Nuclear Meltdown in Guangzhou

This just in…we have confirmed that there was a nuclear meltdown today on the Shamain Island section of Guangzhou, China. The permanent damage is still to be determined. The source of the problem seems to be a little boy who did not want to get his medical examination. More to follow as the details become clear…

Yup, you guessed it; today Tyson lost it and lost it big time. First full blown tantrum. And it happened all of a sudden: one minute we were on the bus from our hotel with the rest of the families from our travel group, the next we are trying to get his visa picture and he goes radioactive. He continued to go berserk through a second attempt to photograph him (his visa pic is a classic slobber-faced, mid-meltdown shot) and then intensified his protests when we went for the medical exam. There was no soothing the poor little guy. We have no idea what set him off, whether it was all the new families around us with new kids, the new setting or something about the medical facility that made him think of the orphanage but he was irrationally inconsolable. At one point I had him hugged to my body with both thrashing arms in my hands and Melissa and the doc were trying to keep his thrashing legs from kicking the doctor in the junk. The exam took FOREVER – he must have been screaming, drooling, kicking, biting and scratching for over an hour. I’m being told by my wife that it was really only 40 minutes or so, but it seemed like HOURS. I’m sure this is what it’s like to have an inconsolable infant who can’t tell you why he’s so upset. Thankfully the tantrum was short lived. He was back to top form within an hour. And we proceeded to shop, shop, shop. Melissa is a tiger at the bargain table. She is relentless and is willing to walk away. Nobody’s hiding from her or anything like that but she does drive a hard bargain.

Melissa would like to make a public thank you to everyone who gave her a sticker book at the shower as well as the creators of play-doh. Without these two miracle toys we never would have made it through Tyson’s first plane ride yesterday afternoon. He is still getting used to sitting with a seat-belt, so keeping him seated through take-off and landing was a real chore. We didn’t incur the wrath of the flight attendant but we were ‘this close’ on about four occasions. The 4 hour trip to Tokyo will be challenging and I have no idea how we will manage the trans-pacific flight. Seriously dreading that. He is so mobile and sitting still is against his nature. Um, how much benadryl can you give a kid in a 24 hour period?

Tomorrow is the traditional adoption picture at the White Swan Hotel – all the families dress their kids up in traditional Chinese garb and take a picture on the “red couch” at the hotel. We got Ty a gold, dragon-embroidered kung-fu outfit that he picked out himself. He’ll probably refuse to wear it tomorrow morning but he’ll look awful funny standing there in his Diego (or Kung-Fu Panda) briefs while all the other kids (mostly girls) are showing off their new keepow’s.

We’re trying to settle him down now for the night so I should go. Lots of love to all our fans out there. We’ve still got almost a week to go, so keep the prayers up. More developments to come….