My favorite expat first trip.....

Not really.  We almost got to make our first trip to the ER this past Friday.

Jocy stayed at school late for a Halloween party, so the little three and I were having a chill evening.  I made chili for dinner and we were going to hang out and watch a movie.  Well after dinner, they all ran for their iPads.  I said, I thought it was movie night?  Nah... then they went brain dead.  I wasn't having any of it. So I took them all away and said play together!  Well I guess that wasn't my best decision...

It didn't take long before they were running and rough housing.  I told them to stop it or someone was going to get hurt.  I immediately walked into the kitchen to get some more water, when I heard the crying.  Nate always does the I'm dying cry, no matter how little he hurts himself.  It drives me nuts!  But before I walked out of the kitchen, the silent cry started.  That means trouble.  As I ran around the corner, I hear Elly say, Mom!  Nate is bleeding.  This starts MORE screaming.  Elly had a paper towel and handed it to me.  When Nate took his hand down, blood went everywhere.  Crap.  He soaked thru the paper towel in no time.  So I'm yelling at Elly directions, the dogs are going nuts, and my phone starts going crazy.  Joel was on his way home from Harbin.  He was messaging he was at the train station.  Then he was in the van.  I finally get Nate a bit calm and grab the phone.  I had like 10 messages from Joel.  I call and he starts giving me shit about not responding.  UGH. Men.  I explain the situation and tell him to tell our driver to MOVE IT.  Driving fast is not Mr. John's strong suit.  I appreciate how careful he drives in our crazy city, but sometimes, you gotta move it!

Then, Nate started freaking out again.  I told Joel I had to go.  As I turn around, I see Cekic, licking up the blood.  So I get Elly to stand guard and keep the dog away.  I try to calm down but he is freaking out that blood is in his mouth.  Great, did he bust teeth too.  At this point, I still have no idea what the heck happened.  Elly mentioned something about falling by the back door.  Maybe hitting the windowsill...which is granite!  I finally calm Nate down and tell him its OK to swallow blood.  He isn't going to die.  I get him to lay down on the couch.  I finally remove the paper towel to inspect the damage.  Oooo.... it kind of looks broken. Hmm... maybe not?  Just swollen?  I check all his teeth and all looks good.  OK... maybe not hospital after all.  I tell him to hang out for a minute so I can clean all the blood up.  It was all over the living room.  Why can't that kid stand still?  I finally ask him what happened.  He said he just fell... on his face.  What is it will this kid falling flat on his face.  I asked him why he didn't put his hands down to catch himself.  I don't know, was his reply.  Sigh

Right about the time I went to get him ice, well a bag of tater tots, Joel got home.  Well well, Mr. John does know where the gas pedal is!  By then, Nate was calm and hanging out.  The bleeding had stopped too.  Joel did the concussion check.  He seemed fine.  We were a bit worrying when he fell asleep pretty quickly, but it was a long week.

By the next day, he was feeling fine.  As of today, he still has bruises and a bit of a black eye.  Never a calm moment in our house.

It's all Chinese to me

Last night, the kids and I had our first Chinese lesson.  Well, I guess it was really just me.  The three oldest kiddos have been having classes at school for the pass two month.  So I am a tad behind.

Yesterday, was another bad pollution day.  I think it ended up hitting 300/500.  For the most part, just the smell bothers me, but yesterday was the worst effect on me.  The night before, when I took the dogs out, was the first time my eyes BURNED.  The smell leaked into the house a bit and it really bothered my nose and throat.  I'm also very sensitive to smell.  But I escaped to my bedroom, which so far has stayed stinky free!  Today was supposed to be cold and rainy, so I knew I had to get my shopping done yesterday.  I woke up feeling a little rough.  But I blamed staying up too late reading.  But as the pollution number went up, so did the headache.  Shopping with a three year old, battling Metro, the constant shelf stocking, and all the attention we attract, makes for a crazy shopping trip anyways.  Forget about it with a headache.  By the end of my trip, I just wanted to be back in bed.  And I have no idea how many things I failed to get.  It was just a big fat fail of a shopping trip.  Which means, I'm going to have to go again. Sigh.  Today is just too cold.  I could go but I just don't want to.  Plus, I still have a bit of lingering headache.  UGH.

Now that I am so OFF topic, after my awesome day, I had to take a nap.  I couldn't function anymore.  I convinced Milly to go down about 1:30.  At 4:30 my phone rang.  Crap.  Are the kids home, what is going on?  Thankfully, the Ayi was here.  I answered the phone and just couldn't get my brain to function at all.  It was our Chinese teacher trying to find our house.  Ugh... I can only give directions from landmarks.  I have no idea the name of the streets.  And our compound is split into two sections.  The apartment side and the townhouse side.  And each one has two gates.   I think I just confused her more, but she did finally make it here.

I was really not in the mood for this.  Jocy was giving my attitude that she didn't need more classes, she got enough at school.  Plus she had homework.  I told her just take this one class and then we would decide.  It's paid for.  So after a lot of craziness, we started.  And you know what, Jocy, Elly and Nate just started rattling off in Chinese.  WHAT?  I am so far behind them.  And my brain could not communicate with my mouth.  It was a rough start, but by the end, it was a good class.  Even Milly participated.  But I figure she will be fluent by the end of the school year.  I really like our teacher.  I have a feeling in the end, it will just need to be me in the classes.  Hopefully, I will learn something!

The Expat Struggle

Every time a holiday comes around, I have this internal struggle.  This Halloween was no different.  And I think it gets worse the older my kids get.  Seeing everyones wonderful Halloween pictures on Facebook makes me feel sad that my kids are missing out on that.  We used to spend every Halloween with Joel's cousin's family.  Plus, there were all the parties.  We had so many friends in Kansas City.  But here we are, again, the newbies.  Trying to figure out life and find new friends.  I don't even know if there is any Halloween celebrations in Changchun?  Mommy guilt in full effect here!

The kids had a great time at their school Halloween shindig.  But come Halloween night, they were all whining about the lack of trick or treating.  Nate actually said, "Tell the US President to tell China to have Halloween."

As I was sitting with my eldest watching everything we could find Halloweenish, I asked her how she felt about missing Halloween?  Really all holidays?  Would she rather we had gone back to the US?  She said that yes, she kind of misses all the events associated with American holidays (bad parents), but that school helped fill in those gaps.  Then she said, that while she wishes she was back doing all these fun things we see my friends and their kids doing thru Facebook,  none of them are spending Christmas in Japan, CNY in Thailand and spring break exploring China.  That right there, made my day.  I still have a bit of mommy guilt but I know when they look back at their childhood, they will be grateful for all the amazing adventures!