Earthquake Hits Denton

I am told there was an earthquake in Denton overnight.  Can't believe I missed it.  We were up most of the night with a wired and jetlagged Dan Dan.  Or maybe I thought the earthquake was just another rumble of the wild and crazy of my son, and my life these days.  Dan Dan was not only awake, but wanted Annie to be awake.  Despite efforts to contain him, he kept running into her room, shouting "JIE JIE!!", and shaking her.  He didn't understand why she wanted to miss out on all the fun.  And then he kept finding things and feeling the need to take them to Shad.  Like liters of Diet Dr. Pepper and Shad's camera case, also his glasses. 


We went to breakfast this morning, our family of four.  Shad and I are doing our best to plow through the day, though we are tired and drained and impatient.  Even though we are all irritable and I would have loved to have stayed home in my pjs all day, my littles needed to get out in the sunshine to re-set their body clocks.  We learned that lesson the hard way when we brought home Annie in 2004.  We had an interesting breakfast.  I am sure we looked insane.  Shad and I were zombie-like, and the kids were hyper and emotional.  It was not fun, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. 


After breakfast, we went to the park.  Annie had a blast being a big sister and showed Charlie the ropes of the playground.  It was a very sweet sight.  Charlie wants to do every single thing she does, and though he is very physical and strong and active, he's still just three.  He tries to keep up, and does a pretty good job, but also takes a lot of hard spills and tumbles.  And where Annie is my careful child, Charlie is NOT.  He is covered from face to feet with bruises and scrapes, all from the last 13 days he's been with us.   One of the first things he did when he was checking out his new home yesterday was leap to the top of Annie's bunkbed, which is no small accomplishment.  I may be white-headed by the time he is 5.

We are hoping for more sleep tonight.  After the park we came home and the kids took a big bubble bath for a long time.  We've been pretty low-key the rest of the day, very glad not to be in airports, planes, or hotel rooms.  Annie and her bro are watching "Tom and Jerry" cartoons, which we got in China.  Charlie loves this show.  This one is in Mandarin, although there are no words, so no translation neccessary. 

Annie is enjoying sisterhood more today than yesterday, there is progress on that front.  She is eager to give minute by minute reports on her degree of fondness for her brother.  Currently the like-o-meter is fairly high, so hope may be on the horizon again.   At least for this moment.