A new wonder

When I found out that we were going to host someone from the Flat family again this year, I was so excited. We were going to be able to go on more adventures & more trips. We were once again going to be tourists in our own city.

What I hadn't counted on or expected (?). No that's not it. Accepted? Yeah that's it. What I had not accepted was that this year my children would be older. What I had not expected (yup it fits now) was that I was going to see my city, the one I grew up in, through not only Flat Samantha's eyes, but also through the eyes of a 7 year old, named Kayla, a 3 year old named Meredith and a 1 and a half year old named Sean. I hadn't expected all these feelings of wonder to fill me up. And yet here they are.

It's so exciting to me to think about how Kayla is relating to her Flat family member. It's fun for me to see Meredith really getting involved this year in the hosting of Samantha. Meredith asks is Flat Samantha is coming with us here or there. And it's even more fun for me to see Sean relating to his city. Relating to his sister. Relating to everything in a fun & exciting new way.

So thank you Kayla for sharing your Flat Samantha with us.

So.... you wanna know what we've been up to? Well....... We needed a girls' day. So on a very lazy Sunday afternoon we gals packed up & headed for a mani/pedi. Samantha was a little shy at first, but once she saw all the colors of polish she could choose from, she made herself right at home.

Meredith walked in & sat down like she owned the place. If fur was still en vogue for little girls and Meredith had one, she have dropped it down off her shoulders & one of her minions (a.k.a mom) would've been right there to catch it. We relaxed, we chatted, and we had fun. The only thing missing was maybe a mimosa for me & shirley temples for Meredith & Samantha.

Come on. Really diva?

And after our mani/pedis, it was off for some pizza. Samantha got a little oil on her shoe, but that was ok. Little miss diva decided she needed new ones anyway.

Yesterday was another big adventure for us. We met Rob at work for lunch. We made it take your Flat family member to work day. Or rather to someone else's work as the case may be.

We rode the train again & had lunch at the atrium in the Citigroup building. I got a talking to for taking pictures in a federal reserve building. Whoops!

Samantha settled in very nicely to her role. Even deciding 5 minutes into it that she was on a coffee break.

Samantha was a good supervisor. She watched Meredith work very carefully & even managed to nitpick. She's going to very well in the working world someday.

Seany was, of course, asleep on the job. Silly kid. Doesn't he know the boss is watching?

Then it was time to punch out & head home, but not before seeing some sights. As we crossed Park Avenue, we realized that we were going to pass a waterfall wall that's in the book A City Is. We had just read it.

We alsop passed a piece of the Berlin Wall. We told Samantha all about it's history.

On our way home, we stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral and we also walked through Rockefeller Center again. This time getting really close to the ginormous Christmas tree. We also stopped to watch the zamboni clean the ice on the skating rink.

And tonight we celebrated Hanukkah. We explained to Samantha what Hanukkah is. After Rob & Uncle Freddy said the prayers,  Samantha helped us light the menorah.