Happy Halloween from Changchun!

I miss trick or treating.  I miss all things fall.  The kids school does a really lousy version of Halloween.  But they still managed to have a good time.  Milly just couldn't understand why the Chinese don't trick or treat!  

Secondary did their dress up day on the Friday before Halloween.  They waited so long to plan anything that the Halloween Party isn't until Nov. 11   But this is how all things at CAIS seem to be.  Jocy picked out her costume awhile ago when my favorite website Chasing Fireflies was having a clearance sale on costumes.  She looked beautiful.  And so grown up.  I swear she was just Cinderella like yesterday.

Primary got to dress up and have a parade on the actually day of Halloween.  They also did a little  "trick or treating" around the classrooms.  Elly had picked out her costume the same time as Jocy's.  I was surprised by her choice of "Bird of Paradise".  It took her until the end of Halloween to realize she was just a fancy parrot. Ha!  But she looked amazing.  Nate had a hard time deciding what to be.  I had picked him up a Spiderman costume to add to his dress up collection.  He had stated that it was unfair that his sisters had a big chest full and he didn't have much.  He also got a Jedi costume from Disney Paris that he said he was going to wear.  But last minute, he went with Spiderman

Milly didn't get a school party.  I'm not sure if they had done it the Friday before or what, but I let her pick what she wanted to wear on Halloween.  She is a huge fan of her new Bat girl costume.  Joel picked it up at Target while in Troy, NY.  She has been in love with it ever since.

Nate with his BFF Sebastian

Nate's class

Elly's class

This picture came up on the School's Wechat account.  It said, "I am a child, but I am also a Super Model"  Sigh... this school is filling Elly's head too!

Summer is officially over in the CGQ!

Today is the First Day of School in Changchun.  All four of mine have started!!  My house is oddly quiet.  My Ayi is looking sad.  But I have had the most productive morning... in two months.

Now, I don't love the alarm going off at 5:45am.  And I usually don't like dealing with the mass amount of grumpiness that flows thru the house starting at 6am, but today was quite surprising.  They all bounded out of bed (minus Milly), got dressed, ate, and backpacks ready to go by 6:20am.  By 6:40am, Elly was complaining, let's move it already.  As soon as our driver arrived, we did quick pictures and then they loaded onto the bus.  It was 6:48am.  That had a good ten minutes to get to the school bus....which is a two minute drive away.

My handsome boy ready for 2nd grade!

Elly off to 4th Grade

Jocy headed to 7th Grade! GASP

 The Clan ready for CAIS

Climbed into Stella the bus way too quickly!

Next was Milly.  She woke up sometime before the sun was up.  I let her crawl in bed with me so I could go back to sleep.  It worked!  When I made my way back upstairs....

          

I grabbed her clothes and mine and decided I'll get ready before waking her.  I finally kissed her good morning and she sort of woke up.  She does the most adorable stretch when she is woken from a deep sleep.  Then... "I don't want to go to school.  I want to stay with you".  I nicely said Hell No and reminder her that she has been asking multiple times daily, when does school start.  I knew she was just tired and would soon change her tune. And thankfully, I was right.  By the time we got downstairs for breakfast, we couldn't go fast enough.  We made it out the door by 7:35am.  I was a bit worried how long it would take to get to school since it was raining.  It should really only take 10 minutes to get to her school.  But because of the Chinese have no common sense and driving is a clusterfuck, it takes no less than 30 minutes.  It is a good day if I can get home within the hour.

So oddly enough, traffic was fairly tame and drop off area wasn't too crazy.  Milly popped out of the bus and headed right on in, like she owned the place.  Sounds very familiar (cough - Elly - cough).  I wanted a first day pic at school.  But as soon as we walked in the door and everyone was yelling for Milly, she ran right off and jumped into Ms. Ruby's arms.  I got a quick kiss and out the door.  I am so happy that her teachers are staying with her this year.  She is so excited to be in the Big Kids room on the 3rd floor!  Looking forward to what this school year brings for her.

I had to make a dash back to CAIS to get uniforms.  That school is just a HOT mess.  How can you not expect students to grow out of their uniforms over the summer?  The uniform store should be open the week before!  But no... they just have an open house for new people.  Then... the bus.  UGH.  At BISI, the bus driver would come round the week before and drop off a card with your times. CAIS waited until the day before to send SMS to Joel.  Not even me.  So I had to get in touch with all 3.  Because one is too easy.  There is a morning lady.  One for Elly and Nate on the 2:30 bus and then one for Jocy on the 4:20 bus.   I got the last message for the bus.... at 7pm.  THE NIGHT BEFORE!  

I could keep going on but once I was finished with school stuff, I got mom time!  I stopped in for a mani/pedi and then met some of the other moms for lunch. It was such a fun crazy day.  

I wish I had gotten pics of when they got home... because they were flat out exhausted.  All in bed by 7pm... on their own!  Milly usually likes a hall light on but she told me to turn it off... she was DONE.

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.

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!

#expatkids

Tonight as I was getting #3 and #4 out of the shower, I handed Nate his towel and he yells, "MOM!  My towel is cold!"  Um, What?  "Did you put it on the warmer thing?"  No it was hung up over there.  "Ugh, you have to make sure my towel is on the warmer on shower night."

Wow, I never thought I would be having this this conversation with my 5 year old son!  I posted it to twitter and looked for the hashtag expatkids.  What?  It doesn't exist.  I'm sure I'm not the only mom out there that thinks the things that come out of our expat kids mouths aren't crazy!  So now its out there!