Samuel through Week #2

Here is a shot of Samuel in his new playspace courtesy of the Rohweins. In addition to being very visually stimulating for S, it is a great place to work on coordination. He has already begun working on hitting and kicking hanging objects. Below P seems to be concerned that these new found abilities will now be practiced upon Papa as well. In any case, we get a look at him in an outfit that originally belonged to his mother. Not that that was SO long ago...


But then there is the more of the meditative side of Mr. Obermüller. Samuel actually means (roughly) "Knowledge of the Divine."

For those who (1) are interested in seeing Samuel's conducting powers, and (2) have a faster internet connection than we do, here are two short videos of him directing some renaissance choral music: Video 1 • Video 2. Tenors, late. Altos, you're sharp. Basses, flat. Sopranos... oh nevermind.

[By the way, both video links work now]

Grandma Power

The news of the day is that Samuel had a good first pediatric visit, by which I mean he peed all over the doctor's office. Obviously the boy has a gift for the theatrical.

It's been mentioned before, but we three have been the beneficiaries of great help from Samuel's two Grandmas/Omas. S likes to spend these days hanging out with his families' matriarchs who always manage to calm him down. Sometimes they help calm down the slightly larger klümpchen around this house too.


Grandma Betsy drove 750 miles/1200 km to look after her grandson.


Oma Barbara flew 3700 miles/5900 km to look after her Enkel.


Sadly for us the Omas are departing this weekend. But we certainly wouldn't have gotten through these first days without them. We will undoubtedly remember them in their late night red-wine carousing at our kitchen table.

Father's Day.

Well, what more could a dad ask for than to have his child home? Today was our first full day at home with Samuel on this side of his mom's belly. We arrived Sat. night and were very happy to settle down in our new place. It should be said, however, that midwives, nurses and doctors at Mt.Auburn were extraordinarily kind, generous and helpful to us all throughout our time there.

Anyway, for those who've been asking for more Samuel photos, here's some from our comfortable room on the Charles River [you should be able to get to a slightly bigger version online at my site by clicking on it].

Sam, as you can see, stayed pretty well wrapped up. This is my favorite shot of "Burrito Boy" in his little portable crib / large baby-sized tuperware container:

Out with the old. Kitchen Edition.

The good news of June 15th was that with the extraordinary help of Grandma Betsy we were able to finish our lives at 53 Oak St. I’d like to post an homage photo to our old beautiful Somerville kitchen, which, full of its loving light, was a great source of joy in our lives. Thanks, Kitchen, for all the memories.

Welcome Samuel

We would like to welcome Samuel Gilbert Obermüller (no hyphen) to the family.

He joined us on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 10:07am. He came out a light little guy (6 pounds and half an ounce) but a good 20 inches long (51 cms). He sends his love to all of you via funny little noises. Mother and son are in very good health and are currently napping after a nice lunch.

Here is Samuel's visual diary from Day One:

Waiting for Godot

Well we're getting close, and waiting.

But first of all many thanks to Gundela, Chris, Giacomo & Philip who made our move possible. They moved all kinds of heavy stuff and convinced us that we needed to upgrade from a couch to a futon (resulting in not having to bring the couch up to the third floor...wait a minute...I think I'm beginning to realize what their motivations were).

Second many thanks to Oma Barbara whose tireless efforts around here have 1) made things go much faster, 2) has made things much cleaner, and 3) has kept us eating well. We've been hard at work doing the finishing up, cleaning at the old place and beginning to arrange things here at the new address.

Speaking of which, the new address is:
Peter Gilbert & Karola Obermüller
56 Norfolk St. #6
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
(617) 661-0373

The phone number is new but will not be working until at least Monday. My cell remains (617) 869-3211.

***

The exciting news today is that we're in early labor. Actually, we've been there for a while now and are in a wait-and-see mode until contractions escalate. The apartment is quiet, Karola is doing very well (and doing beautifully) and has been able to sleep in between contractions for some stretches. Things started in the middle of the night last night, so sleep is precious...I guess it was going to be anyway! Here she is seen to wiggle her toes, which, I understand, is a very promising sign..of something. In any case, we will hopefully update next time with the news that everyone is hoping for.

Speeding Along

So we've been away for a few days getting things packed up and shipped over to the new place. The move is making tremendous progress. Practically light speed. Almost done. Truly.


Actually we're doing alright. K is progressing well in operatic endeavors, and Grandma/Oma Barbara has been an invaluable partner in moving. We've been going over by the carload, which is actually a nice relaxed way to do it. And completely impractical, in all likelihood. We will be assembling a crew for Wednesday afternoon to get the big stuff over. We told everyone it's a lunch party.


As you can see from a shot of the street, today the setback was a considerable amount of rain, which brought out the friendly snail pictured above - I photographed her passing me on the sidewalk as I carried up a box.

K's chamber orchestra piece Helical will be played in NYC tomorrow. But with a potential for water breaking spontaneously en route, it ultimately seemed like a pleasure best enjoyed remotely -- for us, at least. In truth, there have been no contractions to speak of so far with the giant egg timer down to about 10 days. In other words our lords aren't quite a-leaping [für die Deutschen/nicht-Amerikaner: das ist Ein blödes Weihnachts-Lied].