Flashback: Hayes House #2

August 8-9 * Richmond, Indiana.

After settling in at the Arb we were visited by dear old friends, Bill, Derek & Becky. You can see the Hayes House up there at the top of the hill.

The girls joined us at the fountain where they got themselves quite wet and where Bill and Derek caught up on their monument reading. Becky seems to have taken a more reasonable vantage point.


I'm not so sure what was so funny, but that may only mean that whatever it was came at my expense.

By the way, Kaela did get to hit the renowned Arboretum Badminton circuit in the end.


And as promised, we have a Video of Samuel Waking up in our bedroom there. It kind of goes on and on, so if you have somewhere else to be in the near future, keep that in mind.

As always, if you have trouble playing the video let us know. Special thanks to Diana Krall, who stopped in to help us out with this one.


Samuel's Travel Log Update
Richomnd, IN -> Boston, MA (925 miles • 1492 kms)
August 11th Totals: (60 days) 2375 miles, 40m/day • 3830 kms, 64 km/tag

Flashback: Hayes House #1

August 6-7 * Richmond, Indiana.

So here's the first in a two-part entry on this summer's visit to the Hayes Regional Arboretum. The grandpa of Samuel's Grandpa Ed started a park to preserve and protect the local forest. Today it has become the 466 acre (about two km^2) arboretum. You see here our very comfortable digs right in the middle of all of those wonderful plants and trees: the beautiful Hayes House:

Here are two shots courtesy of Tom, including Samuel's Cousin Kaela in the living room waiting for the rain to quit so she can get back to badminton on the front lawn.


Here's a VIDEO of the family at the Arboretum

That's Chris at the piano there. And here are some pics of the rest of the crowd (Cousin Celina, Uncle Tom, Grandma Betsy and Grandpa Ed) with a two-month old Samuel:



Next flashback, a visit at the arb from a few friends and another video.

Samuel's Travel Log Update
Mt. Vernon, OH -> Richmond, IN (155 miles • 250 kms)
August 6th Totals: (55 days) 1450 miles • 2349 kms

Chat Room

Chatting with Samuel is more and more engaging these days. If you want to hear for yourself you can CLICK HERE and get a bit of Samuel discussing going to the post office with his mom... or maybe he was discussing the proper way to integrate paprika into mexican cuisine... (it's a lot of the same vocabulary at this point). Here are some shots of the conversant youngster:


(People in this family should stop taking pictures of the top of Dad's head, but anyway...)

Samuel is also becoming more ticklish.



In the end Samuel became a bit more contemplative and then started pulling out old Shakespearian insults: "I bite my thumb at you, Sir." (He's on a Romeo and Juliet kick these days. Kids!)

Bam bam

Hi all. Here's a quick post:

We wanted to say a quick hello and Samuel wanted to show off his new boxing moves. And yes, he always boxes from a seated position. It's not really clear why...

What is more clear is that we'll be on to the family trip to the Hayes Arboretum next time.

In the meantime here's a little lullaby from Samuel to hold you over.

Well...a lullaby or a yawn. Maybe a short lullaby.

Checking in at 4 months

In the middle of our little retrospective on this past summer we thought we'd mention that things are starting to settle in here in Cambridge. Karola is now in her teaching routine, Peter is now in his writing routine, and Samuel is in his Samuel routine. For instance, here he is, having just had a piano lesson from Hans Tutschku. As you can see Hans's unusual method of playing with your feet works well for Samuel.

And then here he is getting his first Harvard coffee with Hans and Hillary. As you can see he has the manners to set his paper hat down while we're at the table.


Well, Samuel had his check in with the pediatrician today. Nothing says, "Congrats on 4 months!" like a couple of shots in your thigh, huh? Anyway, his specs came back as 66cm (26 inches) and 6.5 kg (14.3 lbs). Or, translated into grown-human terms: About as tall as a tennis racquet and quite a bit fatter than one.

Flashback: August 1-5

So following the party in Louisville at the end of July we journeyed back to P's other hometown, Mt.Vernon, OH to meet Samuel's cousins Kaela (age 9) and Celina (age 12)


Uncle Chris and of course Great-Grandpa Bert

As you can see Samuel had a good time!

We had lots of food and parties to welcome Karola to the family and Samuel to the world. Grandma Betsy baked cakes which went over big.


In fact in the end there was quite a lot of great food, which ultimately generated quite a few dirty dishes...bravely enter Grandpa Ed, stage right.

As you can imagine, at the end of all that partying Samuel was ready for a good nap.
[Photo credits to Uncle Tom Hayes for the good ones]


Samuel's Travel Log Update
Louisville, KY -> Mt. Vernon, OH (260 miles • 419 kms)
August 1st Totals: (50 days) 1295 miles • 2089 kms

Back in Boston

Hello All,
We had a nice long flight home (via Milano, IT). Samuel wasn't totally crazy about sitting in a plane seat all day, but he did quite well. He did find the views of the Alps quite scenic, however.


And we had a nice landing back in Boston. Samuel was very popular with everyone, including the Italian pilot.


So, now happily back at home, K&P are trying to get things in order (not pictured below). Samuel, meanwhile is happy to be not on a plane so that he can properly explore his toys (ahem..pictured below).

Mirror, mirror, in my basinette...

Thanks for sticking with us during our spotty blogging. We'll be back with another summer retrospective very soon.