Tag: Firsts

  • miracle baby

    baby sparklet slept until 10am this morning, which isn’t exactly news …

    … except that at 10am we were taxi-ing down the runway on a flight to Austin, Texas.

    that means she slept through (1) getting dressed at 6am, (2) loading the car and unloading at airport parking, (3) boarding and offloading the airport shuttle, (4) being taken out of her car seat and passing through security, (5) preboarding the aircraft, and (6) the aircraft pushing away from the gate.

    actually, it wasn’t until the safety briefing ($@&#% volume-deaf stewardesses) that she finally decided to open her eyes and wonder what the heck was going on.

    speaking of, I wonder if she is going to develop a complex about sleeping … it seems like each time she wakes she has a reasonable chance of being in completely different place than when she went down (museum, park, airplane, etc).

    back to the miracle … due to her sleeping so well we didn’t have to start her feeding until after “wheels up,” which means we sidestepped the whole ear-pain/pressure thing and we’re halfway through the flight with nothing louder than a gurgle.

    in semi-related news, we’re on the way to aunt nadine’s wedding to soon-to-be uncle nadav.

    I started packing sparklet at about 10am yesterday, and by 2pm we were we were running to Target to buy the biggest suitcase they had in stock.

    even so, we still look like we’re on a month-long trek through Nepal, and without the benefit of a legion of Sherpas.

    we’ve got the new suitcase (packed exactly to the 50 lbs. limit), a roll-y bag complete with bridesmaid dress and approximately 237 diapers, a bag full of enough pumping equipment to empty the panama canal, the diaper bad, a car seat and a stroller.

    next time, I’m getting a C-130 cargo plane to “advance” (pre-stage?) our trip.

    now, normally, I’d bring a laptop to blog/upload photos over the weekend … but my back started weeping at the thought of another 15 lbs bag.

    unfortunately, that means I’ll be blogging/uploading baby pics via the iPhone and its 36-dropped-calls-in-one-day, who-cares-about-3g-if-you-can’t-get-reception network brought to you by AT&T.

    I’m not sure I’d expect another update before hell freezes over, or Luke Wilson gets his self-respect back … which ever comes first.

    UPDATE: we landed, in heavy turbulance. still not a peep. it’s hard to refrain from being cocky … but I persevere, mostly so I don’t jinx us for the return.

    See all the Photos on Flickr:
    baby’s first flight
  • video: the end of silence

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snco44ePEZo

    not only is *somebody* talking, but *somebody* won’t stop…

  • miserable

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    IMG_1351, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    baby sparklet’s gotten her very first illness this weekend, in an obvious salute to the start of my paternity leave. she has mild(ish) case of Respiratory Syncytial Virus, which from all accounts seems to be about as menacing as your average cold even though it sticks around for a bit longer.

    and with that, my idyllic visions of paternity leave — museums in the morning, a pint at the pub in the afternoon — have been put on hold for a bit. turns out that there isn’t any treatment for the mild version of the virus, so it looks like we’re just hanging around for the next five days watching bad TV.

    the silver lining here is that one of the HD channels is running a Nash Bridges marathon (Don Johnson! Cheech Marin! Yasmine Bleeth!). It’s hard to be depressed in the face of such daytime TV excellence (i’m hoping for a “Walker, Texas Ranger” marathon tomorrow).

    for the record, sparklet is taking this all in stride. she seems to be a little annoyed that Don Johnson hasn’t been properly recognized for the dynamic range he displays as the “smart-alecky” police inspector who fights crime on the streets of San Francisco.

    other than that, she’s the happiest sick baby i’ve ever seen.

    UPDATE: Not a full marathon, but i got FOUR whole episodes of “Walker, Texas Ranger” this morning. My life is nearing a state of nirvana-like completion.

  • video: first giggles

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F08wbTPY-gI

    we’ve got the certified “first giggles” of the new baby sparklet administration … people kept telling us that we’d turn to mush the first time she smiled and laughed, and we absolutely blew them off as “yeah, whatever.”

    turn out they were right. also turns out that we are still on the path to be one of “those” people. God, i’m going to hate to hang out with myself at cocktail parties and happy hours, assuming we even make the invite list again …

  • sleep

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    ECPA20100106_3138, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    this is a picture of baby sparklet sleeping. last night she went to bed at 10:30 pm. this morning she slept until 5:30 am. by my math — which is admittedly as fuzzy as my brain — that’s seven hours of uninterrupted sleep.

    while we don’t have one, please imagine a picture of the lady sparkler and i doing a samba in celebration. the part that puts us over the moon, however, is that baby sparklet did this all miles away from us (well, 20 feet) in her very own room, in her very own bed.

    words honestly can’t explain what it’s like to get sleep after months without, but i am pretty sure that the lady sparkler will talk your ear off, with joy, trying.

  • first bar in adams morgan

    Sparklet’s First Bar in Adams Morgan: Melissa, Nadine and Joanna @ Bourbon, Adams Morgan, Washington, DC.

  • first metro

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    IMG_1089, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    the spindler sisters took baby sparklet on her first metro adventure (to the national portrait gallery) and while there are better pictures of the spindler women from the trip, this is the only one with the crazy-looking guy on the right.
  • first christmas, part 2

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    IMG_1050, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    truth be told, we knew going into today that sparklet’s first christmas was going to be a little underwhelming for her — we’re still at the stage where the only thing about Christmas that captures her attention are the Christmas tree lights, and the tree’s been up for four weeks now.

    we got her a couple of small things centered around Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman, but this was definitely the calm before the storm … we slept in until 10 am, dawdled around with breakfast until noon, didn’t start unwrapping presents until 2 pm, and took our dear, sweet time. i’m pretty sure that’s the last time we’ll be able to say that.

    if sparklet has a christmas of awe and wonder this year, i’m thinking it’s going to be when we go to see the Christmas lights display at the National Zoo. she’ll stare at our little tree for hours, so i can only imagine what will happen when she sees dozens of displays at two or three times the size.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    first christmas
  • first christmas, part 1

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    IMG_1016, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    Explore the Photo Set:
    first christmas, part 1