Prince George officially started “big” school today at Thomas’s Battersea. He was dropped off this morning by his father, the Duke of Cambridge, who drove and walked him to meet his teacher, holding on to his backpack already inscribed with “George Cambridge.” William apparently stayed around 40 minutes, before returning to Kensington Palace.
While no doubt disappointing not to see the Duchess of Cambridge (and I’m sure devastating to her to miss out on such a momentous occasion), getting to see William and George one-on-one was pretty adorable. George looked a bit nervous and was shy when he caught sight of the cameras, but he did very well and shook his teacher’s hand before going through the doors. I would sum up almost every expression with, “I’m not sure about this.”
Apparently students starting today had a half-day, which I’m sure made it all little less daunting for both the kids and their parents.
The Cambridges also released an official portrait of William and George standing on the steps of KP, mirroring a photo no doubt familiar to most families who have seen a child off to school. (In mine I am wearing a purple corduroy dress and rainbow sandals, so do with that what you will.)
It was reported last night by Daily Mail reporter Rebecca English that Kate was unlikely to be able to attend. She was forced to pull out of two engagements on Monday and Tuesday due to the severity of her HG, prompting the Palace announcement that she and William are expecting their third child. It’s unlikely that we’ll see her in public for the next several weeks.
Earlier this week, when asked about Kate and the pregnancy, William responded: “We need Catherine to get over this first bit and then we can start celebrating. It’s always a bit anxious to start with, but she’s well.”
In some outlets, I’ve seen this reported as “we can start to celebrate next week,” which many have taken as next week hitting the 12-week mark, indicating that Kate may have been pregnant since June. I’m not so sure about that – for one, I’ve mainly seen the first quote and secondly, nowhere does William explicitly say that “next week” hits any sort of milestone.
Given when Kate was forced to announce her first two pregnancies, I have a feeling this third one will follow the same pattern and she’s actually a few weeks earlier in her pregnancy. Strong evidence to support that would be the fact that Kate was drinking alcohol while in Germany and Poland and it’s highly doubtful she would have been doing so if she was already a few weeks pregnant. My guess is this baby is due end of April/early May as originally reported.
As for George’s grandparents, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, they were photographed dancing and it’s lovely enough I’m including it below. It’s been a busy week for royal engagements so we’ll cover off on some of the latest news over the weekend.