theparkerfamily.org

Tag: Sparklet

  • out: children’s garden @ u.s. botanic garden

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    photo of the week // week thirty

    took the day off from work to spend a little quality time with baby sparklet. we’ve been out straight between weddings and funerals — not to mention sick — and there was this little nagging voice in the back of my head saying that maybe it was about time for some father-daughter bonding.

    … so of course this is the day that sparklet wakes up early, and then refuses to nap more than 20 minutes at a time the rest of the day.

    she’s been teething since mid-April with one tooth well on it’s way in, and another two or three ready to pop through. of course, this has futzed up both her sleep schedule and her eating schedule, so cute beloved sparklet hasn’t been quite as cute this last little bit.

    dodging rain, not to mention repetitive expressions of “i-should-probably-have-slept-longer,” we went down to the National Mall for most of the day. a little napping in the garden behind the castle, a little tummy time on the grass in front of the Hirschorn, and a little plant destruction in the botanic gardens.

    we’re still working with baby on the basics of “gentle” — a term our cat emily would like her to pick up sooner rather than later — and sparklet just couldn’t seem to touch anything in the garden without destroying it.

    wonder where she gets that from.

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    out: children’s garden @ u.s. botanic garden

  • “hello, i’m with the bakery inspection service and i’m going to need some free samples.”

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  • firsts: horsie, highchair

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    a couple of firsts for baby sparklet while we’re down in historic colonial williamsburg for a friend’s wedding:

    • first horse — she seemed amused, but didn’t really get that it was an animal. i think it was just too big, and didn’t move quickly enough. she probably thought it was a hairy sofa.
    • first high chair — part of growing so rediculously fast is that at six months she’s outgrown her infant car seat, but isn’t old enough to sit-up on her own … so we wedged her in there with a sparkly pillow, natch.

    it probably goes without saying, but for what it’s worth the wedding isn’t a “destination” wedding — the colonial equivalent of a disney wedding package or something. the bride and I both had the great fortune to grow up in Williamsburg, surrounded by the odd million of tourists each season.

    although, the notion of people paying extra to get married in knickers and a bonnet is really to delicious to *not* try and make money off of it.

  • circa de mayo

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    circa de mayo

  • the zoo

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    the zoo

  • guestbook: jenny alex

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  • propaganda

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    i can’t decide if this looks like an old-school soviet propaganda poster (“defend our babies!”) or the cover photo of sparklet’s latest CD (her take on the joshua tree, maybe).

    either way, i hope sparklet is a benevolent dictator/cult icon.

  • “squirrel!!”

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    on the flight back from manchester, with a small nod to “up!“

  • sydney and the citros

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    sydney and the citros, worcester, massachusettes

  • cousins

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    i was raised in a family where both my parents were only children, so we used to joke that we had a family reunion every night for dinner.

    it’s not until i was much older that i realized how deep our family was on paul and gloria’s side, and during this trip sparklet must have met 15 new cousins this weekend. we didn’t even make it to the front door before we “lost” the baby, and sparklet made the rounds for about three solid hours before she made it back to me again (for 20 minutes, before she was gone another two hours).

    in the meantime, we got to see/meet/laugh with some of our new (and old) favorite people in the world — there was a real magic in the air. things went so well, that we already have our first reunion in i-don’t-know-how-many-years planned for this August … which, poetically enough, is when we promised paul and gloria we’d come and see them this year.

    leave it to those two to bring the family together even after they are gone themselves.

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    new hampshire // may