BumBum is a GIRL!

There is so much to say, I barely know where to start. First things first, BumBum is no longer BumBum . . . SHE is now known as ELISA! She was born Sunday, December 21st at 2:32 am, weighing 6 lbs 8 oz and measuring 19 inches. It is quite a story (aren't they all?) so I will be sure to write about it soon. For now, I want to share some pics of her first 10 days. We are both so in love with her and most of the time I think she feels the same way about us. She does have a hilarious "WTF?" face that we get from time to time, but for the most part she has been a great baby so far.

One of her first pictures:

 

Daddy and Elisa on Day 2:

 

Leaving the hospital:

 

On Christmas Eve (in Christmas outfit 1 of 3. good thing she was born before Christmas!):

 

Christmas morning:

 

Close-up:

 

Her first dress and shoes:

 

New Addition - not BumBum yet

You may (or may not) have noticed that we have a new addition on our blog - Twitter. Look to the right - there it is!

Pat plans to use this to keep you all updated during BumBum's arrival process, aka my l-a-b-o-r. For some reason, I am having a difficult time saying that word these days. Anyway, it is not going to be a play-by-play, even though that is what he keeps calling it. First of all, I don't think anyone really wants a play-by- play of that. Secondly, he has been warned (daily) that having his nose in his blackberry or computer is not allowed. So please, for my sanity and Pat's physical well-being (I am pretty scrappy!) do not expect or encourage too many twitter updates. Don't fret, we won't leave you in the dark!

And if you think we are geeky, check out what this guy did.

Merry (BumBum) Christmas!

We are pretty much ready (as ready as we will ever be!) for BumBum's arrival. Which is a good thing since BumBum's estimated date of arrival is a week from tomorrow! That means it could happen any day. AHHHH!

So now I feel like I can go back to the non-BumBum related items on my "to do" list. And first is to Christmas-ize our blog (notice the new colors) and share a couple pictures of our Christmas decorations. Our flat is a decent size, especially for London, but a one bedroom for 3 people is tight no matter what. And ours is now filled to the brim with BumBum's stuff, Pat's wires and my shoes. So between the lack of open space and the fact that most of our stuff is in storage in Chicago anyway, we went pretty light on the Christmas decorations.

First is our tree. It is really little, which is perfect for our little flat! It smells great, but the needles will not fall out so it is a perfect, low maintenance tree. And although we have collected ornaments during our travels this year, I decided to leave it au natural. When I put ornaments on it, it just didn't look right - it is so teeny that they overwhelm it. Without further ado:



And here is our wreath/centerpiece on the coffee table. I love it and even more so with my favorite Christmas candle in the middle.



And last but certainly not least, our favorite Christmas decoration ever - our stockings!!!! A huge thank you & hugs to my mom, grandma, Aunt Joanie, Maggi, and Laura who put this special "advent calendar" together for us. And also to all of you who sent the messages to fill them! We have absolutely loved reading the messages everyday(and looking at the stockings too!) and will treasure them for years & years to come. I already know that we are going to look forward to putting these up every year!

casino night

The ND Alumni Club in London joined with several other American colleges and hosted their annual event two weeks ago. This year it was a Casino Night with a "Roaring 20's" theme. We invited our friends Erica & Brad to come with us and we had a great time. The boys were not jazzed by the low buy-ins, but Erica & I loved it!

Is this perhaps our last night on the town pre-BumBum?

 

Can you tell you has the most chips in this picture?

 

C'est moi!! I think I did pretty well for not really knowing how to play . . . until I got bored and went on a "bluffing" streak! Oh well, I only lost 10 and Pat won 40, so as a family we ended up.

the cousins

You can't tell in the picture, but BumBum is giving Blaise a kick for slobbering all over his/her toy. Sorry BumBum, Blaise is going to have a size advantage for awhile . . . maybe forever - he earned the nickname Meatball!

 

In case you were wondering . . . .

. . . Thanksgiving in London was great! We had visitors - my brother Tommy, sister-in-law Laura & their son Blaise. We had a traditional American Thanksgiving Day dinner, probably at the same time our families were eating back home. Tommy, Laura & Blaise spent their first full day here out & about (in the lovely London rain) and Pat had to work. It worked perfectly, bc what is turkey & stuffing without American football? This is the first time I have hosted a holiday and I have to admit . . . it felt like we were playing "house"! Here are a couple pictures from our dinner:





Aunt Becky and Uncle Pat loved spending time with Blaise! He is such a cutie and a great baby. Here are a couple great shots of the little meatball:

 

 

 

Welcome to the World

This month 2 very special babies arrived . . . BumBum's cousin Jack, son of Pat's sister and brother-in-law Kate & Brian O, and BumBum's good friend Rosie (maybe future ND roommate?), daughter of our good friends Jen & Pat G (Pat's ND roommate). Both babies are doing great! And so are all the parents . . . or at least that is what they tell us, since we have just a few weeks before we start those crazy sleep deprived days & nights!

We can't wait to meet Jack and Rosie!! In the mean time, we have to settle for pictures. Here are a couple!

Jack O (born November 10):





Rosie G (born November 3):

Edinburgh!

And the winner is . . . . Johnny5! You may think that he was the only player, but I did receive several guesses via email. Johnny – your prize is a shout-out on our blog! Yay for you!!! [by the way, this is your shout-out].

Our trip to Edinburgh was quick – we arrived Friday night and left Sunday late morning, so really we just had Saturday to explore. Friday night we headed out for dinner to a restaurant suggested by our hotel. The guidebook described it as “Mediterranean food with a Marrakesh feel inside”. It was about a 10 minute walk from our hotel, past some of the most famous pubs in town and on an adorable street with filled with little shops and restaurants. They didn’t have any tables, so while in the lounge area waiting for a table we decided to just stay there. It was a really great dinner and we even tried a local specialty – haggis. The manager recommended it, so we figured we should at least try it. I have to admit, it was not bad. I also have to admit that the version we were served was fried in beer batter, which can make anything taste good, right? Anyway, if you ever head to Edinburgh, we definitely recommend this restaurant! It is the blue building in this picture (taken the next day):



Saturday as we walked around the city in daylight we realized that what we had heard was true – Edinburgh is very similar to London. Same stores, same buses (but theirs are white, not red), same crosswalks, traffic lights, etc. The accent though, that is totally different! And the weather is usually much much cooler, so we were ready for our first real taste of winter. But we were pleasantly surprised with a gorgeous, crisp fall day that was not nearly as cold as we expected. It was even sunny! We could not stop taking pictures! Here is a shot looking down the Royal Mile:



Our first stop was a visit to the newly unveiled Adam Smith statue, outside St Giles’ Cathedral. Pat (as a GSB grad and a free market soldier) has a special place in his heart for Adam Smith, so we had a moment of silence and took several pics to ensure a good one.



Then we had a nice leisurely stroll down the Royal Mile (which runs between the Palace and the Castle). It is filled with shops and on beautiful fall day – loads of people watching! It did not take us long to figure out that there was home rugby match – rowdy (drunk) people in kilts & rugby shirts were everywhere. I wish I had snapped a picture, but I did not want to risk offending them.

We walked all the way down the Royal Mile to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. From there we hopped on a tour bus for a loop around the city. It was so nice (aka, not raining and not freezing cold) that we actually sat up top, outside! We had a live guide giving the history of the city, which was great. We loved her accent, even though we probably only caught every third word. Here are a couple pictures we took from the bus:

The Castle:



Others:





We got off the bus at the Castle and did our own tour. It was dusk, so we got some great pics. Here they are:











Then we headed to a pub in the Grassmarket to watch rugby. It was fun, but not that exciting of a match as the Scots had not beat the visiting team (from NZ!) in about 23 years, so there was not much hope for a win. Although they did put up a good fight, the Scots lost. But the real story is about Maggie, the namesake of the pub. Click here to read about her.

Overall Edinburgh gets 2 thumbs up! We really enjoyed it and wish we would have had another day or 2 to explore.

Where were we?

Even though we planned for our trip to Boston 2 weeks ago to be our last holiday before BumBum's arrival, we had a perfectly empty weekend and many places still on our to-see list. So this past weekend we had one last city mini-break. Don't worry moms, we are currently back home in London, all safe & sound, for good this time. Probably.

Here is a picture from our weekend. Any guesses where we went? Answer & details to be posted later this week.

 

And the answer is . . .

. . . JUNO! Most of you guessed this right away, so we must have done pretty well with the costumes. In case you were wondering, yes, Pat (ie Paulie) did have the requisite tic-tacs. If you haven't seen the movie, I recommend it. It is a witty comedy about a pretty tough subject. Here is the DVD cover we were attempting to copy:

halloween

We have not dressed up for Halloween in several years and we surely have never done a couple costume, but this year I have the perfect accessory so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to have some fun with it. Do you know who we are?

Added bonus - profile shot of BumBum at 32 1/2 weeks! [For comparison, the picture below in Times Square was at 27 weeks. Looks like BumBum is packing on the pounds. Well, one of us is!]