Following in Daddy's Footsteps

So today we got a call from the school nurse. Porter had had a little accident, she had checked him out, and he was going to be ok...but she thought his nose might be broken and he was definitely an emotional mess. I talked to him on the phone and could barely understand a word he said, poor guy. The story was that it was windy outside and he was trying to go up some stairs. He didn't want the wind in his eyes, so he tried to go up the stairs with them closed. Obviously that didn't work out too well, and there you have it. A new lesson learned for Porter-always keep your eyes at least partially open when going up stairs:) So anyway, Noah took off work for a while (being that I am not up to driving yet in this city) and we headed out to pick him up. His school is a bit away from where we live, so by the time we actually got there he was seeming to do much better, and holding the ice pack by his nose. All involved though (well except Porter) thought it best to still take him to the doctor just incase to make a firm diagnosis and make sure there was no deviated septum or blood collecting, fractures, etc. As luck would have it, we were able to get right in with the pediatric Ear Nose and Throat doc at the hospital and he checked Porter out for us. He took some good pictures of the inside of Porter's nose, (thus prompting questions about what all the hairs were doing in his nose, and what their function was for the rest of the day) and they were able to see that everything is pretty ok, broken but not too serious. phew. there was enough trauma already and just getting him to look in his nose. I don't want to know what would happen if we had had to have it reset! We have a follow up at the end of the week, where he will check it again and Porter earned a tasty lollipop for his efforts. The big bummer of the situation though is that the doctor told us he has to stay home the rest of the week, so it won't get accidentally bumped or knocked again. Porter was SO excited to go back to school and see his friends after our vacation, I guess we'll have to fill this week with some fun Christmas activities to pass the time!

He put on a brave smile for me at the end, and luckily the tape seems to be covering most of the bruising for now so it won't freak him out too much when he looks in the mirror!

Anyway, so I guess it has begun...it was in his genes. Daddy has broken his nose 5 times! Let's hope this might be it for Porter.

Halloween

When we first took this job I was initially curious how celebrating some of our favorite American holidays (i.e. Halloween) would go. Turns out there was plenty to do, and the kids had a great time! All told, we attended the Consulate Halloween Bash, (where Ronan even made it into the video that they posted on the Consulate Facebook page), another little party at the Marine House where I scarfed down two REAL hot dogs on Wonder Bread buns-can you tell I thought they were tasty? Then there was a great little Church party that we accidentally missed, Porter had a Halloween party at school, and then our neighborhood had organized trick-or-treating! Now we didn't participate in everything, just because quite frankly I didn't have the energy but hopefully next year I will be back up to snuff and let the kids pack it in! (Luckily they are young though, and they didn't know that we had missed a few things:) Most of these pictures are from the Consulate Party, as I didn't get any pictures of the other two we participated in. I made them be a zoo keeper and elephant this year, to reuse the costume I made for Porter two years ago. I didn't order Porter's safari helmet in time, but he still looked pretty cute:) They had a fun little photo booth set up to take pics, and true to form these lovely ones are what we came away with!

sidebar: I did let Porter dress as Optimus Prime for his school party...I'm so mean making them coordinate when they are together!

They had lots of fun booths set up, including balloon stomp, bean bag toss, a spooky story time by the Consul General which was great, a haunted house, a cupcake walk, musical chairs...

they decorated treat bags, got to demolish a couple of pinatas, had face painting, pumpkin decorating and even a little pumpkin patch on the lawn for the kids to choose from. They also got loaded up with candy from desk to desk from the other people in Noah's office.

And last but not least, if you are a fan of the TV show Chuck, Noah went as Morgan, and his counterpart at work went as Ana Woo, she could pull it off much better than I ever could:)

Good times for sure, and we had plenty of candy to help us feel like we celebrated in style!

another slight freak out!

ok, I JUST realized...yes, I've had FSO friends talking about it for months....but somehow it has only now dawned on me that I need to do our Christmas cards, like THIS WEEK! Well, even better TODAY! I am a real, snail mail Christmas card girl and I haven't ordered any photos from Costco yet or made the cards!AAAhhh!! Luckily, I did bring the paper with me, but I better get going! With a 2-3 week turn around to get my photos, then put them in the cards and send them back I'll be pushing it! Throw in the fact that we will be gone most of the month- (yes, we have totally lucked out with some awesome time off for the next couple of weeks and we are headed to France next week till basically the end of November!!) and I'm burning daylight here....so just a head's up, for those of you regulars it will be coming. I apologize if they are late! Who knew November 2 would give me a Christmas Card Panic attack! Reminder for next year, have them done by August:)

life lately

So here's what's been going on around our house. We've had great fall festivities, birthdays, we got our car!, some awesome sightseeing, a sick mommy, an awesome time with fun friends visiting, doctor's appointments (Ronan had to get his impacted earwax removed:( poor guy- but did come away with a sweet puffy sparkly sticker that seriously must have had real glue or something on the back! I still have to get that gunk off of his shirt!) our first trip across the bridge to Asia, some traffic and a teeny tiny sideswipe, and some basic lack of motivation and energy creating probably the biggest pile of laundry to do ever! Throw in a bomb downtown yesterday, us then deciding not to go to Church because of proximity and it has kind of been and up and down all around sometimes normal, sometimes weird month! Am I the only one who has those sometimes? Anyway, so I'm hoping things get back to normal, I get back to blogging (yes, I will catch up soon I promise), I get caught up on laundry and that we can finally set off on our much anticipated vacation next week! I am really dying for some family time and delicious French food. So, although October was at times lackluster and not quite my original vision for the month, I am going to take the good press on (there was still plenty of awesome October) and get myself (and my house back together!) Now that I've put it out there maybe I will actually do it! Updates to come, sorry for the randomness. Sometimes you just need to write.