Less than Twelve Parsecs

Dear Mara, Thank you for the wide eyed smiles you give us when you quietly tip-toe into our bedroom in the morning to announce: "Mara is awake!". For the eagerness of saying "Diaper change!" when Daddy asks you "What's the first thing we do every morning?" For helping prepare breakfast, and for eating it together on our morning drive to daycare. For making pancakes out of everything  for us to pretend-eat. For the special moments we share on Saturdays at Music Class, and at the Farm on Sundays! Looking at a duck had never been such fun before. For the cuddles you give us every night when you fall asleep in your bedroom. For reminding us to say "Good night!" to friends and family from far away and think about our day. Thank you for welcoming Gaius into the world and into our family. We'll always remember your look of curiosity and worry as you heard his very first cry when he was born, and saw the little bu...

Another month has passed and if I have to summarize it in one sentence, I'll quote Mara: "Baby Gaius is Little!" He is little, although quite big for a little one - the last doctor checkup revealed a whopping 95th percentile in all measurements. That means he's growing quite nicely. In fact, he's doubled weight since birth, which means we can fully assume he will double his weight every two months from now on. He'll probably be about 512lbs when he turns one. Yet he's still a two month old baby, valiantly holding his head with shabby stability when he's on your shoulder. Recently, his tummy time turned into: Lifting my head is too hard. I shall instead lift my butt really high. But that's not really what this post is about. Of course Gaius is little. But all the cute ideas Mara shares with us about it are the topping on the cake. Episode 1: Airplane We flew, all four of us, to Indiana for a short family vacation. Gettin...

Q: What's a recipe for endless fun? A: Cute kids and Kittens! That's what we found out this Sunday, visiting our good friends' home. They had adopted two sweet little cats Joey and Pacey (named after the youngsters in Dawson's Creek ). You'll have to guess which is which, both Greg and I got it wrong the first time. Here are some of the sweet moments: Sleepy child wakes up to kitten footsteps. She agrees to calmly go on Mommy's lap on the floor to observe. Unbeknownst to her, another creature also calmly goes on Mommy's lap on the floor to observe. The second lap guest gets 'spotted' (pun intended!) and we hear a squeal of joy.  Kitten starts prowling about. I love the framing of this photo, it lets you feel the scale of things. This is a mini-leopard, hand-sized. If you have small hands.  Kitten expertly decides this Ottoman-to-Windowsill jump is totally doable. It's not.  Other kitten takes brave action in respo...

We made it past the very first month and a half with two kids! Time to hand out the awards, in order of merit - but really, it was a very close call! Feel free to jump to the category you'd like: The "Big Sister" Award The "Turn the Hardest Month into the Fun Month!" Award The "Least Effort, Best Results" Award The "Best Duo" Award   The "Big Sister Award" goes to Mara,  for taking in stride all the changes to our family by doing what she does best: Cause havoc in the postpartum hospital room, to entertain everyone. Come happily to take Mommy and Daddy home from the hospital. Baby Gaius too, if we really must, she conceded after some deliberation - he is cute, we'll keep him! Interact with baby Gaius on early mornings, when both parents just want to lie down. Or just ignore him and play around, it's not like he's going anywhere.   The "Turn the Hardest Month into t...

Mara has recently been doing some silly things. Here is the evidence: Mara requests a photo of the owl she has in her hands and "smiles" at the camera. Mara eats flour while we make pancakes. Mara puts a large green sticky bubble on her body and announces: "G'een d'ess on Mara!". Mara has eight socks on her right hand. Mara looks at Greg with two carrots in her mouth. Mara puts a stamp on her eye. Mara has multiple socks in her mouth. Mara puts leaf stickers on her cheeks. She had also put two of these leaves together and declared "Mara made g'asses!" but we didn't capture the evidence in time. Mara passes out in bed with a well-diapered frog after having a few drinks.