theparkerfamily.org

Tag: Sparklet

  • babyproofing

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    photo of the week // week thirty-seven
    if friday morning wasn’t enough of a wake up call for babyproofing, sparklet decided to up the ante on sunday and pull herself up on the toy box, the couch (to reach the cat) and one of our arm chairs (again, for the cat).

    so, i spent the rest of the day at home depot.

    shortly after the first burst of pseudo-crawling back in may, i spent a weekend tidying up the electrical cables and generally trying to make some more space for toys and movement.

    with her doing pull-ups, however, we’ve had to start strapping down all the tippy furniture we have and trust me when i say, it’s all tippy.

    a by-product of living in a smaller space is that everything we own is a normal height, but only about half as deep (and we all know that height + depth/2 = tippy).

    to make matters worse, we have no overhead lights in our living room or either bed room, and have to rely on those tall “urn” floor lamps — which give us all the same tipsiness as the furniture, but with the added bonus of lots of shatter-upon-impact glass.

    so, we’ve bought a metric ton of straps designed to prevent furniture from falling over during earthquakes (“quakehold!“) and have been using them to secure pretty much everything to the wall — three lamps, a desk, a television cabinet, the hall table, and the ever important toy box.

    top that off an improvised latch (adjustable bungee cord fastened around the closet door handle) to keep sparklet out of the litter box, and we should be good to go …

    … except she just knocked the bejeezus out of her head on the toy box, so i’m off to the store to buy a swimming pool noodle to pad the box’s front edge.

    who says necessity is the mother of invention?

  • missing the point

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    baby sparklet seems to have primarily mistaken her new handlebar for a foot rest. i’ll chalk that up to a high level of creative innovation. maybe.

  • hike: matildaville trail, great falls national park, va

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    sparklet’s first hike. didn’t make it long (45 minutes) or far (definitely short of two miles) but it mostly worked. she hates wearing a hat, tho — that lasted all of about 30 seconds.

    trail information:
    Trailhead: 38.997516,-77.255065 (Google Maps); Length: 1.8 total miles; Elevation Gain: < 100 feet; Trail Type: Loop (Canal Trail, to Matildaville Trail, to Old Carriage Road); Skill Level: Easy.

    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    matildaville trail, great falls national park, va

  • stand up, sit down

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    it’s been quite a 24-hours for little miss sparklet. yesterday she started regularly sitting up by herself (she’s been doing it accidentally or with parental assistance for the last couple of weeks) and then this morning she pulled herself up onto her feet, in order to get into her toy box.

    crazy. next she’ll be asking for keys to the car …

    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    blocks

  • waterfountains

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    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    waterfountains

  • Artwork: Father’s Day

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  • firsts: order from a restaurant

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    we’ve been giving sparklet whole bananas and cubed avacados fairly regularly of late, but this morning (at The Heights) the lady sparkler decided to throw the baby girl into big people food with both feet.

    at brunch, sparklet was introduced to both raisins (from the raisin bread) and a plate of scrambled eggs (her very first order ever from a professional kitchen), all while polishing off a jar of baby food pears.

    needless to say, daddy has announced that he won’t be available to help change sparklet’s diaper for the next 48 hours or so.

  • grampa & me

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    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    grampa & me

  • video: figured out “splashing”

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpX1lZNXqjc

  • found: philly phanatic

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