can mom/dad bring their baby ONLY as many times as babies were spotted? Or can the pairs keep returning?

EX) 7 babies were spotted, can the parent/baby return more than 7 times?

Would like to know before I harvest the zodiac plant. thanks

They will come on,y the number of times that their babies were spotted.  However, on the odd occasion, you can get a twin which can throw the numbers out.

Just to add to what Andrea said: the only time twin families will throw the numbers is for the very last family you are due.  If that happens, you will end up with more families than you had babies (so if you had twins for the last family, you'd have one more than you should; if you had triplets it would leave you with two more).  If you then wanted more families you wouldn't be due any until you had gone on to attract more babies than you had families :)

I may be wrong, but I think the parent/baby combo can keep coming until you've had seven *spotted* (or maybe eight with twins). Or does having one missed mean you've lost that one forever?

They will keep coming until spotted.