a day with mom

The last two months have been a little weird with emma being gone so much. Most of the time, I really enjoy the extra time I get with samantha, and I even get special time with emma on the way home from school. But lunch time is especially quiet, and I am often surprised at how much I miss her silly laugh and cheerful presence at the lunchtable.

But samantha and I have also had lots of fun times together. Nearly every day, she asks if we can go outside - and now that the weather is warm but not too hot, it's been fun to take her with me on my errands. She loves riding the bus (or at least the part where she gets to swipe the bus pass or put the money in the box) and likes getting special snacks when we go outside. Mommy likes that part too.

On the agenda this particular day was a trip by bus to the city's central post office where I had to sort out a problem that arose last week. At the bus stop, samantha loves watching all the buses go by. "Is this our bus, Mommy?" "Is this one ours?" Patiently, she waits, money in hand.

Because she's a child - and a foreign child - she always gets a seat. Looking out the window provided her plenty of things to comment on. Bicycles, for all their ubiquity here, always capture her attention.

on the bus: self portrait.

The stop closest to the post office lets you off right at the entrance to the city square. The square is actually really well laid out, with lots of flowers, kites, and fountains (and not to mention pooping pigeons! :) The square also is bordered on one side by a natural spring, so the stone bridges and weeping willows on that side are quite nice as well.

Samantha didn't mind going back to the post office, because some friendly little clerks last week gave her seaweed-flavored crackers. She munched on them the entire time I filled out my twelve customs forms for shipping! She told me as we walked closer to the familiar gold-and-green sign, "Mommy, that lady gave me cookies. I do want to go there!" How anything with seaweed could possibly qualify as a cookie is beyond me.

After the post office, we walked up to wal-mart to buy a few things. And on the way up, I remembered they had a terribly odd bench just outside. I got a picture of it, just so you could marvel with me at the strangeness of it all.

Um, yes. That baby is naked. And yes, he is a boy. Samantha was more concerned with whether or not that mister really was looking at her or not. But she did want to know if the baby had eyes. Now, that question I can answer!Inside wal-mart...nobody's too concerned about BPA's here...at the check-out line, doing some checking out of her own...

and we had to get a picture of the girl.......because, well....so, a shout to my big-little sister! if you only knew how many managers I had to talk to to get that picture!