Massive Headwound Dan

Here are some picture from the past week. I will explain the small picture above later. First, we received an
Easter package from Gakie and PaPa early in the week. It was a nice treat for the kids, especially because it was a long day prior to opening the package. Here is a quick picture of Evelyn modeling the pencils that Dan received.


Here is a picture of Dan and Evelyn showing off their Easter cards. You may be able to notice that Dan is wearing some sort of head bandage. Earlier that Dan, Jane and I dropped Dan off at school as normal. We then went to work, and we both went to the gym over our lunch period. While we were at the gym, our telephones were in the lockers. Dan's school had called Jane's cell phone several times while the phone sat by itself. I finished working out and went back to school. I was at school when Jane checked her messages. She frantically called me, saying that school called and said that Dan had been in an accident at school. Because of communication problems (and because the Chinese speak very matter-of-factly), the teacher said something to this effect: "Dan was in an accident at school and we couldn't get a hold of you. He has been taken to the hospital and he may have needed stitches. He is back at school now. Please come." Well, readers that know her could image how Jane reacted. She called me and we both rushed to Dan's school. During the five minute bus ride to his school, all I could picture was Dan having a huge gash across his face, which would be poorly stitched up by a Chinese doctor in a dingy hospital. I got to his school first to find him sleeping (as were all of the kids; it was nap time). It turns out that Dan was underneath a jungle gym and stood up quickly, hitting
the top of his head on an iron bar. It caused a small cut on the top of his head. I think Dan calmly reported it to the teacher, who then freaked out and took Dan to the hospital to make sure he was ok. At the hospital, they shaved a small patch of Dan's hair, inspected the cut and cleaned it, putting a whole-head bandage on top of it. When I got to his school and saw him sleeping with the bandage, I thought it could be pretty bad. It turns out that it was just a small cut and Dan was perfectly fine. The teachers and principal were very concerned and upset, and Dan could have cared less. I guess it was a pretty lucky situation, but after the fact it is a bit funny as well. (This explains the small picture at the top. There was a Saturday Night Live skit in the early nineties called Massive Headwound Harry. Harry had a huge gash in his head, exposing his brains. When he showed up to a party, he lied down because he was feeling woozy. The dog then took that opportunity to eat his brains. I tried to get the video, which is pretty funny, but I could not get it in China. We can laugh after the fact that no dogs ate any of Dan's brains).

Here is a good shot of Dan in his head bandage, which he had to wear for two days. He is intentionally making a silly face, acting as if he was dazed and confused from a concussion.

Here is a random picture of Etain, who thought that we were not taking enough pictures of her during the week.

Here are Evelyn and Etain, taking a break from annoying and fighting each other to enjoy a loving sisterly moment.

Etain woke up one morning with a bit of diaper rash, so she enjoyed a warm bath in our bathroom sink. Jane took that opportunity to make it a Kodak moment.

Here is Dan playing on the playground outside of his school. He is still wearing his head bandage. That day he dressed himself in camouflage. His teachers really love him, and they asked us if it was ok if they bought him a present (for no reason, they asked us this before he hit his head). We said ok, and they bought him these bright yellow shoes. They are pretty cool, but I think this ensemble makes him look like he is trying to escape from a mental institution. I tried to get a picture of him hiding in the bushes and looking suspicious, but he was not in the mood to do that much acting.

Here is a picture of Dan and his friend Kevin playing on the playground.

Here are the kids playing with a nice Golden Retriever in the lawn near Dan's school. The lawn is in the apartment complex across the street, and it is one of the few lawns in China. It is unique in that people are allowed to hang out on it. As a result, on nice days, there are usually a dozen or so families hanging out while their kids run around. This dog is owned by one of the people that live near the lawn, and it is a really cool dog (I think it was the dog that I saw earlier carrying a bag of groceries in its mouth). It loves to be petted, and it sits nicely for the kids, who love to pet it. I think it is also funny because it looks a lot like the dog that ate Massive Headwound Harry's brains. (I don't know why it isn't loading correctly).

When Dan went to the hospital, they shaved a small hole in his hair to inspect the cut. As a result, his hair looked a little odd. We decided to give him a buzz cut, but we ended up leaving a bit of hair for a mohawk. This was a true buzz cut, I even got my razor out at the end a shaved the sides of his head. Here we are in an action shot of the hair cut.

Here is the final product. People here now think he looks like David Beckham.

Here is another picture, showing the small wound on his head that caused such a panic for everyone at his school.

Here Dan is, striking a more presentable pose.










Below is a video of Dan taken the night after he went to the hospital. He was watching Kung Fu Panda, and he found parts of the movie especially funny. He was laughing so hard at times that he couldn't breath. We had cause to be a bit worried that he had a concussion and was going crazy, but all was well; this is normal laughing for Dan when he thinks something is particularly funny, such as animated slapstick comedy.

As of writing this, Mizzou is beating Memphis by 12 with 8 minutes left to play. Hopefully I will not have to re-edit this later to say that MU lost. I'll write later when we have more updates. Zaijian.