Less than Twelve Parsecs

There's nothing sweeter that a sleeping baby in your arms. That gentle warmth that builds up between your body and theirs. How she sprawls her body onto yours in a feeling of complete abandon, going utterly limp, arms akimbo.  She gives you the gift of half a giggle in her sleep - not a full one, mind you, because her dream has already moved onto a dreamier land. And you smile and try to imagine: what would a baby really dream of? And you dream along with her... In those moments you realize that she trusts you completely, to care for her and protect her into eternity. And you realize you will, with all your power and for as long as you possibly can. I guess that's why they call it Baby Bonding .

Mara is about to turn 6. Just a few more weeks until the happy date, but she's already there mentally and physically. This summer she went: Kayaking at camp - first in her age group to kayak on her own without an adult during this whole summer, according to her camp instructors Biking on mountain trails - yes, she started biking with no training wheels after several months of sparse strider bike rides, and is so smooth at it now! Stand-up paddleboarding ( SUPing at Shoreline Lake ) which I've personally never even attempted. Greg got his opportunity to try it for the first time just this week, same location, with his coworkers. Horseback riding on Wizard who is a 30yo mare at Garrod Ranch . She can read piano music and play several songs with two hands on it - whenever she's patient and rested enough :-). She figured out the notes of "Doe, a Deer" and wrote them on sheet music one afternoon. Can swim end-to-end in the pool at swim class in a bunch of dif...

We crossed the border of the years in the comforts of our own home, exhausted and recovering from one sickness just to start another with worse symptoms. All these are soon forgotten, but here are the unforgettable parts of the last few days of 2014, and the start of our New Year. For the grand finale of the year we gratefully joined friends at the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve . These next photos are in the very last sunset of 2014. Mara loved watching the Sea Anemones (one of her newest passions!) and said the word in the cutest possible way. She watched the little hermit crabs moving their shells about, and stared in the little water pockets for the tiny fish that would suddenly swim from one place to the next. It was a very short experience due to a crazy-cold ocean breeze that froze all three of us, but definitely worth it! In the walks in the neighborhood near the Marine Prezerve, Mara got to see huge cactus plants... ...and walked on a path overlooking...

I thought the first time Mara takes a standalone step, without holding on to a large item or person, it would be epic. It its way, it was. I had imagined it would happen one of these mornings, during her playtime. She would look up suddenly with that decisive look in her eyes. All would become silent, except for the clock on the wall which would seem to also measure our heartbeats. Mara would get up to standing, brows furrowed with concentration, then she would ever so slightly lift her right foot up, keeping her weight on the other. A soft drumroll would suddenly be heard out of nowhere as she moved her right foot forward, and most likely trumpets sounding some sort of victory march as she would gracefully land one step ahead of where she was standing a few seconds ago. Now here's what really happened. I was holding Mara in my arms in the backyard, watching the birds flying in and out of the trees. Mara glanced down and noticed a stick on the ground.  A STICK...

We finally managed to write up our very first Christmas open letter, here's what's been happening in our lives over the past year. Last Christmas we received the best gift from Santa that we could have imagined: we found out on Christmas morning of 2012 that we were going to have a baby! Everything after that was just filled with happiness, and the entire year of 2013 was marked with many life changing experiences. The second wedding - the one in Romania happened in May when I was 6 months pregnant with Mara. We brought Gene and Tammy over the ocean to see my home country, we hiked to Babele (pronounced bah-bay-leh , The Old Women) and the Sphinx in the Bucegi ( boo-chaydj ) Mountains. We ran into a bear at the ethereal lake St. Ana, stopped for a night in the idyllic Bucovina and visited family. The second family-honeymoon happened in Paris with Greg's parents, just like we had our first family-honeymoon after our Florida wedding with my family in S...