Park, Park, Park & Park

With Bells due in just a few weeks now, I'm getting in some last minute social outings. Wednesday night I joined some friends at Wembley Stadium for the England vs USA soccer match. I sang the National Anthem surrounded by Brits, and watched the US lose 2-0. C enjoyed the TV version and tried to spot me in the crowd. He was slightly conflicted as to which flag to wave though. Off to Vienna this weekend to see Uncle Nate.

As you can see, Bells is getting bigger by the day- 106 centimeters around the belly button now. Due date is still the 22nd of June, but second borns usually come early, right? Here she is three weeks before C arrived. On a separate note, it appears that C may be of the sinister bent : left-handed. That's the consensus now, but we'll see what happens in the next few years. He would be in the minority- only 10% of the population are left handed.

We think C has conquered the potty. Of course, we'll still have some accidents, but we've got the concept mastered. And done before the second one shows up. I spent the morning painting the baby's room. We decided on a shade of yellow- just in case it isn't the expected girl .

Bells has been going through a bit of Braxton-Hicks contractions over the last few days. So much so that she thought she was going to deliver in the back of black cab on Thursday evening. So she's been texting our doula and reassuringly posting on Mumsnet . The odds are that THIS ONE won't act like C and be two weeks late .

C has learned to use the word NO extensively now. He'll use it in response to most questions, and even to the opposite of the original question. Today, he's been a bit of a handful, although we're not sure if it's just asserting independence or residual frustration from the chicken pox. Or maybe he's just tired of hanging out with Mum and Dad all the time on these boring trips to the country.

We wandered out of London this morning and found ourselves in Hampshire- Selborne specifically. And we toured the Gilbert White House/Museum and grounds. C is now getting over the Pox.

C is now fully covered with what looks like The Plague. And then a layer of calamine lotion on top of the chicken pox. And is about as agreeable to the whole situation as he looks in this picture. The upside is that this malady covers up the scabs and bruises on his face he developed falling off a jungle gym last week.

We are now the proud owners of the SUV of prams. I put together the Phil & Teds 2008 model yesterday and we took it for a test drive today. This will allow us to carry both C and name-to-be-determined when she/he arrives in a month or so. We put it through its paces at Clandon Park - another National Trust house and grounds. Here's C peeking through the hedgerow. Lastly, C is just over 36 and half inches tall.

We met Nate at Heathrow on Friday- he had a layover over lunch. C really enjoyed catching up with "Uncle Nate From Vienna". As an International Relations major, we took him to Runnymede- home of the Magna Carta- see our last installment about this bit of Americana. Later in the day, we did a bit of "Like Father, Like Son" (some of us kept on clothes on).

Tonight was historic. And Grandpa Wigan was here to witness it. C had a standard evening with bath, story and singing with Grandpa. Then up to bed at 8pm. Bella, Michael and I then sat down for dinner outside in the garden. Well, C decided to join us 15 minutes later, getting out of bed, coming downstairs, and walking outside. Truly, a first for leaving his room after lights out. And there were tears as he was taken back up to bed. And here's a left over picture from this past weekends' barbecue.

It is a bank holiday today, so we had a spontaneous barbecue yesterday. Putting to use the Weber kettle from my birthday , we cooked chicken, lamb, burgers and sausages. And topped it all off by toasting marshmallows! We had 10 adults and 5 kids running around. Unfortunately, we don't have any good pictures.

We stumbled on the Kent Hop Farm on Saturday- a county fair type event (slightly disappointing for Dad because there were no interesting beers in the biggest hop growing region of the UK). Never the less, C found plenty to interest himself- diggers, horses, playgrounds, tractors, etc.