The last 10 hours

1) Arrived in Ann Arbor after a fairly eventless flight although we did have one meltdown on the Tokyo-Detroit leg (which involved fellow passengers and one flight attendant actually offering us assistance. Thanks for asking- yes, our daughter does scream like a Tasmanian devil on steroids when she's throwing a tantrum, no, she's not having a seizure-- that's how she wails-- and no, a glass of milk isn't going to make it better...)

2) Was welcomed by a light dusting of snow, a forty degree Centigrade difference in temperature, and a 40% dip in humidity levels.

3) Made a quick instant noodle lunch for Jude and I and some oatmeal for Sophie. For the last 30 hours, with the exception of a bowl of udon at the Narita airport, Sophie only ate toast, pretzel sticks, her new favorite fishball crackers that we had packed from Singapore, and some fruit from her otherwise untouched airline meals. Jude and I weren't that lucky- we actually ate our airline meals.

4) Watched as Sophie reunited with her play yard and all her toys in there like family reuniting after years of being separated by the Berlin Wall or the Korean straits. I really think that was the only thing keeping her from giving in to the exhaustion and falling asleep at 4.00 in the afternoon.

5) Took our first showers in 36 hours.

6) Restocked our empty refrigerator with a Trader Joe's run. We gave Sophie her own kiddie cart and license to pick 5 things to put in it- another attempt to keep her up and awake until a reasonable bedtime. She chose bananas, dried cranberries, dried stuffed ravioli (even though she can't eat it), a bag of onions, and a jar of bruschetta spread (don't ask... it was at her eye-level. She also claimed she needed it.)

7) Put together dinner in a semi-haze- veggie and miso soup with pasta for Sophie (I had made a big pot of it before we left for Singapore and portioned it into freezable bags) and take-out BBQ for Jude and I.

8) Watched as Jude fell asleep in the middle of reading Sophie her bedtime story. Before 7.00pm.

9) Watched as Sophie fell asleep before she could even realize that her Dada had fallen asleep reading her her bedtime story.

10) Fell asleep myself after 8) and 9).