can fights really be productive?

Currently in Beijing (again). But in a much, much nicer hotel room than the last time we're here. Chances of my son getting bitten in his sleep by bed bugs decreases dramatically.

The weather here is much colder than Hangzhou. I like it a lot. The air is crisper, and thus feels cleaner. We just have to make sure our son dresses appropriately. Kind of hard to do when he seems to hate wearing clothes. My husband and I got in a ridiculous (and ridiculously long) fight due to a misunderstanding involving our son's sock. It all started with a local mom's surprised exclamation to her daughter as they walked past me that his left foot was bare. I found out in about three seconds that he had yanked it off as I was wearing him on my back, hurrying to get some lunch. His father found out in 45 minutes, after I finally got a hold of that madman who just took off running back towards the direction of where we've been walking from, hell-bent on finding that sock somewhere along the route and not heeding my calls, literal and then by phone.

The ridiculously long fight ended up making me think long and hard about the next three/four years, and we as a family (I think) have come to a new understanding. It'll take a lot of work, a lot of possible failure, a lot of sacrifice on our (as parents, as adults) part, but I finally sense a rightness to this plan, and a peace upon the basic structure of it which wasn't there before.

So we'll see how it pans out. I've recorded the family plan elsewhere, and it'll be...interesting...to match it up (or not) with reality three/four years from now.

Whatever happens, I hope our son will always be fundamentally joyful and glad to be alive. Like this.