theparkerfamily.org

  • found: the virgin sparklet

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    photo of the week // week twenty-seven

  • the jetta is dead, long live the jetta

    with us running out of space in the back seat, the volkswagon jetta is running out of time … which means it’s about time to update the automotive c.v. once again:

    • 1978 Oldsmobile Delta Eighty-Eight (burgundy) — a big hunk of classic detroit metal that regularly seated eight for late tuesday night college trips to the beach. mostly totaled when it had an untimely meeting with a 12 point buck on the highway one sunday afternoon. the survived, the car not-so-much.
    • 1994 Dodge Spirit (maroon) — a graduation gift from college from my parents (above, right) the little spirit-that-could survived ridiculously long commutes up and down both sides of I-95. effectively totaled with the transmission, steering and a/c all collapsed at the exact same time, after almost a decade of service.
    • 2000 Mazda 626 (silver) — the first car i ever bought with my own money. sexy. looked like a jaguar from the sides (above, left). my ownership was tragically cut short when i met/married the lady sparkler, and it became ridiculously clear that we only needed one car between us.
    • 2001 Volkswagon Jetta (silver) — the car that killed my beloved mazda. the good: it was newer, had less miles, and was fully paid off. oh, and *fun* to drive. the bad? made soon after VW exported their manufacturing to nafta mexico, and a complete lemon in every sense of the word.

    so, what’s next? a car that works would be nice …

    right now, the jetta’s transmission is failing, the front bushings/suspension is creaking, the air conditioner only works at highway speeds, knobs are falling off the dashboard, both wing mirrors have broken off/are held on by duct tape, the stereo occasionally stops working for days-on-end, one of the fold-out cup-holders doesn’t fold out anymore, and we’ve done ~$8,000 worth of work on the car in the last 24k miles.

    outside of that, the lady sparkler wants a car where i can sit farther from the airbag in the steering wheel (because the seat is jacked forward to make room for the big child seat in the small back seat).

    personally, i’d like something with better gas mileage, so i feel less guilty about driving to work everyday — i stopped bicycle commuting not long after the lady sparkler got preggers — a guilt made worse by working for one of the planet’s largest conservation organizations.

    oh, and we’d both like a car that we don’t have to panic/worry/gnash-our-teeth about over the next, say, 6-8 years.

    the excitement starts tomorrow.

  • the family heat-leech picks a new target

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    sparklet always (without fail) sleeps in her own room, but on lazy saturday mornings we’ll see if we can eeek a couple more hours of sleep out of her by bringing her into our bed when she first wakes up.

    it works, more often than not … and it gives someone else (besides me) the responsibility of keeping the lady sparklet warm, if just for a while.

  • upgrade

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    sparklet had her 6 month checkup this afternoon, and is growing like a weed.

    she’s 18 lbs, 6 oz. and over 28 inches long — which puts her at 90th percentile for weight and over 97th percentile for height (which is when they stop counting, apparently).

    this is great and all — healthy baby, blah, blah, blah — but we are now officially running out of room.

    we can’t put her sideways on the couch, she’s outgrowing her chair, it’s getting hard to feed her on our laps, she’s crazy dangerous on her changing table … but worst of all, she’s out grown her car seat.

    which means we’ve out grown our car.

    our little 2001 jetta coupe just wasn’t designed for today’s mammoth government-mandated baby safety seats. we knew we’d be looking for a car eventually … but really didn’t think it’d be quite this soon.

    fortunately, tonight we found *one* model of car seat that fit the jetta — but note the emphasis on the word “one” (it was this car seat, or we put sparklet in the trunk).

    granted, there isn’t a heck of a lot of wiggle room with the new safety seat — and getting her into the seat is a bit like getting a rich man into heaven (“it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle…”) but it will have to do for now.

    … until tomorrow, when start shopping for something bigger.

  • brownies

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    a family friend is running in the boston marathon this weekend. in honor, baby sparklet and i made brownies — from scratch — to bring in for a little sending-off shindig.

    besides making brownies that were ridiculously good — and great looking, too — sparklet’s favorite part was spraying a ziplock bag of sugar around the kitchen.

    so, while the lady sparkler wasn’t involved with the actual baking, she was able to participate over the next twenty-four hours by picking grains of sugar off our kitchen appliances.

    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    firsts: baking brownies

  • firsts: soccer ball

    baby sparklet got her first soccer ball today, even though it was of the foamy, nerfy, squishy kind.

    she also got a toddler-sized D.C. United jersey a couple days ago (for my birthday) and we’ve got a trip to RFK on the books for the first weekend in may … i’m not sure when the next trip to north london will be, sadly.

    anyway, if today is any indication, she’ll be a good keeper — so long as she’s allowed to lick the ball after each save.

    actually, i’m gunning for a solid central defender. she’s 90th percentile on height, so is already built to make opposing strikers ask permission before approaching the goal.

    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    first soccer ball

  • “daddy, i’m not too sure about this swing-thing.”

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    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    walter pierce park and columbia heights plaza, washington, dc

  • take-out picnic w/ aunt melissa

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  • uncle paul, pt. 2

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    we’re back in the district after a trip to new hampshire for my godfather’s funeral — an event that i still haven’t fully figured out how to talk about, which explains all the photo-only posts (sans commentary) last week.

    part of my problem was that everyone had a favorite childhood story to share — and as i’ve mentioned once or twice before, the arrival of baby sparklet has temporarily destroyed any sense of a long-term memory that i might have had.

    over the last week, a bunch of snippets have popped into my head … an inevitable turn at the helm of his boat, riding on the back of his motorcycle (and leaning away from the turn because i was scared we were going to flip), seeing the inside of a movie projection booth for the first time, working his radio or in his workshop, and stopping for ice cream on the way home even though we both knew we we’re supposed to.

    but the thread from those childhood memories — and all those created since — is a quiet feeling that i was at the center of the universe.

    this weekend was also the first time most of my new england family got to meet baby sparklet, so there was a little bubble of “new baby” around the lady sparkler and i that even grief had a hard time pushing through.

    one simply can’t understate the medicinal effects of baby.

    sparklet was a little “emo” on the flight home, but this was to be expected given how crazy her schedule had become while away from home.

    and, after being held by different family members every ten minutes for three days, she was more than a little put-out today that she had only mommy and daddy (and aunt melissa for a bit) to bask in her unflinching glory.

    i have a feeling that all this will add up to our nanny simply *loving* us tomorrow.

    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    picnics, washington, dc

  • six months

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    photo of the week // week twenty-six