Re-acquaintance

I recently spent a day off meeting up with a friend I haven't seen in quite a while.

 The last time I had seen Erika and Maxine was a year and a half ago. God, that went by too fast. Still, catching up took no time at all, and the timing coincided with Maxine's birthday having just past. The kid's 4 years old now, and she's grown into a really sweet child. What's more, Erika recently put another baby into this
world, a boy this time, named Liam. So she's been keeping busy.
 Just like old times, them and Ken and I met up and spend half the day just walking through shopping malls - more for the food than for actual shopping - and eventually made it to a park to let Maxine loose. The newborn, Liam, slept through the whole thing, so I can't really say I got a proper chance to meet him, but hey, that just meant I could give Maxine more of my attention.

 And though she did struggle to remember me a little bit at first, our re-acquaintance was quick and we got to play with each other lots, riding mini-trains across the mall, going up and down slides, bonding over ice cream and the like. Unlike the previous times, this time I could really chat with her, with some interesting results.

 "Maxine, what's your favorite kind of frog?"
 "Um...pink!"
 "With or without cars?"
 "With a car."

 Being that Erika lives rather deep in Chiba now, it's harder to meet up than it used to be. She's one of the first friends I made in Japan, though, so I'm glad we could all meet up like this. I do hope it won't be another year and a half until we do it again.