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Tonight was Ladies Night, an occasional night out with friends who have also have children from China. We met before Ryan, Rachel, and Linlee came home, and since then have added Jake and Logan to the mix. Colleen, Anne, Kristine and I try and get together once in a while, but with the schedules it's hard. But tonight was dinner night, and I was so looking forward to it! And it was fun. :) I got to the restaurant early and had the opportunity to run a few errands. Picked up some things for the little guys and a birthday present for Hailey. It was even on sale! Made my night, that's for sure. Then we had a delicious dinner and chat. But, almost immediately after we paid the bill, they asked us to leave so they could have the table! So, we went outside and stood in the parking lot for a bit while we finished visiting. (Last time, we sat for nearly 3 hours visiting after dinner, so this was quite a change.) It was a bit chilly, so one by one we went our seperate ways.

When I got home, the neighbor children were here. They're great kids, so it was no big deal. It seems that their mom had a "disagreement" with a knife while fixing dinner, and the knife won. She needed stitches so off to ER they went, sans children of course. They played Mario Kart with Ryan and Logan for a bit, then Ryan had a massive meltdown. Screaming and crying and kicking angrily, he was carried to his room for his jammies. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, while I was carrying him up the stairs his nose was bleeding. Profusely. Blood all over his bed, the floor, the carpet, my clothes, my shoes, his clothes...it was UGLY. Took about 15 minutes to finally get it stopped. After a long delay and lots of clean-up (thanks, Hailey! You're amazing and awesome!!) we finally got him presentable and sat him down with Daddy for some quiet time and monitoring. Finished cleaning up the bood (white carpet on the stairs), sent the neighbors back home, got Logan ready for bed, tucked both boys in, and caught my breath. Now I have to figure out why Ryan's nose keeps bleeding like that, and why on earth the child has a swollen, weepy ear! Some things....

So much for a peaceful, enjoyable night out. Glad dinner was good!!