Dim Sum Mum - Tess' Little Pieces:

We are back from Harbin. The kids could not have argued more. There is no IF to that statement, because it is a fact. I think they were still grizzling in their sleep, but that might have been due to the fact that we had three of them sharing a bed. Still, their fault, they drove me bonkers with their complaints and requests and at the end of the trip they inform us it was the best one ever. I DON'T THINK SO.

We travelled by plane, train and automobile and each had it's pros and cons.

Harbin is a surreal, beautiful city with such awesome architecture. I was so happy walking through Harbin and not just because it is an effective way of keeping out the cold.

I read three books: Bridget Jones Mad About the Boy, Her Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty and Before I Go To Sleep. Each had their merits.

Here is a great Jasper story. As we travelled throughout Beijing, Jasper kept a close eye on all the animals he was seeing: dogs, cats, camels, donkeys, horses, birds and the list goes on. One night, as we were exiting a restaurant to head off to the Beijing Train Station, Jasper exclaimed, "I just saw a mouse!" And indeed, there were the not so tiny hindquarters of a rat struggling to get into an underground hole by the restaurant where we had just been.

"Do you know what this means?" Screamed Jasper looking at where the rat was and the door of the restaurant.

I knew he was going to freak out about the restaurant having rats. I knew it i knew it i knew it. To calm him down I said, "many restaurants have rats in the kitchen, remember when we were on the River Kwai and we stayed in the floatel? There were rats there!"

To which my little man turned and looked at me and repeated, "Do you know what this means?"

At this time I just decided to take it and said, "What does it mean, Jasper?" and he responded, "I have now seen 12 different animals since we got to Beijing!"

To quote a Bridget Jones book, I am mad about the boy. ANd mad at him a large percentage of the time as well.