Law, Partially

As Bob was just beginning his thirteenth month, he, along with Mum and Dad, took his thirteenth flight. Long flights in coach, especially on a U.S. airline, are getting worse and worse, and bringing a baby aboard does not make them better. While not all of the flights were pleasant, recalling the flights and travels from his first year give his parents markers by which to measure our progress: Bobby's in growing up and his parents' in learning to parent. Bobby, it seems, was destined to be a flyer. Mum and Dad took several international trips in 2016 expecting that we'd take less once the baby came. That expectation (perhaps like many of our expectations of parenting?) of course ended up being wrong. We realized Christine was pregnant while in Singapore in January, then we headed to Taipei and Seoul; in April we went to Korea (again) and Paris for the French Open; in June we visited Door County, Wisconsin, and in July Washington DC. Bobby, here you are in Paris....

You may expect these London residents to take vacations in Europe. Some of us have not explored much of Colorado before, and we were going there anyway for Molly's Keystone wedding extravaganza. Molly had three days of festivities planned, and the FD Linges turned the trip into an eight day road trip from the southwest of Colorado to the center. There will be plenty of time for -- and there will be many -- European vacations. But, first, Colorado. We flew from London to Dallas to Durango (Bobby's tenth and eleventh flights). Going through immigration in Dallas was a surprisingly painless experience. In Chicago we wait in much longer lines and always get harassed because Christine's immigration documents are out of date because the US government can't be bothered to update them (so we have government agents mad at us for suffering from government inefficiency -- pretty much sums up federal government logic). Durango is an old mining town on a plateau in southwestern ...

We are pretty much the stereotypical post-War American nuclear family. Except that we're of mixed races, and we don't live in the suburbs, or in the US at that. But Dad goes to work while Mum stays home with Babe. So let's just describe a bit the intersecting lives of our wholesome, transplanted, nuclear family. The FD Linges on Fleet Street, near to Dad's main worktime Starbucks. Notice St. Paul's in the background. It's funny, when I was younger I thought I could one day work on Fleet Street since it is the historical center of the UK publishing industry. I didn't make it here as a journalist, though. Mum's story Mum, the Tiger Mum, is working with Bobby on building his problem solving, motor skills, patience while reading books (he doesn't have much patience yet...), bilingualism, and generally following some lessons written by Montessori teachers. We have a small selection of toys for Bobby to play with. And generally a large part of hi...

Amsterdam, you may recall from your years as an undergraduate "studying" abroad in Europe, is a city famous for hookers in windows and coffee shops that sell marijuana but rarely coffee. Amsterdam, you may also recall from your European history classes, was at one time the richest city in the world. In Amsterdam, merchants relied on financial innovations like insurance and the world's first stock exchange to finance sea adventures to Asia and the Americas for spices, porcelain, silver, beaver pelts, gold, et cetera. Remembering the Golden Age of Amsterdam, viewing Rembrandt's Night Watch  at the Rijksmuseum ,  as the afternoon grew longer and Bobby increasingly longed for a nap. Another family photo with a tired baby. Random canal in the background. The canal may be Prinsengracht. Another way to view Amsterdam is as a modern European metropolis with a high standard of living. Loving the modern Amsterdam lifestyle, my sister and her husband make at least...