The trip back home – make that the “trek” back home – was pretty
brutal. I fully expected it to be tough,
and gave the kids a pre-game speech to brace themselves and try to be
patient. But we were still no match for
what that day had in store. When our
flight out of Hong Kong was delayed a few hours, I knew it would have a ripple
effect and extend an already long day. After
Charlie and I made about 68 laps on the moving sidewalk, I convinced him to
check out the planes. For about 1 minute,
before we knocked out another 36 laps.
With a challenging exit from the long flight, we left the
essential oils on the plane, and knew that was trouble. He was devouring the snack bag with the appetite
of a marathon runner, and we were running out of tricks. When we waited in a Delta line in Seattle for
about an hour to re-book and re-check luggage, all of us were near the breaking
point and it was tough to predict which one of the 5 would tantrum first. That’s when Charlie had to pee in a bottle right
there inside the airport because we were kind of trapped in customs no-mans
land. Then we were assigned seats in 5
different rows, because the flight was understandably full. Hopefully one day we can laugh about the
trek, but now the memories still cause chills and sudden hives.
When we were en route back to Atlanta, Charlie was very, very
focused on meeting the cats. Extended family was definitely taking a
backseat to the cats. We got home close to midnight, after being in bus
& plane transit for 30 hours.
Charlie had only napped a couple of hours, so he had to be exhausted,
right? Surely we would all sleep 8-10
hours out of pure fatigue, I thought.
But the poor guy was so worked up, and so concerned that the cats were
going to bother him at night, that it took at least an hour to go to sleep.
[We lock them in the basement at night, but even with google translate,
he wasn't buying it.] We were thankful that he made a quick reversal to
become friendly with the cats, and that has blossomed into quite the obsession.
They have received more attention, pursuit, and affection / manhandling
in the past 13 days than in their previous 2 years. And lessons in air
hockey with Aunt Sharon.
Charlie has received quite a few scratches along the way, and I
guess that's one way to learn that cats actually don't like mandatory showers.
He's also continued his love of the water,
with more baths & showers than Sam & Kate take in a year. I feel
guilty about our water consumption, but it's early to try and explain the
challenges of clean water supply in the developing world to our little man.
At least he's staying fresh & clean!
Charlie's English is still progressing quickly, as we expected and
hoped that it would, and it brings some charm amidst the chaos. Instead
of saying "can we play outside?" or "does this thing have
batteries?" he phrases questions more directly. "Play outside.
Yes? No?" "Charlie go supermarket. Yes? No?"
He refers to most people in the 3rd
person, instead of using pronouns like "me" and "you."
He calls himself Charlie and never uses his Chinese nickname, Zhi Zhi, so
he'll say "Charlie no sleep. Mama sleeping? Yes?
No?" "Charlie go to toy room. “Baba help
Charlie." “Charlie need screw
driver.”
Since he's so curious, he's always asking
"what is that?" But it sounds much more like
"wuzzat?" like he’s riffing on the iconic Budweiser “wazzuuuup!” with a southern twist. He'll occasionally combine some English and Chinese with "what’s the
shen ma?" which I think is literally “what the what?” He hasn't yet learned all of the polite
phrases we'd prefer, so about 830 times a day, we hear "Mama!
Com'eer! Com'eer! Mama!!" These days, it’s likely to be one of 3
things: naked Charlie making some potty
joke as he runs between the bath and shower, Charlie pinning down the cats next
to the potty as they hiss in protest, or our Mr Fix-It, proud to show off another
resurrected toy that hasn’t seen any action in a half decade.
All this looks like a great reality. Show! You should contact the learning channel!
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