I made it to Shenzhen, yet again with my two little kids.  I think everybody including myself were expecting this to be the worst flight so far. It’s been extremely tiring on all of us in the past.  I was expecting it to be hard on me because of my son, who is now 14 months and just such a boy.

Instead, surprise, surprise! It was such a refreshing flight. They both slept remarkably well. My son didn’t want to wonder the hallways too much. He did a little bit in our first-class cabin, but didn’t have to chase after him into business class or economy or anything. And he took a 2 hour nap after wards. And fell asleep as we landed. I got breaks to eat. I got breaks to watch a little bit of TV. It was amazing.

My daughter slept well too, and had a long nap all the way until the landing.

Adjusting the two kids jet lag is an art that I like to think that I have mastered. This time it is going well beyond my expectations.  My son usually sleeps at 9 pm Pacific time and wakes up around 8 am. That is 1 pm and midnight China time.  So that is what we are working with. The week prior to leaving, we started trying to let the kids sleep later and later. It was a bit tricky since no matter how late I slept with my son, I would still have to wake up early the next day and I had interviews.

In China, they usually would go to bed around 2 pm and wake up a little after midnight.

This time it was just amazing. First day they both slept around 5 pm. We were in aww. Even more in aww that they both woke up 3/4 am. Second day they slept around 6/7 pm. Both still woke up around 4/4:30 am. But it does look like this time it will only take a couple of days to adjust.

Now tips to myself for the future. We always mail clothes and we mail summer clothes. Just in case it is soo hot and we can’t buy any summer clothes locally. And we bring little winter clothes thinking we can easily buy all the winter clothes we want.

This plan has been fairly backfiring. We end up with loads of summer clothes, fell rushed to go buy winter clothes.

I think in the future it is to mail winter clothes. What they ultimately need is long-sleeve t-shirts and medium thickness sweat pants. Don’t need that much shorts, or tanks, or dresses, or skirts.

Looking at the weather pattern is will be in the mid 60s to 70s for this week in ShenZhen. Very comfortable.

We did mail summer clothes in the case we go to Sanya – which is in the mid 80s. So it might work out this time in that sense.

I also brought one thick set of winter clothes for the possibility of going to Nanjing – which is unlikely as it is raining all week and it is in the mid 40s to low 50s.

For myself – the main thing is to have two pants that I love, two shirts I can easily interchange. And one comfy cardigan.  I think I did well this time packing. Just not as much long-sleeves shirts for daughter (only two) and socks for son.

I’d just like to see it go easier next time. Mail more clothes that we need, and less that we don’t. And we can always adjust as the weather gets colder.

All this might be moot, since I don’t know when is the next time we will do such a trip. And in April we will be going to Nanjing and the weather will be completely different.

Addendum: For the past few days here in Shenzhen, it has been a lot warmer. It gets to 85 in my room. The t-shirts and shorts have come in handy. Can’t go outside in shorts, yes in T-shirts. I think it would still be best to mail some t-shirts, not as much, and just of couple of shorts for son, none for daughter. A good thing to remember is that the clothes dry a lot faster when it’s warm, so we don’t need to worry as much about laundry backing up.