Hello Emma Naish!

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I am happy to report that, at 9-43am this morning (Saturday 7th), Mrs Toni Naish gave birth to baby Emma. Things started round about 5am and, needless to say, the entire day has been taken up with baby duties. Some of you might know that southern England has been badly affected over the past week by ice and snow: a pathetic amount, but enough to prevent the movement of traffic and bring the region to its knees. Happily, our early morning journey to the hospital was uneventful and all went well. Anyway, Emma is wonderful and perfectly formed, and so far has slept an awful lot. It's fantastic to be a dad for the second time, and once again I am astounded by the wonder of human parturition. Well, when I say 'wonder of human parturition' I mean 'sheer ridiculousness and utter improbability of human parturition'. I mean: how is that supposed to come out of that?

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Congratulations!

Congratulations on the birth of your baby bipedal semi-carnivorous hominid.

By Metalraptor (not verified) on 07 Feb 2009 #permalink

Congratulations to you both!

By Dave Godfrey (not verified) on 07 Feb 2009 #permalink

Welcome to this world Emma,

Have a magical life full of wonders and happiness

(and when you see your dad for the first time don't think : "I'm gonna kick the babyyyy")

Congratulations, dude, to you and your entire family!

"I mean: how is that supposed to come out of that?"

If you're astounded, imagine how the baby feels about it all. Why do you think they start out crying?

Congratulations to you, and well done to Toni! And welcome to Emma. Everybody knows people named Emma are the best people around. Not that I'm biased, or anything.

DunkTheBiscuit (Um... also known as Emma...)

By DunkTheBiscuit (not verified) on 07 Feb 2009 #permalink

Nice tetrapod! congratulations, Darren...

Holy cow! Congrats, brother! May your daughter grow up to also love tetrapod zoology. Now, this better not affect your blogging schedule. :-D

Congratulations, pater novus!!

so... is anybody going to say "aaaawww sooooo cute!!" too?

Congrats Darren! The important thing is that she's OK and everything goes well.

Flash forward to 2019:
Tet Zoo the Next Generation featuring Emma Naish!

Congratulations!

By Bill Parker (not verified) on 07 Feb 2009 #permalink

Congratulations on the arrival of your daughter.

Congratulations, Mom and Dad!

By Travis McDermott (not verified) on 07 Feb 2009 #permalink

Congratulations to Naish and Naish on a fine collaborative effort!

I can offer Emma no better blessing than that in her life she may inspire in her circle the degree of admiration and astonishment that Darren has come to inspire in his.

As we offer our benedictions, let us not forget that there is concealed far down on the left column, underneath Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight and just above the hit counter, a handy donation button that we may use to punctuate our sincerity.

By Nathan Myers (not verified) on 07 Feb 2009 #permalink

Great news! Congratulations!

Congratulations to you both!

Congratulations to you both!

Let me just add my congratulations to the choir.

By Andreas Johansson (not verified) on 07 Feb 2009 #permalink

Fantastic!

Aww. She's very larval. :3

Congratulations.

Congratulations from me too. I'm always pleased when a child is born into a smart family!

Congratulations Darren! Make sure she turns out smart, eloquent and appreciating of nature.

may your digits be 20 and your limbs always be 4, lil Emma.

By Tim Morris (not verified) on 08 Feb 2009 #permalink

Welcome to Emma!!!Congratulations Darren and Wife!

congratulations for the new family member, both to you and your wife!!!

Congratulations!

How lovely!

Congratulations!

I thought it was photo of the day and we had to guess the name or something :)

Great for you all, tell your Mrs to take it easy, make sure you do your share of the nappy changes and I hope Emma has a really wonderful life.

By Mark Lees (not verified) on 08 Feb 2009 #permalink

Welcome, Emma!

By Squiddhartha (not verified) on 08 Feb 2009 #permalink

Congrats papa!

Congradulations to you both Emma made a wunderful choice in parents. May life bring her much joy and success.

By nzcryptozoologist (not verified) on 08 Feb 2009 #permalink

Congratulations, give little Emma kisses from all of us.
I'm certain that will not be tasking for the proud parents and big older brother 8-D

Excellent news, well done to Mrs Naish and yourself Darren. Everyone seems to be spawning of recent!

By RStretton (not verified) on 08 Feb 2009 #permalink

I cannot congratulate you enough, Darren!!!

Congratulations!

Thank heaven for little girls. Congratulations!

By Dan Varner (not verified) on 08 Feb 2009 #permalink

Great news! Maybe a family portrait will be forthcoming?

There weren't enough tetrapods out there, so Darren had to make one of his own.

Congrats, Darren, and congrats to Mrs Toni Naish, who must be a fascinating woman.

By Mike from Ottawa (not verified) on 08 Feb 2009 #permalink

Hooray! Congratulations!!!

Well, when I say 'wonder of human parturition' I mean 'sheer ridiculousness and utter improbability of human parturition'.

Yeah, it is deeply weird when you consider that all 6 billion of us got here through such a lengthy, awkward, fragile, exasperating, and frankly goofy process. We can put a man on the moon, as they say, but you still have to help your near-term wife roll in and out bed several times a night cuz she's got a little human endoparasite sitting on her bladder.

Congratulations to all of you, and sincere best wishes!

Congradulations!! Wait until you see how fast time goes by now. My baby girl is in kindergarten and talking about a pink car for college.

By thylacine (not verified) on 09 Feb 2009 #permalink

Congratualtions from across the pond. :) Now the real question is how will you keep both of them away from your toys? ;)

Congratulations to you and your family! *smiles*

By Julie Deshtor (not verified) on 09 Feb 2009 #permalink

All the more wonderful to those of who can't...

Contgratulations to the Naish family, one and all.

By Craig York (not verified) on 09 Feb 2009 #permalink

Well, at least I know I can guess the genus of this one!

Hmm. I didn't even know this was in the works. Congratulations, Darren!

Also: Awwwwww.

By Stevo Darkly (not verified) on 09 Feb 2009 #permalink

Congratulations old friend!

By Pete Buchholz (not verified) on 09 Feb 2009 #permalink

Congratulations! New routines will be coming to your world, I suspect! ;-)

Cute name, Emma. I like it!

Davidd:

Cute name, Emma. I like it!

...and it's very appropriate for a girl born in the Year of Darwin.

How does that come out of THAT?

With some difficulty, as I'm sure you know. We humans have huge babies for critters our size. In any other species whose babies approach the size of ours (as a percentage of mom's body weight), those kids have to be up and running in 30 minutes or they're somebody's lunch.

Congratulations on the new cutie-pie! Now you get to worry about "Daddy, can I have the credit card?" "Daddy, I want to be PM someday," and "Daddy, I have a...boyfriend..."

Congrats Darren!

By Graeme Elliott (not verified) on 10 Feb 2009 #permalink

Congratulations to you all!

By Mark Evans (not verified) on 10 Feb 2009 #permalink

Congratulations to you and Toni, Darren.

Sorry I've not replied to your e-mails, but I'll see you tomorrow.

By Richard Hing (not verified) on 10 Feb 2009 #permalink

Beautiful!

By Michael Anderson (not verified) on 12 Feb 2009 #permalink

Congratulations to the three of you. Good fortune to you.

By Anthony Docimo (not verified) on 12 Feb 2009 #permalink

Congratulations Will, Toni, Emma and Darren!

Darren said

Things started round about 5am

No, I would guess they started around nine months before that...

(of course one could go on looking back even further... to the dawn of time)

Great news and a great surprise!

Wishing you all well... Emma, Snowbaby 2009!

By Graham King (not verified) on 12 Feb 2009 #permalink

Dear Emma,

Welcome to the big, fantastic World. May you get an inquisitive mind and never stop wanting to explore its myriad intricate ways and byways.

- and many congratulations to Darren and Toni!

congratulations on your new arrival,
wishing you all the best for the future

By beth mortimer (not verified) on 13 Feb 2009 #permalink

Ah, I'll leave my public congratulations too, here, on Valentine's Day.

I must say that all my kids were born in February, and it is a real treat.

But then, you already know it is the kind of love that is unexplainable. And the greatest.

Best to your whole family.

By Loren Coleman (not verified) on 14 Feb 2009 #permalink

Congratulations!

By William Miller (not verified) on 15 Feb 2009 #permalink

Somehow I am just seeing this...what a sweet baby and how proud you must be! Congrats!

Congratulations to all three of you!