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...

One day before her first birthday, Mara said her first word that was two distinct syllables. Two days before, Daddy had lifted her high in the air so that she could reach two gorgeous apples in our apple tree. She picked them herself off the branches. The look of satisfaction on her face was priceless, as she was holding both apples in her arms. For an idea of the scale, it looked like a grown up person holding two giant watermelons - must have taken quite an effort. Back to "Milestone Day before Birthday": Mara decided for the first time to steadily walk for longer than five steps. She took four steps and reached a garden hose; then she stared at the new obstacle in front of her. Daddy came closer and moved the hose out of the way, after which she continued walking. She did several walks like this, seven steps or more, over the course of the next ten minutes. When we finally got our cameras ready she was already tired. Half an hour later, we all go indoors. Mo...

We went to a friend's 1st birthday party this weekend, and met some wonderful people. The conversation went to how the mom never shows up in the photos because she's the one remembering to take them usually, and we had the great idea of actually taking group family photos! Here is Mara held by Daddy on the way to the event, all shy and cautious but comforted with mommy's old hat. I guess we can declare this comfy hat some sort of 'family heirloom' passed on to the next generation.

At every health checkup for Mara the nurse measures her head-to-toe to keep track of her height. It's always a challenge to get her stretched out on the table the right way because she will arch and stretch to look at what you're doing. The nurses have their tricks: measuring from some midpoint to foot first, then the upper side and adding up the two. Even so, there's need for a second measurement about once every three visits. Once Mara could turn and go on her fours, the game turned even harder. I can't even imagine how they are going to convince her in a few weeks at the next checkup. In the meantime, we decided to try it ourselves on the vertical axis. Our friend Eileen gave us this very cute growth chart for Mara (thank you!!) and we hung it on a wall in the center of our house. Mara's enthusiasm when it comes to markers has some limits, but those limits are far beyond the horizon. Really, she turns into an instant grabbing machine on sight of any ...

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...