Imperial measures of Kieran

3720 grams = 8.20119615 pounds

53 centimeters = 20.8661417 inches

Sources:

• http://www.google.com/search?q=3720+grams+in+pounds
• http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=53+cm+in+inches

Liam and Rosalie visit Kieran

Liam and Rosalie dropped into the hospital together with Anne from across the road. They were happy to see their new baby brother, but not all that keen to share. I’m hoping they learn that before they pull him apart like a rag doll.

Kieran Patrick Günther Cassidy

At 08:11 this morning I was thrilled to be handed a slightly cheesy and blood-stained son. Kieran arrived Macduff-style, namely by Caesarean. Despite being more than 2 and a half weeks before term, he weighed in at a very healthy 3720 grams, and 53 centimetres, making him bigger than both of his siblings on their birthdays.

Here he is still covered in the cheese-like moisturiser so popular among new-borns:

From 2010-03-29 - Kieran Patrick Günther

and here with his mother, both tired after all their efforts:

From 2010-03-29 - Kieran Patrick Günther

I was able to dress up for the day too - here I am in my operating theatre gear (I ditched the hat and face mask at the earliest opportunity

From 2010-03-29 - Kieran Patrick Günther

The important news is that Heike and son are well, if somewhat exhausted by the whole procedure

From 2010-03-29 - Kieran Patrick Günther

Günther Schwab celebrates his 75th birthday

Heike’s father Günther turned 75 yesterday, and the family congregated to help him celebrate. My pictures are in the Picasa slideshow below.

Careful observers will note that Heike seems more pregnant than ever. It won’t be long now!

Selva Val Gardena

Liam, Rosalie and I joined up with my dad for a week of skiing in Selva Val Gardena (Dolomites) last week.

Heike was ordered by the doctor to stay home and rest, which was lucky for her as she would have gone mad on the drive there. Snow caused traffic chaos through Germany and Austria on that day, so that we were on the road a total 13.5 hours getting there!

Below are some pictures of the kids both in the apartment and on their sledges, and a video of Liam skiing.

 

Weekend in Berlin

We are just back from a very enjoyable weekend visiting friends in Berlin. A highlight for the kids was the Museum für Naturkunde. In particular the brachiosaurus and diplodocus on show in the main foyer prompted much gushing from Liam about these being "my favourite dinosaurs".

Also popular were a row of Russian tanks and artillery on show a few minutes walk from our friends’ house in Karlshorst. The building where the German unconditional surrender was signed in 1945 is now a German-Russian museum. We didn’t bother going inside, the tanks were really all the kids wanted to see.

Kids love snow (shock)!

The winter has finally delivered with a nice dump of snow, so the kids and I headed up the hills outside of Heidelberg for some sledging. Some pictures below…

From 2010-01-09 - Sledging at Lingental

From 2010-01-09 - Sledging at Lingental

From 2010-01-09 - Sledging at Lingental

BBC News - Road grit levels 'critically low'

This is "leaves on the line" for roads...

BBC News - Road grit levels 'critically low'

Atheist Ireland Publishes 25 Blasphemous Quotes | blasphemy.ie

Lots of blasphemy worth a 25,000€ fine to be found here...

Atheist Ireland Publishes 25 Blasphemous Quotes | blasphemy.ie

Google Chrome Extensions: Blog This! (by Google)

Google Chrome Extensions: Blog This! (by Google)

a cool Chrome extension allows me to blog items with unnerving rapidity.

Baking Xmas Cookies

Below Rosalie and Liam display their culinary skills as the family got together to bake the traditional Weihnachtsplätzchen.  Rosalie manned the Fleischwolf, while Liam was responsible for cutting off the extruded cookies at the precise length required.

From 2009-11-22 - Baking Xmas Cookies

The end results look and taste pretty good, below are the Spritzgebäck they created:

From 2009-11-22 - Baking Xmas Cookies

Páid Cassidy's 70th birthday party photos

As promised in the previous post I’ve uploaded my pictures of the evening and embedded a slideshow below…

Páid Cassidy's 70th birthday party

Below is the speech I gave last night at my father's birthday party. Pictures will follow when I get around to docking the camera.

Ladies and Gentleman, girls and boys, it’s appropriate at a 70th birthday party to reflect for a few moments on the life and times of the birthday boy.
My childhood memories of Páid are naturally coloured by the fact that I had no other father as a comparison. It only occurred to me later that when I tried to explain his behaviour to friends, their bafflement must indicate that I was lucky enough to have a very singular father.
Usually the raised eyebrows started with names. Páid has lived all his life with a double persona, Páid in conversation, then Patrick J. as legal signature. Not content with his own brand of confusion, he gave all of his children unusual names, so that we have all learned to do some explaining when introducing ourselves. I had thought nothing of the tale that I shared a name with the school he had attended as a boy, right up to the point that someone commented that he must be reliving his childhood traumas through his son.
This of course couldn’t be further from the truth. Páid was always a great father, and that’s no mean feat when you have six children to feed, clothe and educate. I’d like to thank both Páid and Rosalie for the support and encouragement that enabled all six of us to complete a university education and find our own careers.
As for his qualities as a husband, I will always recall a particular quote from my mother: “If you become half the man your father is, you’ll be doing well”.
However I have a creeping suspicion that it was as a grandfather that he has found his true calling. Now rid of the responsibilities associated with feeding, clothing and educating, he can concentrate instead on the important aspect, namely play. And with grandchildren of every age from 11 downwards, there’s plenty of opportunity for him to crawl on the floor, paint faces and otherwise live up to his official family title of “grand-père mentale”.
Apart from his success in raising his family, Páid has of course had a very successful career as a civil engineer. As kids all we ever saw of his work were photos and plans from sewage plants, nothing that anyone could ever describe as glamorous. However I’m sure all of his colleagues here will attest that his 40 odd years of contribution and expertise in the Irish water engineering industry has been immense.
Nowadays everyone talks about work-life balance. Páid has for years been balancing his successful family and professional lives with a very active sporting and social life. Not of course sports involving running about after a ball, I think Peadar will concur that that sort of thing has never been big in his life. But whether it be bridge, sailing, Toastmasters, walking, pub quizzes, and in latter years skiing and alpine mountaineering, there is never a dull moment for this particular pensioner.
At 70, many people would accept their status as a pensioner and spend more time tending the roses. Páid is of course very grateful for the free bus and Luas ticket, which he fervently uses in order to reduce his carbon footprint. He is however far too stubborn to accept the biological laws of ageing, and has for many years now made a point of being in better shape than his contemporaries. As some of you know, Dad and I will celebrate our aggregate 110th birthday by attempting to climb Mont Blanc next year. Between the two of us, the smart money is on the Kilimanjaro veteran who also has the Tour of Mt Blanc and the Chamonix-Zermatt route under his belt, rather than the 40-year-old.
I’d like to wrap up by thanking the staff here at National for being so great, and my mother Rosalie for organising this party. I know she’d respond by thanking all of you for coming tonight.
With that I’d like to propose a toast to Páid.

The kids get a new bunk bed

Liam and Rosalie were thrilled today when Dieter Schumacher of www.schumacher-kindermoebel.de/ arrived to assemble their new bed. With a fireman’s pole, climbing frame, crane, steering wheel and swing attached, it’s more than just a bed for sleeping in.

Couch Surfing

I learned in the middle of this week that we would be having guests at the weekend. This is not unusual, as often I only register that a visit is upcoming when Heike reminds me. However what did surprise me is that our visitors were not previously known to us.

Heike has registered with http://www.couchsurfing.org/, a site which enables guests to find hosts. The idea is classic Web 2.0 reputation management – you prove yourself worthy by inviting strangers into your home, then impose yourself on others for short stays all over the world.

So how was it? Peter and Nadine were excellent house guests: playing with our kids, tolerating our barking dogs, and giving us an insight into their couch surfing experiences in Europe, Israel and India. I definitely recommend the project, and I’m looking forward to trying it out from the guest’s point of view.