theparkerfamily.org

Month: May 2010

  • your seat isn’t bolted to the floor

    []
    well, koons screwed up again … they had told us that our plates and registration would be mailed to us, only to find out that a “new” law (effective 2002) requires us to get the car inspected first.

    their incompetence doesn’t leave us with much time to dilly-dally — our temporary plates expire in two days — so i got to spend an otherwise glorious saturday afternoon at the dmv.

    favorite part: while i was waiting in the dmv office, a woman came in and started screaming at the guy behind the desk.

    woman: “i don’t understand why you won’t inspect my car!”

    manager: “ma’am, your seat isn’t bolted to the floor. whoever gets behind that wheel is going to get hurt as soon as they have to use the brakes. we can’t be liable for that.”

    woman: “brakes? but i don’t drive the car *that* often.”

    all of a sudden, the manager was *very* interested in helping me with my situation.

    turns out that hybrids don’t have most of the usual “stuff” that emits (catalytic converters, gas vapor recovery systems) so there isn’t a need to check to see if it’s working.

    the manager took as much time as he humanly possibly could explaining all this to me, glancing every couple of seconds to see if angry lady had left yet.

    then, he handed me an emissions sticker that doesn’t expire until 2017.

    woman: “2017?!? must be nice to not have to see these @#&%$ for that long.”

    or, you could just bolt your seat to the floor. whichever.

  • firsts: saturday market

    []

    photo of the week // week thirty-one

  • addiction … it’s a cry for help.

    []

  • video: the need to baby proof

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9RAALySsQw

    i think it’s safe to say that baby sparklet is upwardly mobile now.

  • careful the lessons you teach

    []
    not twenty-four hours after i showed sparklet how to play in a fountain — there was a little spraying water feature in the u.s. botanic garden — baby decided to show daddy that she mastered the concept, and could apply it elsewhere.

    elsewhere, of course, being a not-so-amused-emily-the-cat’s drinking fountain.

  • out: children’s garden @ u.s. botanic garden

    []

    photo of the week // week thirty

    took the day off from work to spend a little quality time with baby sparklet. we’ve been out straight between weddings and funerals — not to mention sick — and there was this little nagging voice in the back of my head saying that maybe it was about time for some father-daughter bonding.

    … so of course this is the day that sparklet wakes up early, and then refuses to nap more than 20 minutes at a time the rest of the day.

    she’s been teething since mid-April with one tooth well on it’s way in, and another two or three ready to pop through. of course, this has futzed up both her sleep schedule and her eating schedule, so cute beloved sparklet hasn’t been quite as cute this last little bit.

    dodging rain, not to mention repetitive expressions of “i-should-probably-have-slept-longer,” we went down to the National Mall for most of the day. a little napping in the garden behind the castle, a little tummy time on the grass in front of the Hirschorn, and a little plant destruction in the botanic gardens.

    we’re still working with baby on the basics of “gentle” — a term our cat emily would like her to pick up sooner rather than later — and sparklet just couldn’t seem to touch anything in the garden without destroying it.

    wonder where she gets that from.

    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    out: children’s garden @ u.s. botanic garden

  • “hello, i’m with the bakery inspection service and i’m going to need some free samples.”

    []

  • sarah and kurt’s wedding

    []
    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    sarah and kurt’s wedding

  • firsts: horsie, highchair

    []
    []

    a couple of firsts for baby sparklet while we’re down in historic colonial williamsburg for a friend’s wedding:

    • first horse — she seemed amused, but didn’t really get that it was an animal. i think it was just too big, and didn’t move quickly enough. she probably thought it was a hairy sofa.
    • first high chair — part of growing so rediculously fast is that at six months she’s outgrown her infant car seat, but isn’t old enough to sit-up on her own … so we wedged her in there with a sparkly pillow, natch.

    it probably goes without saying, but for what it’s worth the wedding isn’t a “destination” wedding — the colonial equivalent of a disney wedding package or something. the bride and I both had the great fortune to grow up in Williamsburg, surrounded by the odd million of tourists each season.

    although, the notion of people paying extra to get married in knickers and a bonnet is really to delicious to *not* try and make money off of it.

  • circa de mayo

    []
    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    circa de mayo