The Shell Game

Ever been puzzled by the Shell Game?

You know, the dude on the sidewalk with a TV tray and a set of 3 cups hides
a small red ball under one of them and 

moves the cups around a few times...then, no matter how hard you tried to follow 

the cup you were sure he'd put the ball under...

Shazaam, No Ball.

Statues in Guangzhou on the Pedestrian Street

How does that happen?

Practice.

I'll be honest with you,we're getting good at a similar game at Our House.

It's because we Practice. 

Our Game:

Maylin inside the house~Lucy (our 45 fuzzy pounds of canine happiness) outside.

Maylin outside~Lucy roams the house.

Maylin in bed with the door shut~Lucy granted house freedom.

Lucy with a door between her and Maylin~Maylin content.

Lucy with only air between her and Maylin~Maylin very anxious.

Justin observed it's like a revolving door.

(the irony in that statement is that we have so many people coming and going around here on 

"a normal day" 

that we've always joked about the revolving front door anyway. 

Guess we now have a revolving back door, also)

I had set in my own head (for no particular reason) that by 2 weeks, 

I think she'll be mostly past the terror. Maylin has progressed 

from screaming terror anytime she saw Lucy 

to voluntarily watching through the glass door as the siblings played with the dog.

Progress. I'll take it. 

This is only Day 5 of Indoctrination in the Ways of Dersch, so I think she's doing great.

The other little issue is kind of a Littles' issue.

(I've referred to our three youngest kids as 

The Littles 

since they were toddlers and I realized we couldn't call them 

The Babies

for the rest of their lives...but we would end up doing that if we didn't change the habit sooner than later.)

The Littles' issue that is still a little issue is Maylin's time zones...

Her brain is stuck somewhere between here and China. She is tired by bedtime and goes down with little complaint. But her internal clock wakes her up VERY early...and she feels compelled to wake up her siblings--even Justin who is grouped with "The Bigs." Monday, she was roaming by 5am, and apparently this morning, Maylin started "the Bugle Call: Reveille" around 4am. 

The Chicken Man (a real one sells candy...as you see below)

Smallest store in Guangzhou (you're looking at the whole thing here)

Beth is my sleepy cat-girl, so she got smarter today and showed 

Maylin that is was still "sleeping time" by crawling back in bed--and it worked. 

(Even though all the lights were on in their room, the bath, the hall and the schoolroom!) 

The kids were all still asleep when I checked at 6:30.

We'll eventually get her internal clock reset, and then we'll probably fight getting her up on time to get the kids to school...but that can be tomorrow's trouble, since today has enough of it's own...