theparkerfamily.org

  • ultrasound

    11_weeksthe lady sparkler had her first real check up yesterday, where they did all the things that make a boy blush (even during the recounting, after the fact) but in the end they gave her (and sparklet) a clean bill of health.the one thing they were funny about was they wanted to get sparkler under the ultrasound as soon as possible, and its a good thing because we are apparently a little farther along that we thought.

    we went into yesterday thinking we were at about seven or eight weeks, but we were counting since ovulation … and they count from the date of the end of the last cycle before you get preggers. seven quickly became ten.

    … which they adjusted up to eleven weeks when they saw the size of little sparkler on film.

    they kept using the term “really well developed” and “advanced” when they we poking at sparklet with their little sono-wand, and I know they were talking about *timeline* and not *intellect* but still, it’s hard not to be proud.

    the whole sonogram took 10 minutes tops, but it was fabulous. we had heard from half a dozen sources that sparklet would be an odd looking kidney bean with a heartbeat, so we were pretty amazed when we got the first images back.

    sparklet started the process standing on her head (I’m thinking the lady sparkler laid down too fast…) but soon settled into the chill, reclined position you see above. she waved through the first half of the show (obviously showing off at this point, like the headstands weren’t enough…) but started wiggling around by the time we tried to listen in on the heartbeat.

    I got a brief snippet of the heartbeat which we’ve posted, but la madre de la sparklet had to pee, wouldn’t stop giggling, and the little one was obviously growing weary of performing. as a result, what we got isn’t quite Grammy-worthy.

    but the biggest news (by far!) is the revised timeline. due date has been bumped up to November 2nd, we will be in the second trimester by the time we get to Scotland, and we are just six days from being able to officially tell people.

    healthy mama and sparklet is one thing, but not needing to panic every moment that I’m going to accidentally rocket the cat out of the bag (yet again) will be the best feeling in the world.

  • nesting, pt 1: into the closet

    img_7955pregnancy 101 says that the lady sparkler and i are supposed to start nesting pretty soon … although apparently we are to hold off as long as possible, so that we have something to do in the last couple of months when we are both going to be mentally insane.we’ve already identified some of the things we “need” to do:

    • fix our fuse box — during the buying process, our home inspector begged us to replace the fuse box, pointing out that it had a bad habit of bursting into flame as opposed to tripping the breaker. seems like now might be a good time.
    • do something about the (until recently) spare bedroom — we’ll want to paint, we need to do something with the closet (currently t.l.s. dressing chamber with no room for baby stuff), and we need to kill a 12 year old ikea wardrobe that is an accident waiting to happen.
    • do something about the hall closet — it is a complete waste of space, and we need to move a bunch of crap in there from what used to be the “spare” bedroom.
    • think about the car — we love our jetta, but it has a tiny trunk that is already too small when we travel. we’re thinking maybe a $200 roof-top rack would allow us to not buy a new $12,000 car.
    • water filter — for some crazy reason, t.l.s. wants to get a water filter. (for those not in the know, D.C.’s tap water was once so bad it qualified as hazardous waste, and has a history of both lead and chlorine contamination.)
    • baby proofing — funny, but we are already most of the way here due to our anti-clutter lifestyle … but there are some basics like anchoring some bookcases to the wall, wrapping up electric plugs, boxes and cables, etc.

    but, good news … this past weekend, we ticked one item off the list, and managed to not add any new ones.

    we got a couple of shelving units (one set of industrial strength wire shelve procured by my father, and a hanging wall unit from the Container Store) and all of a sudden, we can fit (quite literally) four times as much stuff in there.

    i could get used to this “nesting” thing.

  • The Tiffany Trophy Cup

    ecpa20090411_0559
    The potential for proper European football is still a couple of weeks away, so it was a little shocking when I heard that Spanish legends Real Madrid were taking on English stalwart Blackburn Rovers this weekend. In Arlinton, Virginia. On artificial turf, at a high school.

    Turns out it was their academy squads over for a tourney hosted in association with D.C. United, but that didn’t deter the lady sparkler and I (and at least 12 other curious bystanders) from looking on as the two squads threw themselves up and down the pitch.

    There wasn’t a scoreboard, but near as we can figure “Los Merengues” were up three at the break … and Blackburn would have been farther down the whole if it wasn’t for a dozen standout saves by the Rover’s keeper.

    Real won handily, but both sides showed real class. It was hard to believe they were all under the age of 17, and yet still had skills that could have embarrassed a lot of professional squads in the States.

  • Good Friday in Columbia Heights

    We were walking back from the Target tonight, when we got caught up in a Good Friday procession in front of the big Catholic Church on the corner of Park and 16th Streets NW. It was amazingly intricate, with floats on flat beds, a pick-up truck with a generator and loud speakers, and what must have been a couple of thousand people. Shut down the neighborhood for blocks in all directions.

  • pregnant passover

    ordernow_30mslgbookfunny story … the lady sparkler and I went to a Passover seder tonight thrown by Mighty Baby Boig, and sat at the foot of the table with three pregnant women and their husbands.

    best of all, no one there knew we were pregnant … we hadn’t been able to tell the hosts (and figured that major religious gatherings weren’t the best time to bring it up) but the lady sparkler’s avoidance of alcohol is probably giving her away to anyone silly enough to pay attention.

    if women are really serious about this not-blabbing-for-12-weeks thing, they need to sink some investment capital into a way to look like they are consuming alcohol without actually doing it.

    maybe a fake stomach with a second, external esophagus … or some kind of secret additive that turn alcohol into sugar, while still in the glass. where is a pregnant venture capitalist when you need one?

  • my.nature.org

    things are always a little nuts in march, but this we used earth day to launch a brand new engagement site.

    we are using my.nature.org to serves relevant, personalized content to the Conservancy’s online supporter communities, as well as to post a ton of user-generated content we collect from our flickr efforts, the message of hope campaign, and our everyday environmental tips.

    UPDATE: In the 18 months since the campaign’s launch, my.nature.org has garnered nearly 800,000 visits and 1.5 million page views. The site’s user generated content campaigns have become fixtures on the Conservancy’s social media presences, including Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. i’ll take it.

  • found photo: ballston common, arlington, va

    [Ballston Common, Arlington, Virginia.]
    IMG_0546, originally uploaded by [ecpark].

  • provisioning for two

    picture-1well, I’m sitting in a Rehobeth old navy, while the lady sparkler and a good friend (lightingchickknits) run around buying “loose-fitting” summer dresses.

    there was a sale, and size-too-large dresses from old navy are bound to me better than full price maternity-wear.

    I haven’t had much to do with the whole pregnancy thing. the vast majority of nesting is going to fall on my lap, but that’s okay because the absolute majority of incubation is no where near my lap.

    and, it seams like preganancy isn’t slowing baby-mama down. the other night, she was barefoot, in the kitchen, cooking dinner, and when she was done she sewed on two buttons on our coats … it was very nineteenth century of us.

    (I should have been slaving away in the fields, but sadly I was just working 11 hour days on a computer.)

    and I realized, life is pretty okay. sure, both of us are going to turn into stark-raving lunatics at somepoint in the next 229 days, but … it’ll be good.

    p.s. we got 6+ dresses, all of which have plenty of space in the middle area (a-line, princess, empire, etc).

    p.p.s. I got three pairs of boxers. I didn’t want to be left out.

  • The State of the Birds

    [Photo]Over the last two weeks, we’ve been going nuts at the office as we run up towards Earth Day 2009. However, in the process, we managed to launch a nifty little site talking about the importance of bird conservation.

    We recently participated in a sweeping study that looks at the health of bird populations around the country and what this means for the future of our birds. With that in mind, and in full recognition of how incrediably strong our birding community is, we launched a mini-site where people can learn about the threats to birds in the U.S., share their best places to bird, and submit their favorite bird photos.

    We also threw in a sweet little desktop screensaver of bird images from our Flickr community.

  • the longest twelve weeks

    this is going to be the longest 12 weeks of my life. it’s barely been four weeks, and I have already screwed up the whole “keeping it underwraps” thing thrice.

    of course, it started with the inadvertant google reader posting…

    and last week I told you about the Obama boom, but what I left out was that I became so flustered during that conversation because I knew something I otherwise shouldn’t have known that I ended up outing us when challanged.

    (note: never point out to an expectant father that while often you can tell the sex by 16 weeks, it’s a little shakey until 20.)

    a common thread here is that i’ve been exhausted since February. i’ve been working crazy hours, but pregnancy has shrunk the size of a walnut … which means she is getting up every night at 11, 1, 3 and 5. interestingly enough, she goes right back to sleep … but i’m awake for half an hour, staring at the ceiling.

    so, disaster was in the cards yesterday at the chiropractor … I was exhausted, and the doctor asked if my back was keeping me up. I said no, my wife has been getting in and out of bed a lot … to which she replied “Congratulations! When are you due?!?”

    @#%*$!

    fifty-five days left until 12 weeks, and it can’t come soon enough.

    I’m sure I’ll be singing a different tune after 2 months of the exact same conversation — what’s the preggers equivalent of “so, how’s married life treating you?” — but right now the whole honesty thing is looking pretty good.