Let The River Flow

Zeke went on his first overnight trip! On the way down to London to drop off Granny V we stopped off at Dover. Dover is famous for its White Cliffs and Dover Castle. The castle is very impressive located on top of the cliffs. It was built in the 1180s and is still in tact. They have a lot of Henry VIII's stuff in there. You may or may not remember that Henry is responsible for the Church of England because he wanted to divorce his first wife and the Pope wouldn't let him. There was also a lighthouse built by the Saxons that was 2000 years old and still standing. Pretty impressive masonry. The church next to it was 1000 years old. There was a really old bible sealed under glass that happened to be opened to the book of Ezekiel. He didn't understand why that was cool, but someday he'll appreciate it.

Anyway, the castle grounds are also famous for secret World War II tunnels dug into the cliffs. A whole bunch of soldiers were saved, like 338,000 or something because they were snuck across the chanel from Dunkirk in France into the tunnels. They have a tour of part of the tunnels where you can see the old theatre as they like to call it (we would call it surgery), the kitchen, and command rooms where Churchill made some decisions. They recreated sounds and smells for each room. The tunnels were so secretive the only way the historians could reconstruct it was because some guy illegally took photos and hid them away in his attic; his daughter eventually donated them so they could see how things looked back then.

The White Cliffs of Dover are gorgeous. There is a song about them because the soldiers flying home from war knew they were in the clear when they could see the cliffs. On a clear day you can see France, so we were told.

We were all knackered at the end of the day. Zeke was very happy to get to sleep with Mummy and Daddy all night. I woke at 3 am to hear him sucking his little hands, but he didn't cry. I think he was afraid that if he cried for food that I would realize he wasn't in his own cot and move him, so he decided to suck his hand instead of eat so he wouldn't have to sleep by himself. Such a sweet little boy. He loves his cuddles.

After dropping Granny V off at the airport we drove into London to the American Consulate to report Zeke's birth. We thought we had more than enough time, but the traffic took even longer than we expected--nothing new. We have a satellite navigation system and her voice is called Jane. Jane has treated us right over here, but she has issues with tall buildings. If you know Abe you know he REALLY hates to be late. So we're driving in crazy traffic, getting mixed signals from Jane The Pain--her nickname when she gets confused--and we smell poo in the back. The boy is crying in addition to the poo smell, so at a stoplight I jump in the back to pump some milk to feed him since we won't have time to feed him before the appointment, which is drawing nearer and nearer. I check his pants to make sure he didn't get them dirty because he still needed to get his photo for his passport. Bloody hell! There was a river of potty standing between his leg and the edge of the car seat. I kid you not--there was so much it was just standing there like New Orleans after the levee broke. I tried to do some quick damage control by sticking his burp rag and the only napkins we had in the car between Zeke's leg and the edge of the seat. Earlier that morning I told Abe to remind me to put more wipes in the diaper bag when we got home because we were nearly out...great timing. So we're deciding if we should stop somewhere to buy more wipes and clean him first, or keep driving and get closer to our destination, because we were going to be late for our appointment at the American Consulate of all places. So we decided to keep driving. Jane got us near Big Ben and Parliment. But the buildings down there are really tall, and you remember what I said about tall buildings. Jane began driving us in circles. Not exactly on the roundabout like Chevy Chase, but it was just as frustrating and the minutes kept ticking away. Then we heard it--more poo! For the love of Pete, stop pooping, Boy! The river had broken its dam and was flowing freely. Finally we knew we were close, so I said just find somewhere to park. Finding somewhere to park in downtown London is like trying to find a girl who sleeps with her lizard. As we all know, that's pretty hard to do, but not impossible. We happened to find a spot! Since we didn't have many wipes in the nappie bag, we just took the car seat out and stuck in on the pram (stroller) and began to power walk down the busy streets, dodging and weaving with the buggy full of baby and poo. After asking 2 people, we found the chemists (drugstore) who took proper passport photos. It was now past our appointment time. Abe grabbed a package of wipes and a package of toilet paper. I ripped into it and stripped The Boy of his clothes and tried to get the car seat clean whilst Abe paid for supplies. There was some good people-watching going on, but it was everyone else watching us. Once Zeke was clean and changed, Abe took his photo and I finished working on the pram. As soon as the photo was finished we literally ran out of the shop and down the street to the Consulate. There was a waiting line to get in! Once we got in there was another long waiting line to get to window 1, which was the one we needed. The good part about that was that they didn't care that we were late for our appointment. I don't know about you, but the American Consulate sounds so posh; I thought we would have a sit down and talk to someone at their desk. It was a cruddy old government building with long lines and waiting for your number to be called. But our son is officially an American citizen now! He even has his own passport and social security number. Thank goodness the trip home was much less eventful.