London Update - Pregnant & Parental Visitation

It's been a great couple of months. As you probably already know, Caitie is pregnant and doing wonderful. She's got that glow about her, and we're having lots of fun discussing names and reading books about being pregnant. According to our weekly email, the baby is currently the size of a large plum. We love our little plum.

As for the little plum, we had a scan last week and the doctors said everything is coming along according to schedule. The first doctor actually got the length of the pregnancy wrong, though, so we wound up getting the 12 week scan at 11 weeks. As a result, we are scheduled to go back on October 26th just to make sure all of the 12 week stuff has developed properly. And they told us - perhaps too hopefully - that they might be able to identify the sex at that appointment. If not, we should be able to find out right before Thanksgiving. The sex would be cool to know, but we really don't care if it's a mini-caitie or mini-mike - just as long as it's healthy. The due date is April 7th. We can't wait.

We had a great time with Dudley and Cheryl on their big adventure through the United Kingdom. It was wonderful to have them here, especially so close to Caitie's birthday. It meant a lot to her to have some family around to help celebrate the big 32. And celebrate we did. While the McBrides were in town, we took a gorgeous walk through Hampstead Heath, dined in Mayfair, visited Liz and Jeremy in Scotland, toured St. Andrews, and generally had an amazing time.

We laughed pretty much the whole time they were here, which is always good. Mostly we laughed at Caitie because she was the only one of us who doesn't thing Huckleberry would be a great name for a baby boy - think about it: Huck Ramsburg. Sounds like a superior athlete/scholar who has the unfortunate habit of making millionaire heiresses fall head over heels in love with him. Any other name simply will not do.

We also laughed about the fact that Dudley and I had to monitor each other's outfits in Scotland, as we both packed matching Under Armour shirts and khaki hiking pants, and we didn't want to walk around looking like a pair of dufus twins. I think we managed okay.
Visiting with Liz and Jeremy was particularly fun, and for one simple reason: they are an awesome couple and they made us feel right at home in the Highlands. Even though they'd only been living in Edinburgh for a few weeks, they were well versed not only in Scotch history (Jeremy's currently tackling Sir Walter Scott's Waverley), but they had also already scoped out some great places to eat, including their own gorgeous home - where we dined on vegetarian haggis, falafel and some pungently delicious cheese. Between Meghan and Rob in Amsterdam, and Liz and Jeremy in Edinburgh, we've had some of the best tour guides Europe has to offer - all courtesy of Evergreen High.

Dudley and Cheryl did a great job of locating charming B&B's for our stays in Edinburgh and St. Andrews. Upon returning home, Caitie and I decided we wanted to open a B&B somewhere, but then we got into argument about whether or not you can run a B&B and still coach your child's baseball team. I am not willing to sacrifice my coaching shorts just so I can stay home and clean sheets for tourists. So we scrapped that idea.

We celebrated Caitie's birthday with a tasty Italian dinner in Hampstead, right next to the Sweaty Beatty shop. It was a bitter sweet end to a great visit with Cheryl and Dudley. It was sad to see them go, but I think they were ready to get home. I know Gigi was excited to see beautiful little Bailey, and I'm sure Dudley wanted to get back to a place where he could eat a hamburger that doesn't taste like mildew.

Switching gears entirely, just want send a very public "Congratulations" to my brother John and his lovely wife Jamie, as they've just welcomed their new daughter, Charlotte, into the family. Mom and baby are healthy, and we couldn't be happier for them.

Between Tommy, Cooper, Bailey and Charlotte, the cuteness bar has been raised really high for our baby! I hope we can keep up the McBrides/Ramsburgs. How great, though, that all the kids will be so close in age? And they have big cousin Tommy to teach them all the cool stuff, like how you can earn 5 cents for every stick you pick up on Pop-Pop's yard. Lots of fun stuff ahead.

Hope everyone's well.

_Mike