theparkerfamily.org

Tag: Sparklet

  • “hook ’em horns!”

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    ECPA20091015_0191, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    three possible scenarios for this picture:

    • first “hook ’em horns” sign, in support of the University of Texas at Austin
    • sparklet indicating she’s ready for her first cell phone
    • gang signs

    the lady sparkler is pretty certain it is the former, but i’m banking on the latter. i hope she picks out a good honduran street gang.

    UPDATE: Texas beat Oklahoma this afternoon, so we (and “Auntie Texas-in-Africa”) are now absolutely sure it was the former.

  • homecoming

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    ECPA20091015_0189, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    mercifully very little to report.

    sparklet’s already producing some top shelf imitations — she does a wicked good “goat” sound while she’s sleeping, a mean Gary Coleman face (“what’chu talkin’ ’bout Willis”) when woken up early, and a great “Nazgûl flying over Frodo’s head” sound when she’s hungry.

    (UPDATE: she’s added a great dolphin imitation to her repertoire, too.)

    other than that, we’re just settling into a routine. the family parker is up from virginia to provide cover until the family spindler can drive up from texas. sparklet is sleeping like a brick, and eating well considering the early date and her early birth.

    leaving the hospital, baby spindler (and the lady sparkler) both checked out great … mommy is still moving a little slowly, and because baby sparklet crashed the party earlier than planned we’ll to keep an eye out for jaundice.

    and with that, the lady sparkler and I are going to do a quick feeding, and take another of those 2 1/2 hour naps we’ve grown to love so well…

    Explore the Photo Set:
    photos: homecoming, washington, dc

  • photos: day one

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    ECPA20091014_0163, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    Explore the Photo Set:
    photos: day one, washington, dc

  • kate elisabeth parker

    [Kate Elisabeth Parker, Washington, DC.]

    photo of the week // week zero
    like the little overachiever that we all know she is going to turn out to be, baby sparklet was born this afternoon (4:19 pm) a solid four weeks earlier than the lady sparkler or i had been daring to expect.

    baby sparklet was only day after full term (37 weeks) but the doctors and nurses have been speechless with how big (and healthy) and healthy (and big) the baby was for being three weeks early — measuring in at 7 lbs., 6 oz. and 21 inches. our delivery nurse guestimated that sparklet would have been 9+ pounds if she hadn’t decided to come charging out of the gate early.

    anyway, mommy and sparklet are perfect, and we expect to be discharged tomorrow morning.

    i did “liveblog” the event into my iPhone as they happened, but never had the chance to set it up formally (that whole three weeks early thing) so i’ll post more of a running commentary a little bit later.

    in the meantime, thank you from both of us (or all three, actually) for being so spectacularly supportive and sending us all those thoughts, prayers and encouragements.

    i was actually reading the out at down times during the labor, and the lady sparkler (especially) was incredibly grateful.

    more later, promise 🙂

    Explore the Photo Set:
    kate elisabeth parker, washington, dc

  • the next chapter

    [Susquehanna State Park, Havre de Grace, Maryland]
    ECPA20091012_2439, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    i had the day off today (some kind of national holiday honoring the beginning of the end of Native American civilization) which conveniently doubled as one of my last chances for a solo hike in the near- to mid-future.

    I’ve often joke with the lady sparkler that boys have it harded than girls getting ready for a baby. girls have a constantly growing reminder that something is about to change. boys just have longer-than-usual home improvement list, and the odd sensation that their wife is putting on a couple extra pounds.

    not to mention, boys aren’t that good at sensing or reflecting anyway.

    but, that’s why i’m at susquehanna state park. located about 30 miles north of baltimore, it has always been my favorite hike, and i’ve been so many times — half a dozen in the last decade — that it’s become a place for me to measure the passage of time, relationships and all sorts of personal milestones.

    as our due date edges close and closer, it’s been dawning on me that somethings are about to change. I’ll no longer have the lady sparkler all to myself. I’ll probably be way more focused on other’s bodily functions than my own.

    that being said, I will soon have a beautiful daughter to share beautiful places and beautiful afternoons just like this one. I’ll also have a dumptruck-sized load of perspective that I’m pretty sure I’ve lacked up til now.

    but the beautiful hike has cleared my head, and even if there are a couple small things left to wrap up before sparklet arrives, I’m ready. I have a wonderful wife, we have a wonderful family, and are surrounded by wonderful friends.

    I can’t think of a better world to bring our little sparklet into.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    Susquehanna State Park, Havre de Grace, Maryland

  • shower

    3960955816_2fdd0d3e07_b
    yeah. about that shower post i promised …

    i was thinking of getting a guest post from the lady sparkler, or texas in africa, or foster mom adventures, but then the thing with the guy in the place happened (“it was our pleasure … i had never been to Belize“).

    anyway, i’m caving … and posting a link to the pictures instead.

    from what i could tell, the food was great, the people were wonderful, and the presents were generous (and creative!) beyond words. that, and i got to drink bloody mary’s for two hours on a Saturday morning.

    that’s what we call a “win, win” in the bizness.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    photos: baby shower, washington, dc

  • manhood

    ECPA20070918_x011
    i had a startling relevation today — we’re having a girl. more importantly, i’m adding yet another female in my life, which is tipping my already precarious manhood wildly out of control.

    at home, I have a wife (female). I have a cat (female). at work, I have three people I report up to (female, female, female) and two people who report to me (female, female) and a total of 29 people in my department (all female).

    my friend-landscape isn’t much better … I have male friends, but four of them live more than a thousand miles away, three of them are gay, and even my token manly-man friend (eg. he shoots things for a living) is married (female) with two young children (female, female).

    of course, at this point I’ve probably lost any whatever ability i’d developed to interact with men … so having a girl is probably best for all involved.

  • baby size me

    photo
    so, it turns out that baby sparklet’s still growing, and growing, and growing. and while I was under the impression that she’d run out of space eventually, that seems not to be the case.

    the week started off with a baby center email comparing her to the size of a cantelope, which marked a sharpe departure from salad vegetables (peppers, onions) into the “melon” arena.

    even tho we knew the melons were coming eventually, it unfortunately served as another reminder of my grotesque weight at birth (10 lbs, 8 oz) (10 lbs, 10 oz … sorry Mom) which I am sure the lady sparkler has been tying hard to push out of her consiousness.

    there was some good “size” news at the end of the week, during the lady sparkler’s cnow-weekly checkup. for the first time ever, the doctor described sparklet as “normal” sized, instead of the usual (and vaguely menacing sounding) “above average.”

    the doctor also seemed pretty cheesed about how the baby was oriented — head down, booty at 10 o’clock, and feets jammed nicely into the opposing rib cage.

    no word yet if baby momma is equally cheesed, especially about the “feet in the ribs” part.

  • the end is near

    [Kitchen, Washington, DC]
    ECPA20090927_0128, originally uploaded by [ecpark].
    i hesitate to say anything — because i don’t want to jinx things — but it looks like end is near as far as home construction goes.while the lady sparklet was preoccupied with baby-shower weekend, i (pretty much) finished off the kitchen … which needed to be repainted after the great fuse box / kitchen cabinet catastrophe of 2009.

    so, if we run down the list of major baby to-dos: we’ve fixed our fuse box, prepped the nursery, redid the hall closet, and got a roof rack for the car. last up is hanging the replacement cabinet in the kitchen … which i already test fitted to make sure that i could actually write this post.

    you know, it’s crazy … but it looks like we need to pick out a name, and run through that last list stuff we need to purchase post-baby shower.

    speaking of the shower, it sounds like everyone had a blast. i’ll see if i can liberate some pictures/details from those who were there (i spent the afternoon slamming bloody marys with a friend who was similarly displaced).

    (UPDATE: i just posted pictures of the shower…)

    crazy.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    repainted kitchen, washington, dc

  • crib in 30 seconds

    Crib arrived. The box was bigger than the car, meaning yet again the new roof rack saved our bacon … though we looked a bit like the proverbial ant carrying off the proverbial watermelon. Watch a thirty second time-lapse of the assembly, and there’s a (static) photo on Flickr.

    In unrelated news, i’m suddenly feeling like this all is really happening …