Park, Park, Park & Park

I had just finished reading C a chapter from Paddle-To-The-Sea, and snapped a few before morning naptime.

Here are his current dimensions: 57 cm. long 10.75 pounds Big blue eyes Brown hair, maybe making a move to blonde.

B booked a cottage for the few days around Christmas this year. It was inspired. Here's a shot of it. We stayed in Downton ( here's a map ), which is one the edge of The New Forest. The cottage is owned by the couple next door- Richard and Judi- who invited over for drinks with their family on Boxing Day. We did a few walks around the surrounding countryside, while C stayed warm in his bear suit. I've uploaded some of the other pictures to flickr.

A little behind schedule on the updates. No internet access in charming Downton, Wiltshire (more later) where the three of us spent the Christmas Holiday. Here is C- Christmas outfit and all- with his first of many Christmas gifts from Mum and Dad- a simple wooden puzzle toy from Muji.

Michael and Helen stopped by the flat earlier this week. here's a great piccture of Grandpa to follow the one from two days old .

Adding to the crowd-pleasing PROPORTION series ( Pro 1 , Pro 2 , Pro 3 ), herewith is the next installment. Please refrain from the easy jokes about drunkenness, although the champers was pretty good.

C celebrated three First Events over the week-end: 1. His first bottle feed, which now means I can do the late night feeding shift. 2. His first pub visit with Dad Saturday afternoon- The Anglesea Arms (unfortunately slept through the experience of one of the best pubs in London). 3. His first Christmas Drinks party Saturday evening- again, was very well behaved due to sleep.

First: Once again, I must thank John Ryan for his suggestion to go to blogger.com in the first place, rather than build a website. His idea over lunch in Windsor ( see this post ) was the Park & Park blog conception, and it's worked- simply and beautifully. Thanks John. Second: I've uploaded more pictures to flickr .

Here's a great picture of Bells, a good one of C, just before a feed.

I rushed home tonight to finish up C's bath before he fed. We're trying to get him on a more regular schedule, and Bella is doing a great job towards that direction. Seeing him clean, shiny and wrapped in a towel, brought me back to to Day One. Such an emotionally memorable day. Here's a flashback- taken 30 minutes after delivery.

As you will recall from my previous post on our future acquisition strategy , I mentioned that an update on our sleep bank account , nappy inventory turn ratio and outsourced service provider relationships was to follow in the near future. That time is now. The sleep bank account has seen consistent improvement in real terms since the deal close date (20Nov2005). Although average full-term REM time length is shorter, parental gross rack time is only 1.5 hours below norm (as measured over a 24 hour window). This may appear poor, but the time spent developing the acquisition well out weighs the cost of sleep deprivation. The nappy inventory turn ratio is still elevated at approximately 9.5 per day. Again, this is outweighed by the fact that the visiting NHS Midwife take a strange pride in the korma sauce production (a legitimate descriptive term used by said NHS Midwives) the acquisition has generated. The outsourced service provision (now complete) was a resounding success. Shirl

Grandma Park cooked an American-style Thanksgiving feast while she was in London. Here we are, just before tucking into a Free-Range, Corn-Fed, Fully Organic Dorset Turkey. W're still working on leftovers three days later. The picture includes Carol, C, Bella, LM, Adrian and Nettie.

So, it seems that I was slightly mistaken by my comment about not sailing tall masted ships . A remarkable likeness of C has been spotted on a Van Maurik vessel, from awhile ago. He may have been transporting cigars from Amsterdam to the UK. This picture is a bit small, but C may be spotted towards the stern. Thanks to Nettie for uncovering the historical connection.

Following on the recent comments about Cs eligibility to hold the Presidency of the United States, I felt I should clearly muddle the waters. To put it simply, the issue of who can run for US President and Cs standing as a citizen (in the context of running for President), has not been clearly resolved by Supreme Court case. Briefly, a natural-born citizen is someone who is legally recognized as that country's citizen at of the moment of birth. Citizenship is determined by place of birth OR parents. Children born in the US are citizens. Children born of a US citizen anywhere in the world are citizens. Now, if George Romney had beat Nixon for the 1968 Republican party nomination, and then won the popular vote (a most unlikely event because of his verbal gaffe*), not only would we not have the term Chinese “ Ping-Pong Diplomacy ”, but the Supreme Court would have resolved the issue once and for all. So, I will now add “Potential Supreme Court Case Namesake on his way to the US Pre

Following on the earlier Proportion posts 1 and 2 , here is another picture showing C relative to Dad. And every day when I get home, C is bigger than in the morning when I left.

Casting your memory back a few weeks, I thought I'd document his dimensions at birth. Length: 52 cm. (about from your fingers to your elbow) Weight: 3.8 Kg (about a sack of sugar) During the pregnacy, his leg length was in the 95th percentile- meaning he had very long legs for his development. At this point, the jury is still out, but he may be the next Bannister (if not Prime Minister or President).

Here's the Grandparents (minus Grandpa Park) gathered around the sleeping C in Peter Jones after a nice cuppa.

C spent much of this past weekend engaged and active. Andy visited Friday, and Jack came over on Sunday. C and Dad took a good stroll around South Ken Saturday afternoon. Dinner with Nettie and family that evening saw C on display. Sunday we all went to Carina Ciscato's pottery gallery for her annual open studio. All a bit much, it turns out. C was cranky most of Sunday afternoon and evening.

We registered (got a birth certificate for) C. at the Chelsea Town Hall today, in the heart of London, darling. This is the same place where Bella and I were married back on the fourth of July, 2004. And the same gentleman did the paperwork for C. Grandma took this picture out on the steps afterwards.