HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

As we still don't have internet at home, this is was the best we could do. We hope everyone is doing great and hope to hear from you soon!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Lincoln's Friends

As we said in the last post, one of the main reasons we haven't been too solid at updating this thing is Lincoln's very busy social schedule. We've actually been really impressed how Lincoln is not phased from being passed around a party/restaurant etc...He just smiles and laughs and moves on...

So another catchup thought we had was to put some pics of the introduction of Lincoln to his new friends over his short life...

Where Have You Been Lincoln Texter?

We didn’t think we’d be making that statement until Linc was 17, missed his curfew and the air had a hint of Mad Dog 20/20 in it. Although he is growing very quickly, luckily this isn’t the case. We’ve actually been hearing this question from a lot of friends since we’ve been…how should I put this politely…awful, terrible, lousy, rubbish etc… at updating this thing.

The good news, despite our ‘posting lull’, is that Lincoln has been out and about living life and meeting lots of people. He’s a bit of social butterfly actually…the missing curfew issue is bound to rear its ugly head sooner then we would like! He’s been to 2 different countries (Ireland and the Mother Land (NJ, DC/VA, NC, PA, NY, CT)) 3 different beaches (Brighton/Bald Head Island/Topsail Beach), been babysat for a few times, gone on a zillion play dates and the list goes on and on…! And you wonder why we’ve been behind on the blog??? Now you know!

All told, things are going great! We wouldn’t change a thing. We’ve had to deal with some good firsts and bad firsts...a tooth and rolling over on the plus side, bad rashes and cold on the negative, but Lincoln is just the happiest little man and just seems to like smiling and laughing at people (kind of like his Mom) as much as possible. It is almost eerie how, at a party or restaurant, he doesn’t mind being passed from person to person as long as they smile and play with him.

The risk here is to dump a small fraction of the thousands of pictures we’ve taken since the last post and scare everyone away for life. So we’ve posted some of the highlights since the last post and we’ll filter in some others over the next few weeks. Click HERE for pics...

We hope everyone is having a great summer (those that are ACTUALLY having summer weather) and please keep us posted on what you are getting up to. We need to live vicariously from all of you adventurers, so please keep us posted!!!

All the best – Lincoln, Gretchen and Ryan

Happy Mother's Day!!!

I am not very good with words as I'm not even 7 weeks old, so I thought I'd put together some pictures showing how great a Mom you have been to me in my short little life!

Happy 1st Mother's Day Mommy!!!

Love Lincoln Texter

Life with Lincoln – the 1st 2 weeks!

Lincoln was very lucky to be looked after by both his Mommy and his Daddy during his 1st 2 weeks of life. We had such a wonderful time together getting to know our little Lincoln and settling into parenthood!

Lincoln is such a joy. We spend hours just staring at him in disbelief that he is ours! He makes so many cute faces and constantly makes baby sounds, especially when he is sleeping and when he awakes from sleep. He is very alert, active and barely sleeps. I’m not sure about this “babies sleep, eat, and poop” things…more like “eat, eat, eat, poop, play, and pee on mommy!”

Lincoln has experienced loads of firsts in his 1st 2 weeks of life...not only things like tummy time, baths, lifting his head off the ground, pulling hair, and smiling…but also his first bus ride, pram (i.e. stroller) ride, celebration of mass, trips to the park, grocery store, coffee shop, and debut on the webcam. He’s a busy little guy! We’ve had lots of time at home relaxing, cuddling, and feeding Lincoln, but we manage to get out most days, even for just a walk and a quick errand or two. The weather has been amazing…60’s and 70’s…flowers and trees blossoming, blue sky…absolutely perfect for enjoying the outdoors in London with our new little baby!

We feel truly blessed! We love our new life with our little guy! We appreciate all the emails, cards, gifts, phone calls, and well wishes. Please be patient with us as we respond to you all. It is challenging to get anything else done these days (other than take care of Lincoln), despite the very little sleep we get! I’m sure we’ll figure out how to manage it all. For now we’re just trying to relish every moment with Lincoln!

Attached are some pictures for you to see how he’s growing and changing. Ryan said I had too many for a slideshow so we’ve put them on the Kodak Picture Gallery site. Follow this link to view them. Enjoy!!

Click Here for Pictures!!!

Peanut is a BOY !!! -- Lincoln Texter Meyers

On March 28th, 2007 @ 5:55 AM we were honored to welcome Lincoln Texter Meyers in to the world at Chelsea Westminster Hospital in London.

Lincoln is 7lbs 4oz (3.35 kgs) and has been on his best behavior so far. It took all of 5 seconds for him to have Mom and Dad eating out of the palm of his little hand.

The real star of the day was Gretchen. After an early morning water breaking on the 27th, she endured (roughly) 18 hrs of contractions and labor. Despite that ordeal, Ryan and Lincoln still can't keep up with her despite their insistences she rests for awhile. We think Lincoln has ulterior motives though...

Thanks to everyone for their help, guidance, advice, friendship, prayers, and caring (to name a few!) throughout the process. We really appreciate it and hope we are lucky enough to repay the favors over the years. We will now bludgeon you with pictures of our little friend....

We Are In The Dropzone

We are at the stage where anything can happen...No, we aren’t talking the Sweet 16, we’re talking about the fact Peanut could really come any day now.

Since the time frame is imminent, it is about time we share the results of our little survey. We can’t thank everyone enough that gave us guesses as to date of birth, gender, name and weight. We’ll obviously note who came the closest on all accounts after the event, but as of now, here are the results from 56 kind hearted entrants told in lovely MBA bullet points. We've spread a few pictures of Gretch at 38 weeks in here too:

Gender:
This one see-sawed for weeks, but a bouncing baby BOY was the winner with 62% of the votes.

DOB:
Guesses were all over the place but certainly clustered nicely around the due date. The guesses ranged from the 15th of March to the 15th of April. We are also really excited that most of you think the baby will be born in the wee-hours of the morn’!

• 44% expect Peanut to be Early


• 53% expect Peanut to be Late


• 7% on-time delivery
  

Most Common:

• 8 for March 25th


• 7 for April 2nd and April 4th
  

Size:
Most folks saw Gretchen’s tiny little bump and have expected under 7 pounds. Sounds logical…There is one guess pushing 10 pounds that has both of us very nervous!

Names:
Some great suggestions and some that would undoubtedly require a significant investment in therapy. Some of the more interesting ones are:

• Bucknell


• Roman (2x) – Way to go Mr. Caudillo!!!


• Michael (2x) – Cue Halloween music please…


• Magillacuttie Patrick


• Gustav


• Goober


• Ryan (2x) – as a Girl’s name thank you very much!


• Evariste


• Oscar
  

Lastly, an interesting result was that both sets of parents predicted that we would have a boy...very interesting....

We thought we would end with a little picture of home...

Our Friends Spoil Peanut

Last weekend, our friends here in London were kind enough to throw us a Baby Shower. What we've come to understand is more of a US tradition...you certainly couldn't tell by last weekends event. We were graciously hosted by our friends Rob, Erin and Henry (who just celebrated his 1st birthday!). We were really happy to see so many friends that were able to find the time to help celebrate our impending arrival. Time has become fleeting now that school is over and to have so many people make the time was really appreciated.

Our biggest concern about having a baby so far away from our family was a missing support structure. This weekend was a clear indication that we've got a lot of great friends here in London and that, although nothing can replace having our family around, we know we've got lots of support!

Here are some pictures of Gretch at 35 weeks. She is definitely getting bigger and Peanut is starting to slow down the perpetual motion machine that is my wife! We celebrated a great milestone yesterday...NO MORE LEEDS!!! Gretch has spent basically two and half years riding the rails to Yorkshire and, finally, it has come to end.

Mom & Aunt Nancy Visit Us and Peanut! (Feb 9 – 12)

Well, the last 2 weeks have been filled with lots of excitement! From birthing classes, to the onset of more pregnancy symptoms, to a crib for peanut, and the visit of my Mom and Aunt Nancy!! It’s been great!

As you’ll see from the pictures, the bump is growing rapidly. I’m now 33 weeks and starting to get a bit anxious about being ready for baby. Mentally we are ready for peanut’s arrival but physically we still need to gather some more essentials. We have been making steps in the right direction though. We attended 2 full days of birthing classes and Ryan put together the crib. As we only live in a 1 bedroom flat, the crib is in our bedroom and I just love having it there. It’s so cute! I can’t wait until our little one is sleeping peacefully in it. Better yet, I can’t wait to have our little baby in my arms!

We were really blessed to have my Mom and Aunt Nancy visit us! I had been anticipating this for months…and finally they arrived! We had all kinds of fun things planned because this was Nancy’s first time to London and my Mom hadn’t been here in 2 years. Some of our main activities were a visit of Westminster Abbey, a daytrip to York, tour bus around London to catch all the major sights, shopping in Covent Garden, Afternoon Tea, and to top it all off…the Billy Elliott musical. Of course, we also ate a lot of good food and walked a lot. As wonderful as all these things were to share with my family, the most special things for me were to attend church together, show them around our new neighbourhood (including our hospital), prepare meals together, and stay up late talking. I got lots of good advice from Mom and Nancy about childbirth and caring for babies. It was absolutely wonderful!!

Attached are some pictures of the lovely weekend (despite the weather!) and the growing bump!

Lake District

Gretch and I took a trip up to an area of Northern England called the Lake District. We have always wanted to make it up there (especially in the spring), but considering we had some train vouchers and were running out of time for 'another last trip' as just the two of us....we dove the chance!









To no shock of anyone...there were a lot of lakes...and trees....and small(er) towns. It was very NOT London which really made the trip feel like we really got away. We stayed a town very close to where Beatrix Potter lived, so we were inundated with pictures of Renee Zellweger, but other then that it was a very beautiful place. We took in a lot of fresh air, hiking, and picture taking for such a quick trip. We hope to be able to see the Lake District in the spring when everything is in full bloom although we hear it gets pretty crowded so that could take away from the feel a bit! Here are a few quick pics...

Gretch's Mom and Aunt Nancy are coming next week to check in on Peanut and Gretchen's expanding belly. Safe to say...all parties are really excited! Here is a picture of Gretchen's bump at 31 weeks (she's at 32+ this very moment, but we're a few days behind!)

3rd Leg of the Journey Begins / Return of the Roman Empire

Lots going on recently so we've missed a few weeks of Peanut growth. This bump on the left is at the 29th week which is well into the 3rd trimester. Peanut has been growing quickly and seems to be really enjoying swimming around. Ryan thinks Peanut 'really comes to life' when he walks in the door from work.




We were also lucky enough to meet up with an old friend of Ryan's -- Roman Caudillo. Romy was at a conference in Cambridge (yes, he is REALLY SMART!! -- We'll call him Dr. Romy soon) and was able to make it down to London for a few days. We had a great time catching up and celebrating Romy's 30th birthday. It was great to finally meet one of the Caudillos family I've heard so much about and for Ryan to reconnect with Romy!

Finally, thank you to everyone who has taken 10 seconds to fill out the survey. So much fun to hear your thoughts!!! We'll post some of the names and guesses soon!! We would love to have more though....

Click Here for Survey

Guess Peanut's Birthdate?

Happy New Year Everyone!

We've had a lot of interesting thoughts and guesses from friends, family, and strangers as to gender and arrival date for our first born. With a few months in our pocket right now, we thought it would be fun to see what everyone really thinks. Since we don't have the chance to see all of you on a daily basis, our geeky resident MBA put together a quick survey. It IS quick (10 seconds tops) and you don't have to sign up for anything. Quick and simple!!

We'll post which way the answers are leaning and let you know who wins!!

Click Here for Survey!!!