Less than Twelve Parsecs

We were lucky enough to have Gene and Tammy visiting for ten days around Mara's very first birthday. We went for a lot of little celebrations with a lot of people, rather than one big overwhelming party. We'll share snippets of the events over the next week or so, but today's highlight is the gift that Grandma Tammy bestowed upon Mara. Tammy got us our very first butterfly / humming bird / aromatic plant / flower garden!! Mara has been diligently taking care of it. Here, she is checking the moisture in the pot with one of the snapdragons. The aromatic plants pot you see mid-point in this photo has basil, oregano, parsley and rosemary. Temporarily it also had a blue plastic ball, but we decided to take it out soon after. It really was neither aromatic, nor a plant. This fern-flower attracts a species of butterflies, but it's most interesting part are the soft fluffy leaves. Great tactile experience. Mara likes to show us the different-color flow

Nope, it wasn't Easter. And you wouldn't be hunting bunnies for Easter anyways. It was a Sunday afternoon, and we were visiting the farm animals again. A white bunny hopped around the chickens that were loose in the main area. Not in bunny-space for sure. Given the reports from our neighbors that coyotes casually stroll down our streets at night, we were quite worried that the bunny might be in danger if we left it out. So we hunted. Elena spent about 10 minutes jumping over fences to get to the bunny. Google+ decided that this was a particularly dramatic moment, and created this HDR work of art automatically so we are sharing it here: We finally cornered it after a long slow chase, and Elena grabbed it by the ears to make sure she doesn't get scratched. Some bunnies are good at putting up a fight! But this one turned out to be the softest sweetest rabbit, it settled in her arms and waited for his fate to be decided. Don't worry about that red evil eye,

One year and five days. This is when Mara and I had our first real conversation. Our very first disagreement as well. We were driving home from daycare and I had brought out one of those books with one object on each page. For the past week, Mara had been saying things like "up" , "aaah-pun" (apple), "baa" (ball), "bye-bye" , "wohh" (roll, for the balls rolling). We were at the page that so conveniently places a colorful ball and a green apple next to each other. "That's a ball" , Mommy points at the ball. Mara silently acknowledges with her eyes. "This is an apple" , I point at the next page. "Aah-pun!" Mara proudly exercises her new skill, pointing at the apple. I wait for her to turn the page as usual, but it doesn't happen. She is still looking. Her finger moves to point at the round green apple on the page: "Baa!" . I am puzzled. Technically, she is right, an ap