journal of a wacky expat family
There is one last Halloween costume opportunity for the kids. They get to dress up on Friday at school. You know what that means? Decision agony about what to wear? Henry was trying to go to sleep last night but he couldn't because he was having trouble deciding what to be: Thor or Hulk. Life is full of difficult choices ...
For some reason, Truman needed to wear cycling gloves with his jammies:
Truman straight up refused to go to school today. Jess got him all the way inside his classroom but he refused to stay. Had his teacher stepped in he probably would've, but Jess didn't get any support. So... he got to stay home and help Jess out with her stuff.
Adeline and Henry are both feeling a little sick. I attribute the fact that they are like morons for 48 hours but it is possible there is a bug going around.
olive chillin like a villain:
Today we tried to recover a little bit from yesterday. We enjoyed an extra hour of sleep thanks to the daylight savings clock change. Around 1:00 this afternoon we had a Halloween party at ASM.
The kids continued to enjoy their weekend of free eating and had candy and donuts for breakfast. Luckily, they all felt a little sick tonight. :)
Candy coma:
Candy heartburn:
I know I look like Hannah Montana but I'm actually dressed as Thor.
Last week we received our August/September water bill for the new house and it was shocking that it's approximately 800 euros cheaper than the same one we received last year (at the old house).
Right about this time last year I remember thinking "Holy crap! We can't afford to live here, the utility costs in Europe are insane!".
Or, we were just renting an older house with a massive (unknown) water leak in the backyard.
Look at this cool art exhibit that Henry did!
Jess sent me the picture; Henry never even mentioned it. He communicates just about as badly as his dad.
Many of you know that Henry has taken guitar lessons this year at school. He took a few lessons while we were in China but there were many kids and the quality of the instruction was quite low. This year he received 1:1 instruction from his teacher, Jorge. Once a week all year he and Jorge would practice. And not boring stuff either! Each week Jorge would show him the power chords for a popular song. Henry practiced songs from the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Boston, etc.
On June 4 was the music recital at ICS. Kids played their songs on their chosen instruments (violin, guitar, drums, or piano) and Jorge or the other teacher played accompaniment parts so no matter what instrument they played (well, except for the violin) it was like they were in a rock band.
Henry played "Horse With No Name" by America. yep, the 1971 classic. :) His friend Alejandro joined him on the drums.
We recorded video of it but it's too large to upload so here are a few photos.
What did you do that got Mommy's attention?" Oh boy ...
Read MoreJess picked up the Chinese visas for her and Adeline to go to Beijing in late May. I'm excited for them to get the opportunity to go back, see friends, and experience the place from a tourism point-of-view.
Read MoreTonight it was Henry's turn to say prayers at supper. He said:
Dear Lord, Thank you for this day, thank you for our family and friends, and thanks for letting us be in China. And please keep us safe on our next flight and let us not have jet-lag. Amen.
It's interesting how our international living has seeped into all aspects of our children's lives.
It's Sunday night and I'm heading back to San Jose tomorrow. It's a real downer from a family perspective but it's definitely needed from a professional perspective. Oh well, life is full of trade-offs. We've got a big holiday coming up here in China and Jess has been planning a wonderful Japanese adventure for us. We're all pretty excited. I'll try to recap some of the things we've been up to this weekend. I have a few pictures from my iPhone but hopefully Jess will log on later and update this post with some good photos from her camera.
Weather We've had three days of absolutely gorgeous weather. I really enjoyed (most) of the weather last fall, and this year seems to be heading in the same direction. There are a lot of people hanging out outside soaking up the sun and the clean air. The pollution index has been between 30 and 75 all weekend (for reference, 30 is approximately 'normal' for most of the U.S.). I even managed to get a sunburn today. The sunburn isn't cool but that fact that it was clear enough for the sun to burn me says it was pretty darn nice. I've mentioned before about how my standards for "clear days" have really dropped since moving to Beijing, but it's days like today that make us realize what we've been missing.
Friday After work we got take-out from the new dumpling and noodle place that opened up near our house. Everyone we know that has eaten there raved about the food.It turns out they don't have the take-out process down pat. It took 45 minutes for them to make our food and in the end they forgot to give us half our order. The food was tasty, but they forgot my spicy pig tongue. I'm not a big bread/noodle guy so I was counting on the pig tongue dish for my dinner. We tried calling them to tell them they forgot half of our food but they only speak Chinese so they kept hanging up on us. Annoying. We'll give the place another try but we'll eat in next time.
Saturday
Adeline has gymnastics on Saturday mornings at 8:30am which is a little early for us since Saturday morning is typically our "lounge around and have a big breakfast" morning. Several of the Esmond kids came over to play and both Jess and I hit a charity book sale that was being held at a local school.
Xiao Guo came over to babysit so Jess and I could attend a dinner party at a friends house (yep, we took the motorcycle). The food was catered in by a local Chinese caterer and it was fantastic! The wine was excellent as well. :) We spent several hours chatting about all things Beijing and then headed home. Henry is still doing his "adolescent power-struggle" with Xiao Guo. He wouldn't listen or go to bed and so when we got home at 11:30pm he was sitting there on the couch with Xiao Guo. Jess and I don't really know how to fix it. Addi and Truman aren't having problems so we're not really sure what's going on.
Sunday
On Sunday's Henry has rugby practice at ISB so we all went there to watch him and also to let Addi play on the playground with her friends. Most of the families that were at the dinner party on Saturday night were at the school playgrounds enjoying the nice weather so we continued our conversations from the previous evening.
After rugby practice we had lunch at a western restaurant with the Showalters. There were so many of us that we took the minivan and the motorcycle. It was nice but by the time we were leaving both family's kids were in need of naps and were starting to meltdown. After lunch we took naps and started preparing for the week ahead.
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Ok, I guess it is time to write again...especially since everyone is enjoying Mitchell's witty posts so much. :)
We had our first real emergency yesterday and got a real feel for "expat" health-care in China. I was having lunch (and coffee) with Nikki and Truman when I got a call from the school nurse. Henry had collided with another student at recess. The only description he gave me was that he had gotten Henry to stop crying, but he was pretty sure I needed to take him in to have him looked at. Nothing more. When we arrived at school I found poor Henry in the nurses clinic covered blood and looking rather beat up. He had been running when they collided, as was the other boy, and they both looked worse for wear. Henry had split a good portion of his lip in two places and was bleeding like crazy.
We dropped Truman off with our ayi and headed to the Beijing United Clinic (BJU) in Shunyi close to our house. After being seen by 2 different doctors, both saying that Henry needed quite a few stitches, they sent us to the ER at BJU hospital in the city to have it done. Henry was totally freaking out...as was I remembering how hard it was to pull him out from under the table in the doctor's office last time he had to get a shot. We picked up Mitchell from work and headed to the ER. Same diagnosis here, by 2 more doctors, stitches were needed. Henry was shaking with fear, literally, and was begging for them not to do anything. So my darling husband, remembering what it was like when he was 6 to get stitches in his own lip, went and privately discussed the situation with the doctor. They came to the conclusion that stitches could be avoided if Henry kept it clean, was on antibiotics plus a mouthwash, and he avoided running/etc so he wouldn't injure it more. It would take a lot longer to heal this way, but would save the poor kid the dramatic experience of getting stitches in his lip.
I won't lie to you, it looks horrible and I thought avoiding stitches was a bad idea. It has started to reattach a little bit and the swelling is slightly less. Mitchell keeps reassuring Henry that he looks very tough and I just keep silently praying that it will heal ok. :) I will continue to keep you updated on his healing process. He is one brave kid!!
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| On our way to the ER. |
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| Day 2, heading to school. |
