Snowbound

A noodle joint in Guangzhou where TJ told the waitresses: "No vegetables."

This morning TJ greeted the day singing -- a wordless version of the "Barney" theme song that Meimei has been singing to him in her own Chinese rendition. He came into Mom and Dad's room to play, and soon he and the sisters were playing Frisbee with a plastic plate and taking down unanchored objects. I put an end to that, after which he and Meimei tried to play catch with a 10-lb. medicine ball. These kids definitely need to be outside.
TJ's English is progressing from his first  sentence, "I want cookie." He can ask for noodles and ask his sisters if they want to play. He can say "please" and "thank you" when he thinks of it and has started calling his hero Spongebob by his English name. Tonight we read "Goodnight Moon" twice, and he loved it as much as Jiejie had as a baby. He repeated as many words as he could of that book and "Green Eggs and Ham" and a picture book of fruit.
Jiejie is picking up a few Chinese words and phrases in her efforts to talk to TJ and to help him. This morning, however, she confided to me that she missed our family "the way it used to be." Of course this may be no different than her somewhat less subtle protestations against the arrival of Meimei, most notably a sheet of paper shoved under the door that said, "NO BABY."
To compound the cabin fever, the snow removal guy failed to show up. He said the transmission died in his truck, so, barring an unexpected thaw, we probably aren't straying too far from home tomorrow, either.