Week 6

Wow - 6 weeks. So long and yet not quite 1/2 way through. This week we are finally feeling like our much awaited company is getting closer to arriving. KK will be coming for about 2 weeks beginning next Wednesday. We are so excited to see her and have someone else here. We have really been missing our family - we are a REALLY close family. So it's hard to not see everyone so much. And lucky for her - we had the exterminator come back this week - twice! Both the mice and the carpet beetles are under full attack and should be gone shortly. The Exterminator said how unusual it was - or seemingly unheard of as he made it sound - that we had so many beetles in so many room, yet no carpet. He was confused as to what they could be feeding on. Said he'd never seen it before. Sigh...why would I be the slightest bit surprised?
We had a pretty laid back week. We were going to join a second play group on Monday, but the forecast called for rain all day and Mom didn't want to walk over a mile there and get stuck in the rain, so we opted out. We went to the park a couple of days and we went back to playgroup on Thursday. Allie is now with us 3 nights a week since Steve almost always works until 8. She and I have settled into a routine for dinner baths and bed. Pretty much It's still me doing everything and her checking her text messages, but an extra body is still a help, so I won't complain. Friday we were going to try to meet a new mom's group at the park. We got there about 10 minutes early and instead of finding the group, we met another Ex-pat mom with 2 girls ages 1 and 3. She was very friendly and shared their sand toys with us. We played for about an hour and a half then she asked if we ever wanted to play again. I'll probably call her this week and set up a time. Nice to finally have someone we can get together and play with.

We left there and headed to the fountain to enjoy the 80 degree weather (and lets be honest...to wash off the sand). After 25 minutes there, we headed home for lunch and naps. It was a very successful day.
We are getting to the point now on the weekends where we have seen mostly all of the London tourist sights and are having to look a little harder for things to do. We headed to St. Paul's Cathedral Saturday morning. It was beautiful, but I was disappointed at the no photos policy. I look forward to taking pics to share with you all back home. I did snap one "illegal" photo while I was feeding the baby. Shhhhh...don't tell. Steve and Cade actually walked all the way to the top of this dome. You can't even see the balcony, but it's above the windows, around the very highest center point. He said it was quite the walk. The spiral staircase was apparently very very narrow and the ceiling very low. At one point we heard someone yell "he's lost a shoe" and sure enough, Cade's shoe had come off and tumbled down the stairs. Thank goodness the kind people passed it up to him...does this sound familiar to anyone??? Ski...ski lift? Anyone???
After the cathedral, we walked another 1-2 miles to Covent garden. This place is a mad house on the weekends. We found a pub and at lunch outside - enjoying the people watching. After lunch, we hit the transport museum and learned all about the development of the public transport system in London from 1800 - now.

Sunday we did out usual breakfast at Costa and then headed to Hyde Park again. We got to see up close and personal two of the helicopters arriving and then leaving again from Kensington palace. It was a lot of fun for Cade (and I think Dad too). Then we spend a few minutes exploring the pirate ship at the playground.

Next we walked to the Serpentine and the "big boys" took a paddle boat out. Unfortunately, Cole was too young to go, so he and I stayed behind.

Finally, we grabbed a picnic lunch and went back to the memorial fountain, Cade loves this place. I think he could play there all day every day.

And once again, I want to post some pics of CoCo just to show he's actually here...he doesn't seem to be part of the action most of the time and since he's usually stuck with me (behind the camera), he doesn't get as many pics. But nonetheless, he's enjoying himself immensely - especially if his brother is around. He's getting cuter and cuter (if that's possible) and I just love getting close ups of that little face.