theparkerfamily.org

Month: January 2011

  • photo of the month: january

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    camera dump: january

  • “hey, can you teach me how to fleece a bag, too?”

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  • treatment

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    today was treatment no. 2 for sparklet’s port wine stain — and this one not only seems to have taken hold a bit better, but was a bit less traumatic to boot.

    of course, we get another two weeks of people looking at us like we beat our children, but it’s a small price to pay for dermatological happiness.

    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    horsing around

  • boxes, part two

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    we’re up to fifty-two boxes packed now — which is pretty impressive considering i had the flu for four days over last weekend and the lady sparkler just got back from three days in san francisco.

    well, if anybody had any doubts — it looks like we’re really putting our place on the market.

  • more

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    baby sparklet still isn’t speaking, but she’s starting to get the idea of sign-language.

    we started teaching her after aunt holly made the suggestion over christmas. so far she’s got “more”, “all done” and “juice” — that’s “more” in the photo as she’s looking for mommy to toss her upside down again.

    we are also just about ready to call sparklet’s second word: she barks something that approximates “up” whenever she’s wants you to bend over and pick her up.

    she’s nothing if not monosyllabic.

  • out: take your daddy to work day

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    photo of the week // fifteen months
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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    take your daddy to work day

  • walking home

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    sparklet insisted on walking home, tonight — and she made it all four blocks from the car back to the apartment. my back and i have never been so proud.

  • out: national building museum

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    national building museum with aunt melissa, washington, dc

  • goob

    we’ll, we’ve been bouncing around a little bit with nicknames for sparklet — not that we’re giving up on sparklet for external marketing purposes, but it’s a little harsh/abrupt/awkward to use in daily life.

    for now, we’ve settled on some variation on the word “goober” — including goob, goober bear, and goober nut. (it’s important to be nimble.)

    now, on the surface, i can see how this might sound odd, but in our defense the the urban dictionary — one of the least polite chroniclers of slang on our fine planet — defines goober as:

    a goober is just a kindhearted, rather oblivious goofball. it’s term of endearment really. it comes from the ancient scottish verb “to goub”, which has to do with doing a dance and smiling sheepishly while doing so, exposing the goubs in one’s teeth.

    so, it’s actually kind of appropriate.

    i wish i knew exactly how “goober” worked its way into our collective vernacular — i have a feeling it was because we were calling her doofus during her “running into walls” phase and decided we should shoot for something a bit more charitable.

    either way, the nickname was cemented about six months ago when we first watch disney’s meet the robinsons — one of the two lead characters’ nicknames is goob, and he has that sort of sheepish, lovable quality that we see in sparklet at this age.

    of course, he also turns out to be the arch-villain of the story, but that’s for another time.

  • sixteen boxes down

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    we’ve been packing.

    the lady sparkler’s parents were here this weekend, which has meant a happy and distracted baby/baby mommy, which has allowed me to start the long process of fixing/packing casa de sparkler up for sale.

    art is off the wall, books are off the shelves, breakables are off the flat surfaces. and i’m starting to work through all those little projects i’ve been putting off for the last three years.

    first observation: each and every project takes two to four times longer with a child. i have no idea where exactly the time gets sucked too — it’s not like i’ve been the one looking after her while i’ve been operating the power tools — but i’m going to officially posit it as a law of physics.

    second observation: we have a lot of crap.

  • found: somebody who is having a day worse than mine

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  • guestbook: grandparents

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    guestbook: grandparents

  • out: talimo’s first birthday

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: talimo’s first birthday

  • good news/bad news

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    sparklet had her 15 month checkup today, and the good news is that she’s still growing like a weed at 28 lbs (97th percentile) and 33 inches tall (off the chart).

    the bad news is that she’s got some kind of an ear infection, which means that she’ll get her first ever dosing of antibiotics. she’s not contagious, according to the doctor, which is a darn fine thing considering her bff’s birthday is tomorrow.

    i see lots of Plaza Sésamo and Fraggle Rock in her future.

    UPDATE: sparklet no-likey the antibiotics. well, actually, she loves taking them — they just don’t stay down for long. i wonder how long this cycle of futility is going to last.

    UPDATE #2: we think it started off as an ear infection, and then became the flu — namely because i got the flu about three days later.

  • color correction

    our real estate agent came through tonight and picked out new wall colors that he said would help our place move more quickly.

    ever since we painted our very first room, the lady sparkler and i have known that we’d have to repaint all of our wall colors when we moved out — but it didn’t make the new (rather dull) color selections sting any less.

    Living Room
    before: after:

    Grape Green (Behr)
    Reticence (Sherman Williams)

    Master Bedroom
    before: after:

    Ruby Ring (Behr)
    Soft Tan (Sherman Williams)

    Nursary
    before: after:

    Acorn Squash (Olympic)
    Hubbard Squash (Sherman Williams)

    Bathroom
    before: after:

    Warm Spring (Behr)
    Caen Stone (Sherman Williams)

    Kitchen
    before: after:

    Cerise (Olympic)
    Sand Trap (Sherman Williams)

    Foyer
    before: after:

    Porpoise (Behr)
    Reticence (Sherman Williams)

    if i ever needed confirmation that i’m nothing like the rest of the kids on the playground, this did the trick.

  • mount pleasant-er

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    we might be in the market for a house.

    we’re not moving — at least, not moving out of mount pleasant — but there are a couple things going on that make us (er, the lady sparkler) think that it could be time to upgrade.

    • interest rates are down 2+ percentage points from when we signed a last mortgage. when you add that savings to what we pay each month in condo association fees, we can have about a 50% larger place without paying a dime extra per month.
    • we were planning on moving in the next 2 to 3 years anyway, and *man* our place seems a lot smaller than it did, saaaay 16 months ago.
    • the market has stabilized enough that we’re sure we can get all our money out of our current place.
    • the economy is starting to show signs of life again, which means that housing prices only have one direction to go (and that would be “up”).

    that said, if we can’t find a nice little fixer-upper row house in mount pleasant that we can afford now, we’ll just stay put until we’re on the other side of our daycare payments.

    we love our neighborhood, and haven’t given up on the idea that we can raise baby sparklet here. we love our friends, we love our nanny. we love the fact that our vote for federal office is basically meaningless (wait, scratch that last one).

    and, besides, there aren’t a lot of other options …

    within D.C., we certainly wouldn’t move east of 16th street (too speculative), nor south or west of mount pleasant (we couldn’t afford it), and there really isn’t much in D.C. that’s north of us (all residential, little commerce, reduced transit).

    outside of D.C., we have the same problems we’ve always had: new england and chicago are too cold (for my beloved); texas is utterly without seasons (for me); the pacific northwest is really far away and people there actually slow down at yellow lights (the latter is a “third rail” for the lady sparkler).

    and besides, we all know how much my beloved likes change.

  • video: strollering

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL6y1sPQNVI

  • ohthankgod

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    our washer/dryer came today, ending a 44 day drought (not that we were counting). if this isn’t the absolute happiest day of our collective lives, it’s darn near close to the top.

  • video: dancing

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGNR8cLIafE

  • theater: true grit

    over christmas, the lady sparkler and i went to our first movie together in the last 15 months.

    and by “together” i mean that she decided to stay home and sleep, and i went to see “true grit” with my father and brother instead.

    and by “went to see” i mean that my brother is a fancy pants movie reviewer (examiner.com, twitter, radio show) and so i tagged along when he and my father decided to go.

    i’ll stay quiet on my own thoughts because my brother’s review is better, and heck friend/slash/literary illuminati robert lalasz’s review is better, too.

    but, i overall i’d give the movie three kumquats and a banana — it was better than Cats!

  • “i hear the pope wears a cereal bowl, too.”

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  • found: danger!

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: simon and dani’s birthday party, bowl america, falls church, va

  • out: tricycle in lamont park

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: tricycle in lamont park, mount pleasant, washington, dc

  • sleeping beauty

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    shhh … it’s 8:44 am and sparklet is still asleep.

    she’s been snoozing much better since we started the last round of sleep training — which we sorta had to do after a month of sleeping with her in our room (houston, costa rica, williamsburg) because the putting-her-down process was getting dreadfully long.

    so, starting about four days ago, we’ve been giving her a bottle, reading with her, saying good night, and then walking out when the bottle ran out (with a mandatory smooch on the noggin’, natch).

    we won’t talk about the first night, but by last night we had just four minutes of fussing before she settled down and put herself to bed.

    it’s pretty incredible how quickly babies adapt.*

    * = don’t try this at home. results not typical. professional driver on a closed course. before attempting sleep training, please check with your doctor about possible side effects (on you, not the baby) from sleep training. the author assumes no responsibility for, well, anything.

  • help

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    most of these pictures can stand without commentary, but there is a story around the last.

    today, i got home from work with sparklet under one arm and three packages under the other. i tossed my keys on the hall table, the packages on the couch and then dropped sparklet down on the floor.

    she immediately ran over to the hallway, grabbed my keys off the table, ran back to the couch, and started trying to saw the tape open on the box — just like she had seen daddy do with packages all December long.

    kinda make ya proud, doesn’t it?

  • excessive laundry

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b_D9DUG7SY

    about a month ago, our washing machine went kaput — and decided to flood the unit below ours.

    oops.

    the guy who lives there came up and told us, and was pretty chill about the whole thing.

    “oh, the last time this happened …”

    huh?

    turns out the previous owners of our unit flooded his apartment … as did the owners before them. actually, one of them did it twice, apparently.

    and, when we i pulled the washing machine out from the closet to see what the heck was going on, there was a half inch gap between the wall and the floor — so any time water splashed out of our machine, it went right through to the ceiling of his unit.

    so, i spent last weekend patching the open space — wood, plaster, caulk — and spent this weekend painting everything up nice and spiffy.

    and, while the lady sparkler was buying us new laundry equipment to complete the mini-renovation, baby sparklet was discovering the joy of automatic doors (see video, above).

    priceless.

  • holiday card 2010

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    dear friends,

    it’s been a crazy year, with hundreds of moments strung together into wonderful whole — and it was our friends and family that have bound the year together for us.

    it’s you who’ve given us the framework for our joy and we want to say thanks before we get too far outside the window of sentimentality that the holiday season provides.

    and so, may the very best of the season be with you this new year. may you experience in your life the joy, love and peace that you have brought to ours.

    with much love,
    tasha, evan and kate parker

    See Greeting Card on Pingg:
    holiday card 2010

  • happy new year!

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    sometime, ask me how much i love my wife — and the talimos. amen.