happen? What company manufactures those? Isn't it weird that they don't at least offer other colors or patterns?
Also, congratulations to heebie and family.
There was an article in the last month about how those blankets became the only blanket in town! I think it was essentially "it's easy to gain a monopoly in the 1950s". Maybe in slate?
Man, you've got this childbirth thing on rails now. Less than a full day offline?
And he's lovely.
Isn't it weird that they don't at least offer other colors or patterns?
If you've got a monopoly, why would you?
If you've got a monopoly, why would you?
Because it can't cost much if anything and would make your weird monopoly less glaringly transparent.
Pharaoh isn't going to risk another Moses.
Yay babies! Yay heebie! Welcome, Rascal!
At least if they had vertical stripes it would make the babies look faster.
Also congratulations!
This is the baby blanket story heebie mentioned, so it's probably a pyrite link if I'm the one who found it.
Awesomely cute and looking very contented. Go, Rascal!
Beautiful!
(And this is totally nosy of me, but when you're ready, I'd love to learn more about your post-pregnancy medical plans, e.g. mastectomy etc.)
Congratumalatabulations!
This is clearly another Cleveland word.
A child born today has never known a world in which Buffalo wasn't buried under a ton of snow.
Another baby??? Where do these things come from?? Seriously, we should devote this thread to trying to figure out how these things are made, and who is behind it.
But as far as this particular baby is concerned, what's done is done, so I suppose congratulations are in order. It looks like a good one, as far as babies go.
WooHOOOOO! Congratulations to you and Jammies. Lucky kids. Nice posting right-up-until, and hours after.
Rascal is beautiful. I love the name and can't wait to hear about him.
Congratulations to you and Rascal (and the rest of the Geebies)!
Baby!
Now I have "too many Geebies" in my head, sung to the tune of "Too Many Cooks," because you have clearly produced a wacky sitcom brood.
Aaaaand hg is over the finish line! Wooohoooo! WITH a bonus new baby!
From 14: Medline sells 1.5 million Kuddle-Up blankets in Candy Stripe every year (the other patterns, with elephants or ducks, are less pervasive).
Now I'm pissed that no one offered us the elephant option.
Super-cute looking baby! Congrats to the Geebie clan, and I hope you can get some well-deserved rest!!
Adorable. Congratulations! Six down, seven to go.
The elephant print is an objectively superior blanket.
Where do these things come from?
The hoohole, I think. Congratulations, guys.
So you're off the hook now for accomplishing anything else during sabbatical. Amirite or am I rite?
He sure looks like a Geebie!
Congrats! And WOO HOO, no more pregnancy for you!!!
Congratulations, Heebs. Rascal looks adorable.
Congratulations.
So which one is going to inherit the blog?
If they're $16.80 for consumer purchase I can only assume the hospital rate is about $2000 per blanket.
So which one is going to inherit the blog?
Blessed are the Geebies, for they shall inherit the blog.
This is geebiekid number 4, right? I worry I'm forgetting one or more of them.
49: Yes: Hawaiian Punch, Hokey Pokey, Ace, and now Rascal. (girl-boy-girl-boy, because heebie specializes in symmetry.)
How adorable! A hearty congratulations!
What a cute baby! So symmetrical. Congrats.
You can remember it because of Neil Young.
"Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming. Four kids in [something relevant that rhymes with 'Ohio']."
Congratulations!
7: IIRC, she delivered the last one on her flight to Unfoggedecagon.
For now, that will do. But I'm hoping somebody can do better.
Congrats again. You guys make the most beautiful babies. Good job on his weight. That's a lot of baby!
Congratulations, beautiful baby!
Should we be worried that J, Robot hasn't commented yet? Rascal does have one of those antitheft devices that would spray ink all over his blanket if someone spirited him out of there, right?
Should we be worried that J, Robot hasn't commented yet? Rascal does have one of those antitheft devices that would spray ink all over his blanket if someone spirited him out of there, right?
I share this concern. Be careful.
Congratulations on externalizing the new human!
I am particularly taken with his expression.
And WOO HOO, no more pregnancy for you!!!
I might get this tattoo'd across my belly.
Why would I spell "tattooed" like that? I don't know.
Tattooed makes a Tatt of you and Ed.
Texas woman loses 8 pounds, 7 ounces using this one weird trick!
More than that. There's the vegan cutlet and fluids.
Hooray to the baby being outside and safe. Cute baby.
congratulations on completing the Geebie family hockey team!
OMG you put the baby outside? If you're cold, they're cold, you know.
Yay, Rascal! Congratulations and welcome to the world.
Congratulations!
I might get this tattoo'd across my belly.
Or even better, have the surgeon write it on your tubes before tying them.
OT: Ignore this. I just wanted this name on the sidebar. MH
Beautiful baby! Congrats Heebie!
La la la la, no one buying a plane ticket to Austin here, la la la...
Seriously, though, the Geebies have so many babies that they wouldn't even noticed if I made off with a small cuddly one, right?
Seriously, though, the Geebies have so many babies that they wouldn't even noticed if I made off with a small cuddly one, right?
It's a bit soon for a Raising Arizona remake, isn't it?
92: But not too early for a reality-tv show loosely based on Raising Arizona.
Hooray baby! I look forward to many pictures of those cheeks.
Somewhat seriously to 90, I've found that four is the threshold where you sometimes have to count instead being able to tell at a glance whether you have all your kids. Since Heebie is good at math you won't fool her for long though.
Congratulations! Mazel Tov! What a cuddly little baby!!!!
Congratulations! Any way you can be convinced to go for #5?
Your sabbatical time can be used to prove (or disprove!) the idea that more children do not add an integer amount of additional work. ("Oh, two kids are not twice the work!") But how much? So, three is less than three times the work, and four less than four times the work, etc. But quantification, quantification!
(I realize this is probably applied math, which may not be your field...)
My guess is n^3/4, but I'm not a professional.
Congratulations on the tiny cute person.
Newborns look so fragile and sort of unfinished.
Congratulations! He is really adorable.
110
There has to be a point when more children are actually less work or not any more work than fewer, since the older children can do housework and raise the younger children. I imagine the cut off is maybe around 6, depending on spacing? Heebie has had her children very close together, so that point might be closer to child #7 or 8.
I thought two was way more than twice the work. But then 3 and 4 didn't add an awful lot. And I got better at stuff - by #4 I finally learnt how to butter a slice of toast one-handed which I hadn't managed to do the first three times, so that was a great improvement. I suppose I also had #1 to make toast for me, but I'd have to be quite desperate to eat her mangled offerings.
The only place so far where the workload seems to grow linearly is traveling. The logistics and expense just don't seem to have any marginal savings, and then they all have simultaneous hyperactive spells or meltdowns.
Also, thanks for all the warm wishes!
If memory serves, five gets you (or would have got you in the USSR) the Maternity Medal. Further awards were as follows:
Seven children: Order of Maternal Glory, Third Class
Eight children: O.M.G. Second Class
Nine children: O.M.G. First Class
Ten or more: Order of Heroic Motherhood
Wiki adds:
The order was conferred upon the first birthday of the last child, provided that the other children necessary to reach the qualifying number (natural or adopted) remained alive. Children who had perished under heroic, military or other respectful circumstances, including occupational diseases, were also counted.
The Order of Heroic Motherhood, though it conferred a pension and other privileges, did not (unlike the award of Hero of the Soviet Union) entitle the bearer to go to the front of any queue they wished.
re: 116
I'm rubbish at the one-handed toast thing. And xelA loves to 'help'/'supervise' when I'm cooking. Insists on being on one hip, which, since he weighs 14kg, is quite difficult to keep up while actually doing anything.
There used to be a product called Hippychick which was a strap on hip shelf/seat thing - extra handy for blokes with less of a hip to sit on perhaps. You still have to hold onto them as I understand, but you don't have to hold them up. Have never used one, but remember people talking about them.
I think in France you get more child benefit if you have at least 3 children. Oh yes - http://www.cleiss.fr/docs/regimes/regime_france/an_4.html - it's stricter than I remembered, but you can also get more for giving up work to look after your three children. And their child benefit is more than ours. And goes on for longer, and they give you some after your child turns 20 just to taper it off gently for you! That's it, I'm moving to France. Their bloody healthcare's better too. And I've never seen a broken-down car by the side of a French motorway.
121: After you qualify as a nurse or before?
Better be after; the NHS fund my university course!
The Hippychick worked well for that: big child, wants to be held, wants to get up and down, you need two hands. I have hips, but it saved me throwing my back out to one side.
123: good thing for you there's no obligation to repay them for funding your entire training course by actually ever working as an NHS nurse!
Well, no legal obligation.
If mine want to be held while I'm cooking, they have to be in a backpack carrier. (I don't do it OFTEN with Mara, who's way too big, but still sometimes, and it was useful when her ankle was broken.)
Yesterday we told our caseworker we're officially letting our license lapse and closing as a foster home. Lee is very sad because she really wanted a little son she never got, but doesn't feel ready to handle four children. I'm going to be very emotional about losing that piece of my identity, but I do think I'll get the little job as support liaison for foster-adoptive parents in our region, which will be something. So heebie wins, unless I'm allowed to count fractional former children or something.
They'll need to come up with a more manly name for the 'Hippychick'.
116: Chopsticks are the way to go for one-handed cooking and eating, though admittedly not much use for buttering toast.
(Now I'm worried ajay thinks I really might fuck off to France in two years' time. Honest, that's not the plan.)
131: good to hear. Sorry for getting a bit OTT on that.
Baby! Awwwww! Congratulations!
110: traditionally, one boy is a boy, two boys are half a boy, three boys is no boy at all. Different context though.
60 and 129: apo and ajay in a tie for winning the thread...
but heebie-geenie wins at life! yay congratulations! such a super-cute baby! often they look like sculptured of an old man made out of radioactive marshmallows and everyone just agrees to lie to save face, but your babies are legit cute! I feel envious of the little babies, sometimes, and wish maybe I had had a son ever, sometimes. I think your kids will grow up in an awesome, fun family and love each other a lot.
Congratulations! 33% more offspring!