theparkerfamily.org – Page 261 – The quick brown fox jumped over the good, but lazy Parker family.

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November 18, 2009

we used to have a problem getting sparklet up, awake and moving enough to eat. we also used to have a problem with her being so mello, that she never gave much of an indication if she was hungry.

looking back, those were the golden days.

sparklet has finally started becoming the little diva/drama queen we’ve been waiting for. she just never stops eating in the evenings — and is not afraid to flex those golden pipes if the feeding pauses for more than a second or two.

and, unfortunately, the super-amped/aggressive feeding phase is not the normal “witching hour” you hear tell of, because that implies it dies down after an hour or two. our 6:00 pm feeding now starts at 4:45 pm, and lasts until 11:15 pm. it’s like a labor day marathon of very special “witching hour” episodes.

but, baby momma keeps saying she’s excited, because this “attentive eating” shows that she is an energetic and engaged child. all i can say is never get between my baby and dinner.
meridian hill

November 15, 2009

ECPA20091115_0742, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

we’re officially one month past birth, which means baby sparklet is officially allowed (by the pediatrician, who was concerned about germs/fevers/black plague) to show her face out in public.

and no one had to tell us twice.

last night we went out to dinner (at the heights) for the first time in nearly six weeks, with the mighty baby boigs providing guidance, advice, and cover … which must have worked, because sparklet slept through the whole thing.

this afternoon, walked down to meridian hill park and played around in the last of the foliage. we keep forcing ourselves outside, thinking “this will be the last good day before spring” … but we’ve been saying that for a month now, and we don’t seem to be any closer to winter.

not that we are complaining — with a November due date, we honestly didn’t think sparklet would see the light of day until her aunt’s wedding in Austin next February — so, we’ll take whatever we can get.

Explore the Photo Set:
photos: meridian hill park, washington, dc
guestbook: the boigs!

November 14, 2009

ECPA20091114_0727, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

Explore the Photo Set:
guestbook: the boigs!
week five

November 14, 2009

photo of the week // week five
sensible mommy cut

November 13, 2009

ECPA20091113_0700, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

last time i cut my hair, the guy gave me a mullet. after a quick repair job, i went the next 22 months without giving anyone the opportunity to do it again.

lately, i’ve been thinking its about time to let go of my anger … thinking that has speed up the first time that baby sparklet got grabby, and made urgent the other day when i was mistaken for a woman.

thus, the sensible mommy cut … even though it’s for daddy.
quilt

November 12, 2009

ECPA20091115_0765, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

we’ve gotten so many incredible gifts over the last couple of months, and today we received yet another … a quilt that my godmother had (unannounced) been hand quilting since August.

she apologized for not getting it done on time — she thought she had an extra three weeks, as we all did. neither the lady sparkler nor i do anything original, creative, artistic merit and we were both just blown away by the handiwork.

beautiful.

Explore the Photo Set:
quilt (zoom) · other quilt photos
“these are not the droids you’re looking for”

November 11, 2009

ECPA20091111_0671, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
oh, poo.

November 11, 2009

ECPA20091111_0658, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

someone just poo’ed in someone else’s hair. i’m not going to name names here, but it wasn’t me.

here’s the story.

our heroic protagonist, let’s call her aby-bay arklet-spay, was minding her own business … hanging out on the changing table, wondering what life would look like on the “other” side of yet another diaper.

our incredibly omniscient narrator was assisting aby-bay with her diaper transition when he discovered that she (aby-bay) wasn’t quite done “negotiating” with the old diaper.

the third character in our little drama is the (mostly) innocent bystander, let’s call her ady-lay arkler-spay, was wandering around the room, looking to be useful, trying to distract from the fact that the only time aby-bay poops is when the incredibly omniscient narrator is on diaper duty.

before long, ady-lay arkler-spay bent down at the end of the changing table, rummaging through some bags of diapers on the floor, when … the incredibly omniscient narrator covered up aby-bay’s rear just in time to stop something really, very bad from happening.

ady-lay arkler-spay then started chatting with the incredibly omniscient narrator, while he stood there, releaved that he had just save her noggin’ from an inexplicably grotesque catastrophe.

after a few minutes of wanton distraction, the soon-to-be-no-longer-very-omniscient narrator decided aby-bay was finally done, and took his hand off her bum in order to bend over to get a new diaper.

at this exact moment, two things happened in perfect unison.

first, ady-lay arkler-spay decided she hadn’t fully rummaged through those bags of diapers on the floor and, second, aby-bay arklet-spay decided she wasn’t quite finished “negotiating” and decided to took advantage of the fact that her old diaper was no longer held in place by the now-not-really-omniscient-at-all narrator’s hand.

suffice it to say that badness ensued or, more specifically, long distance badness ensued with startling accuracy.

half an hour later, everyone was in great spirits. aby-bay arklet-spay was done negotiating so that she could happily start another two hour feeding, and ady-lay arkler-spay had just taken a nice, warm, satisfying, if unexpected, shower.

and the incredibly-omniscient-though-obviously-not-omnipotent narrator? he’s just happy to have a story to tell aby-bay’s first serious boyfriend when the time comes.
headshots

November 10, 2009

Explore the Photo Set:
headshots
first trip to the zoo

November 8, 2009

photo of the week // week four

we’re in a strange bit of indian summer that is reaching deep into november, but nobody in the sparkler family is arguing.

we figured when baby sparklet arrived it would be waaay to cold to spend any serious amount of time outside, and frankly i didn’t think that baby mommy would be up for the hike down there and back.

we didn’t spend much time in the zoo — baby sparklet is just starting to look and focus, mommy still isn’t 100% — but we did find a hidden little statue that we’re going to try and swing by for photos each visit.

i’m really excited that we’re up and moving around. i feel like i’ve been waiting eight years to take my daughter to zoo …

Explore the Photo Set:
photos: first trip to the zoo