theparkerfamily.org

Month: May 2012

  • thunder

    []
    sparklet is no longer sleeping through the night. tonight, it’s all about the enormous summer storm that passed through about 15 minutes after bedtime — waking her up 5 times in 45 minutes.

    but, some of the bloom has come off the normal sleeping rose, too, with more-than-occasional wake ups at 2:00am and then a very “helpful” young girl hoping to help with the 5 a.m. feeding.

    thank you sweetie, but we’ve got this. really.

  • swing

    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    swing

  • children’s

    []
    i just realized how biased my view of children’s hospitals is.

    i neglected to mention it at the time, but at our last check-up mommy pointed out to our pediatrician that the mighty quinn’s head was still a little mis-shapen from delivery. the doctor said that she was sure there wasn’t anything wrong, but we should schedule an appointment at Children’s National Medical Center here in D.C. just to be sure.

    i didn’t realize how nervous i was, until i got there. then i realized the only time i’ve every really seen a children’s hospital — with the aggressively saturated colors, and overly playful decorations — was when watching a horrible (or miraculous) medical wonder story on extreme makeover home edition.

    as a result, i’ve decided that i’m not a big fan.

    thankfully, it turns out that everything is perfectly fine. the mighty quinn’s head is well within the medical definition of normal for this point in his life, and there was no evidence of brain or cranial problem.

    thankfully.

  • guestbook: anne

    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    guestbook: anne

  • found: party of three

    []

  • the layoff

    []
    the number one rule of blogging is don’t apologize — not for posting too much, not for posting too little, not for posting “stupid” posts, and not for a long break in between posts.

    no matter what you think you’ve done wrong, chances are (a) people aren’t paying close enough attention to have noticed, and (b) you are being way too self important if you think they care.

    that said, holy crap it’s been a long time since i’ve updated this blogthing.

    seven weeks. 1,689 photos. 45 minutes of video. 9 extra lbs of baby. 441 diapers. but, i think we are starting to come through the other side of the madness.

    the mighty quinn is getting up to 6 hours of sleep at a shot, and — as we have more time for her — sparklet’s terrible twos are receding just a little bit. kinda. sorta.

    so, no apologies for the lack of posting because you probably didn’t notice, and — if you did — i just wrote (and backdated) 76 posts for posterity (and you) in the space of 18 hours.

    that was penance enough.

  • found: weekend

    []
    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    the weekend that was

  • found: no running

    []

  • the pool

    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    the pool, silver spring, maryland

  • guestbook: maya and babs

    []
    []
    []
    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    maya and babs

  • happy birthday, mommy!

    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    happy birthday, mommy!

  • video: dolphin noises

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePsvNS8-ygc

  • rainstorm

    []
    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    rainstorm

  • messaging for machine — or man?

    We spend a good part of our time at Brodeur helping clients figure out their messaging.

    Man vs MachineWhat are the key messages your audience needs to hear?

    What words, metaphors and images should you use to convey them?

    How do you structure your story so that it is relevant to the people you are talking to?

    Continue Reading on Brodeur.com »

  • rita’s birthday

    []
    []
    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    rita’s birthday

  • buddies

    []
    []
    [el español caliente]
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    buddies

  • found: uncle mo

    []

  • video: feeding

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

  • video: pushing, pulling

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1Z86UL2GP8

  • bancroft fair

    []
    [talimo]
    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    bancroft fair

  • sparklet

    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    sparklet

  • found: big sister

    []

  • oops

    []
    went up to boston on wednesday for a couple of things, one of them was a new business pitch for a firm that was looking for some digital accument and expertise.

    we prepared a great deck, and had a great pitch, and i promptly left my keys in their conference room and flew home to D.C. before i discovered it.

    what better way to say you’ve got your !@#$ together than by calling them the next day and asking them to send you your keys.

    the worst part is that there was a mix up on the timing of my flight home. i had told sparklet that i’d be home in time to say good night, but turned out i was actually on the 8pm flight that gets into DC at 9:30pm — way to late for her to stay up.

    i showed up to the airport two hours early, got on an much earlier flight, and made it home in time — to walk up to my car and not be able to get into it.

    thank god for cabs — even if it meant i got to spend 2 hours on Saturday trekking back down to the airport to pick up my car.

    oops.

  • found: facetime

    []
    Goodnight, from Boston, Massachusetts.

  • trip #11: boston, ma.

    [Built in 1713, served as the Colonial Seat for Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first State House, and a short stint as Boston City Hall.]

  • out: don juan’s

    []
    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: don juan’s

  • the mighty quinn

    []
    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    mighty quinn

  • grandparents

    []
    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    grandparents

  • mother’s day

    []
    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    mother’s day

  • pool bubbles

    []
    [talimo]
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    pool bubbles

  • back porch

    []
    []
    []
    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    back porch

  • guestbook: chrissy marie

    []
    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    chrissy marie

  • found: twinsies

    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    found: twinsies

  • after dinner

    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    after dinner

  • nanny share

    []
    [el español caliente]
    []
    it looks like our nanny share is winding down — sparklet’s boyfriend is going off to school in the fall, and is going to be gone on summer vacation for much of June. and, obviously, the mighty quinn is going to need some care once mommy goes back to work.

    so, we’ll keep going for a couple more months, and then just take over the “share” full time for now. by the time spring rolls around in 2013, we’ll have a better idea of what the future looks like — we’ll know what school sparklet will be attending the following fall, and quinney will be getting close to a year old.

    then, we’ll think about taking on another family. but, for now, it’ll just be sparklet, quinney and maria — which seems like it will work out just fine.

    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    nanny share

  • out: bancroft playground

    [el español caliente]
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: bancroft playground

  • raining

    []
    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    raining

  • the tree

    []
    our back yard is dominated by a large, but sickly looking maple. it hasn’t been well maintained, a second trunk has grown out of the base at almost a 60 degree angle, and the whole thing is within 4 feet of the retaining wall that keeps our back yard out of the alley.

    the tree is actually on the opposite side of the fence with our neighbor, but it turns out that it’s actually (mostly) in our yard which is irritating on two fronts — we have to chip in on maintaining the tree, and we really need to replace our fence considering it was built about 8 to 12 inches on our side of the property line.

    fortunately we love our neighbor(s) so it’s all good.

    last week, we decided to take the tree down, so that it doesn’t fall over and doesn’t push down our retaining wall. we had an arborist come out, and he said it’s just under the size (55 inches in girth) where a permit would be required.

    when he started actually cutting the tree, however, another neighbor — not on our street, but on the other side of our back alley — came out screaming.

    neither the lady sparkler or i were there for the exchange, but the general gist was that she (strongly) believed we needed a permit, and even if we had one, we should let the tree live, let the retaining wall collapse, and then just keep rebuilding everything (wall, yard, fence) as often as necessary to keep the tree alive and well.

    so, the city came out to moderate the dispute, and the tree is right on the cusp of needing a permit (of two measurements, one was above the requirement and one was below) so they’ve asked us to apply for a permit.

    the bureaucracy/paperwork isn’t that big of a deal — if you complete the form, and have a good reason to take the tree down, you can — but the permit cost will triple the price of removing the tree.

    #hippies.

  • the path

    []
    home improvement projects have started back up again — mommy decided that she wanted the planting bed closest to our back patio gone.

    i managed to convince her that digging the entire thing up and replacing it with rocks would be a lot of shoveling, but that she was welcome to do whatever she wanted — oh, and here’s the shovel. within a couple minutes, i had talked her down to just cutting a path in the planter towards the back of the yard.

    it was still a ton of work (i had to move more dirt than i thought we had in the entire yard) but the final product doesn’t look too shabby — and it’s inarguably easier to get around the yard, now.

  • swinging

    []
    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    swinging

  • video: circles

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W3gJGUhvmU

  • video: puzzle

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HrMvhbU_40

  • found: boots

    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    found: boots

  • trip #10: portsmouth, nh

    []

  • found: fluffy

    []

  • baseball game

    []
    []
    []
    []
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: baseball game

  • found: huggy bear

    [el español caliente]
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    huggy bear