We just arrive and someone tries to play with Astrid and she starts to cry. Her stranger anxiety is getting better through. She seems to do better around women than men. And it's okay if a stranger is in the room and she has some time to get used to them. But if a stranger gets into her space right away, her survival tactic is to cry to make them go away; and it works. 
Julie and Jason (Mara's parents) had a luau themed party for Mara's one year birthday celebration. 
Mara's princess birthday cake.
There was a little Asian girl standing next to me and Astrid. A woman at the party assumed we were together and asked, "Is she your daughter too?" I responded, "Nope. Just the tow head is mine."
In case anyone else wonders where the term "tow head" comes from:
Main Entry: tow
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English tow- spinning; akin to Old Norse tO tuft of wool for spinning, Old English tawian to prepare for use -- more at TAW
Date: 14th century
1 : short or broken fiber (as of flax, hemp, or synthetic material) that is used especially for yarn, twine, or stuffing
2 a : yarn or cloth made of tow b : a loose essentially untwisted strand of synthetic fibers
Main Entry: tow·head
Pronunciation: 'tO-"hed
F unction: noun
Date: 1829
1 : a low alluvial island or shoal in a river : SANDBAR
2 : a head of hair resembling tow especially in being flaxen or tousled; also : a person having such a head of hair- tow·head·ed /-"he-d&d/ adjective 
The girls sitting side by side in their high chairs. Astrid is playing with the toy attached to Mara's chair.
Since it was a luau, Jason came by with leis for me and Astrid. Astrid got an orange one, and I got a purple one.
As you can see from the photo above, Astrid was afraid of the lei necklace. So I took it off right after I took this photo. Slowly she warmed up to my necklace and was starting to touch it and get interested in it, but she never wanted anything to do with her own necklace.
Touching hands and getting reacquainted.
Mara trying to pass Cheez-its to Astrid.
When Astrid wasn't taking them from her, Mara came up with ingenious way to get them over to Astrid. She would flick them over to Astrid and the cheez-its would land on Astrid's arm. I told Mara, "Thank you but she can't eat that yet."
Julie asked her daycare provider if Mara ever passed food to the kids there and she said "no". It was cute to see her trying to pass food to Astrid, and funny because Astrid is bigger than her.
They also rented a bouncy castle for the kids to play in (although I think Jason had the most fun playing in it). 
Julie made sure we had the bouncy castle all to ourselves for a bit to jump inside with the babies.
Astrid is checking out the inside of the bouncy castle.
Julie's friend Sammie took photos of us with the girls through a mesh window.
Look who's pointing and looking straight into the camera.
Here we're getting the girls to stand and bounce up and down.
After they had some time to get acclimated, they had no problems standing on the bouncy floor.
Astrid looks like she's just kicking back and watching what's going on. Uwe says Astrid looks like she's acting cool. "It's all good."
Julie and I got quite a work out bouncing up and down on our knees while holding the girls.
One last photo of us standing in the bouncy castle. Astrid got a kick out of me holding her in my arms while I was jumping around.
Astrid playing in Mara's bedroom. 
Playing with the stand up activity center.
The first thing she grabbed was a teddy bear blanket. Here she is holding it and playing with the activity center. 
A close up of Mara, the birthday girl wearing her 1st birthday hat and getting ready to eat her cake.
We just finished singing "Happy Birthday" to Mara, and Astrid is all smiles.
It was fun to see the girls together again. And Julie and I kept saying over and over again, "Can you believe they're already a year old?"
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