theparkerfamily.org

Tag: Sparklet

  • into the closet, pt 2

    ecpa20090525_2077
    this whole baby thing is going to have a profound impact on the lady sparkler’s life, but in no way more than the loss of the second bedroom as her own private boudoir.in a vain attempt to soften the blow, baby mama’s birthday present this year is a container store / elfa makeover for her closet … because she now has to make room in there for baby sparklet (a conversation which we’ve already had with her spleen and bladder).

    the purchase was easy enough. i sketched something out beforehand — with Google Sketchup because i am a dork — and the store turned it into a “parts” list. someone in the back readied the order and put it into our car, while the sales clerk walked us through how to assemble the new system.

    my personal life-goal now shifted to not having to paint the closet.

    first, i unloaded all of the crap from the closet … and tried to ignore that the closet needed to be painted. then i took down the existing shelves … and tried to ignore that the closet needed to be painted.

    then i repaired the 30+ holes from the use of railroad spikes to hold up said shelves … and tried to ignore that the closet needed to be painted. then i went to bed … and tried to ignore that the closet needed to be painted.

    and then i woke up, and painted the closet.

    in the end, the closet went together fine and the baby now has about three-eighths of the closet (two hanging bars, two shelves and three drawers). it’s not quite the space savings i was hoping for, but it will do for now.

    i sure hope baby sparklet is small, and doesn’t grow much.

  • how I met your mother: the first kiss

    [Evan and Tasha]
    dear sparklet,

    this is the second in a series of letters to baby sparklet about how mommy and daddy met and woo-ed each other.

    if be lying if I said that I wasn’t interested in the woman who would become the lady sparkler soon after we met, after two years of being telephone-only business chums…

    but, I was coming out of a bit of a rough patch as far as the fairer sex was concerned. point of fact, I had sworn off women all together after the excruciating demise of two (and a half) relationships in an 18 month perod.

    but, to be frank, swearing off women wasn’t quite what the lady sparkler had had in mind.

    those days we spent a little bit of time out of the office together … but completely plutonic, in the “hands off like plutonium” sort of way. I didn’t want to have anything to do (romantically) with women, and she didn’t want anything to do (romantically) with anyone who had such a luminous recent history of spectacularly-demising relationships.

    but all of a sudden, something changed. after, say, four months of plutonic nirvana, she came up to my place in Glover Park on a Friday night for an early dinner, before I was to drive to Williamsburg (and the family) later that night.

    as I was packing, she sat on my bed — it was a studio apartment so there was no couch, you perverts — going ON and ON about how she was happy we were just friends, and that while she could see some thing happening romantically, it was waaaaaay off in the future, and that we should take things slowly, and that I needed time, and that she needed time, and how special male friends were, and how she had a lot of them, and how people often misconstrued that, but she was glad that I didn’t misconstrue that, blah, blah, blah-blah, blah-blah-blah.

    she was preaching to the choir (nay, the clergy) as far as i was concerned … so i said “you are exactly right” for twenty minutes, packed quickly, went with her for a quick bite of Indian, decided her Native American name translated to “she who insists on stating the obvious, over and *over* again,” and drove to Williamsburg.

    She suggested that I stop by on my way back after my trip, which i did, and we ended up going for a walk, I’m guessing to give her roommate a break from the Evan-induced insanity.

    not twenty minutes into the walk, she asked if she could hold my hand. not twenty-one minutes into the walk, she asked if she could kiss me.

    we did, on the corner of Buchanan and Boyle streets, in Alexandria, Virginia.

    to this day, I have no idea what happened between Friday at 8pm and Sunday at 4pm. but, whatever it was, I would like to officially take credit for it here and now.

    all along, it was *obviously* my masterplan to drive her to do this switch-er-roo, and she was just powerless in the face of my onslaught of charm.

    I promise to only use my powers for good from here on out.

  • how I met your mother: the beginning

    []
    dear sparklet,

    this is the first in a series of letters to baby sparklet about how mommy and daddy met and woo-ed each other.

    one of the lady sparkler’s favorite shows these days is “how I met your mother,” whose premise includes a dad explaining to his kids (through flashbacks to modern day) all the zany hijinks that led to him meeting (and marrying) their mother.

    you’ve seen it if you have been on an airplane in the last five years, or have a thing for doogie howser/ buffy the vampire slayer alumni.

    anyway, the premise got me thinking I have a certain moral obligation to document all the embarassing stories I have about the lady sparkler, to make sure you (dear sparklet) have a full understanding of your antecedants.

    so, I’m not sure how many people know this, but I knew my future beloved for about two years before we ever met. she was the head of communications for a small progressive non-profit, and I handled a web consulting contract they had with CTSG way back when.

    it’s reasonable to say that I had a “client crush” on her — hard to explain, but that’s a commonish term that consultants have for clients that they don’t try to avoid at all costs. it happens a more often than you’d think, especially when your “relationship” is limited to whitty banter on the phone.

    the funny part is that I assumed — for two years, up until the day that she started working for at CTSG — that she was 45 years old, married, with two or three kids.

    whoops.

    one day I hear “new girl” is coming by for some social event because she was going to be starting with us in a few weeks, and two hours layer I realize it is (a) her, (b) that I have talked to her for years but never met, (c) she is decidedly not 45, and (d) had cornered me in the office kitchen in such a way that I was fairly certain I had best cooperate with her and whatever her vision of the world might be.

    the part of the story that doesn’t get told all that often is that I inadvertently seduced her under completely false pretences … namely in a suit and tie.

    the day she came to visit just happened to be the only day in four years of political consulting that I had a meeting with a member of congress (nick lampson, fwiw) so had dressed up for work in black tie, black suit and black overcoat.

    (she said I looked dashing … I think I probably looked like John Cusack from Grosse Pointe Blank.)

    regardless, it was one of maybe four times I got that dressed up in the last six years (poor thing).

    looking back, she says it was love at first sight … I’m not sure I was so eloquent, but absolutely thought she was hot, had potential, and was going to kick my #%$& if I didn’t comply with her every demand.

    mmmm, young love 🙂

  • the pregnancy so far

    400
    yup, we’re pregnant. and to avoid any confusion, by “we” i mean the lady sparkler is pregnant. i’m just along for the ride … and the barefoot-kitchen jokes.

    we had put a moratorium on even talking about making babies for the first year after our October wedding, and when we did end up talking in August of last year — you didn’t think she’d make it all 12 months, did you? — we decided we’d start trying in the New Year.

    sure enough, we were pregnant by February. and everything is going swimmingly … no morning sickness for the lady sparkler, our little sparklet looks great, and is already over-achieving.

    needless to say, a lot’s happened in the last fifteen weeks … and while it looks like i gave up blogging, they’ve just been going into the queue until the can’t-talk-about-it-for-the-first-trimester period was over.

    to catch you up, here is the pregnancy so far:

    • well, here we go — we weren’t even sure t.l.s. was pregnant, and i already screwed up. and expect to screw up over and over again.
    • yup, we’re pregnant — and yes, we are going to find out the gender, and yes, we are going to pick a boring, anglo-friendly name.
    • ballerina — and no, chances are baby sparklet won’t grow up to be a classically trained russian ballerina, if here genes have anything to do with it.
    • obama boom — turns out we aren’t the only lefties that are pregnant, and (like everything else) it’s all obama’s fault.
    • there and back again — we found a hospital … five miles, twelve stoplights, three stop signs, one traffic circle, and 200 churches later.
    • the longest twelve weeks — i realized early on that i had the potential do a lot of damage in the twelve weeks where i was supposed to avoid talking about the pregnancy.
    • provisioning for two — the nine month shopping spree has officially begun. our only hope is that it all stays this cheap.
    • pregnant passover — went to a passover seder, where we were just about the only people who weren’t pregnant … sortof.
    • nesting — ever the planners, we’ve assembled a very healthy list of to-dos before baby sparklet arrives, and are starting to check them off.
    • ultrasound — baby sparklet, looks great, sounds great, and is already over achieving … and we’ve got proof.

  • white hart lane

    [Tottenham Hotspur vs. West Bromwich Albion, White Hart Lane, Tottenham, London, England, UK.]
    [Tottenham Hotspur vs. West Bromwich Albion, White Hart Lane, Tottenham, London, England, UK.]
    [White Hart Lane, Tottenham, London, England, UK.]
    i love my wife.

    she’s barely 14 weeks pregnant, just spent seven days gallivanting around scotland with my family, and wraps it all up by going with me (split seats mind you) to see tottenham hotspur at white hart lane.

    i’ve been following tottenham since i’ve been following the premier league — and the thought of seeing them in their 110 year old stadium has been clattering around my head ever since we bought the ridiculously overpriced tickets six weeks ago.

    it’s crescendo-ed to the point that this morning i was certifiably out of my mind — giddy enough that i managed to lose my wallet touring st. paul’s cathedral, but barely even noticing the rather large problem as my tickets to the lane were locked away elsewhere.

    we had planned on taking the tube to Seven Sisters, and making a twenty minute hike up hill to the stadium — but there was some variation on london’s perennial track work, so we detoured to another line and cabbed over.

    (speaking of, when the lady sparkler and i were buying tube tickets, our cashier was an aresnal fan — tottenham’s arch nemesis — and she was utterly unable to say either “tottenham” or “white hart lane” outloud without cringing.)

    (seriously, she kept starting to say something … catching herself … stopping … and saying “your destination” instead.)

    when we got to the lane, we walked a couple of laps — soaking it all in. by the time we actually entered the stadium it was already time for player introductions.

    i walked through the tunnel to the orchestral magesty of John Williams “Dual of the Fates.” it was glorious.

    it’s been a day, and i honestly don’t remember much about the match itself.

    i remember being in the front row, with a bunch of 20-something men. i remember screaming my head off. i remember being told to sit down by the extraordinarily polite stewards, a dozen times or more.

    and, i remember tottenham winning off of a curling 25-yard effort from Jermain Jenas.

    but, most of all i remember the chants, and the whole stadium — 35,000 strong — singing “oh when the spurs go marching in” in unision. i can still hear the glory glory ringing around in my ears.

    glorious.

    See a Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    tottenham vs. west brom, white hart lane, london

  • buckingham palace

    [Buckingham Palace, London, England, UK.]
    i have to give props to my now three month pregnant wife — we walked down to buckingham palace late tonight, and it’s the first thing in the entire trip that she’s opted out of for want of sleep. she’s a trooper.
    See All the Photos on Flickr:
    Buckingham Palace, London, England

  • 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.

  • 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?

  • 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.