Best of Luck! I am going to be very interested in your acclimation. My family plans on staying in China for many more years (we just gave a “donation” to a kindergarten for our son to attend in the fall). But at some point, we’ll probably move back and would like to hear some of your experiences and frustrations/joys.
And have a safe flight, we’re visiting the grandparents in Michigan in a month and a half and are dreading the travel.
Wolverine, didn’t know you were based in China. Whereabouts?
The kid travel isn’t that horrible but it is exhausting. Best advice I have is that you are well rested before the flight since you may not sleep much in the air.
I teach business in an international college in Beijing at China Agricultural University. My wife teaches English here too. We’ll have been here almost 2 years with our son, but thankfully with our teaching package, we get free tickets to visit the States during the summers.
We first flew to China when he was 1 and visited the States last year when he was 2. Traveling with him at 2 was harder than at 1, so we’re a little worried that he’ll be even worse this year. Hopefully by next year he should be more willing to keep the headphones on and watch movies. I don’t really have any hope for that this year.
2 & 3 are tough ages for flying on the plane. A loptop or dvd player may work. There’s also cold medicine as a sleep aid (but test it first). 
It does start getting easier around 3 or 4. And 1 kid is almost overwheming but you get used to it if you have more.
Good luck with the move and flight! As someone who travels with 2 small children (3 and a half, and 18 months) I would heartily recommend Trunkies which are real life savers, especially if you get delayed at the airport!
Wow, good luck. As another longtime expat who’s finally begun to entertain notions of going home, I know what a big step this is. I hope you’ll keep us updated on the reintegration process.
Good luck and safe travels! I hope the girls like it and thrive here.
Flight over was not horrible in United economy plus. United can not for the life of them put 5 seats together though. 2 seats in the middle and that lasted about 30 minutes before the business man on the aisle decided a window seat with an empty middle seat was better than daughter #2. He was good about it. I’m a business traveler that absolutely hates to give up the aisle seat (I drink a lot of beer on the flight), so I totally understood when he said “no, I prefer my aisle seat.” I told the air crew "we’d do the best we could to cope on the flight. " Then he had a change of heart.
Lady behind us was a bit obnoxious until I explained bambina #3 wasn’t spoiled but had special needs. Air crew was nice and snuck us some fruit from first class.
3of us managed a decent amount of sleep last night, and 2 were up from 4:00 am. Bambina #3 just went down at nearly 10:00pm and I’m hoping she sleeps through. I’m going to bed as soon as I sign off.
Oh ya, true to stereotype, it has been overcast and sprinkling ever since we landed.
Welcome back to North America, Not So China Guy! 
Summer doesn’t start until July 5th. It’s mandatory for the 4th to be cold and rainy.
America welcomes you!
Good luck in your new adventure!
Yep, although this year really has been worse than normal.
Welcome to Seattle! Glad you all survived the flight. Don’t hesitate to holler if you need something from a local. (And! Once you’re settled, you can come play pub trivia with us!) 
I really, really really wish I had invented that.
I also want one. Do they come in adult size (though my husband has just told me he won’t drag me through the airport on a pink suitcase…I’m contemplating divorce).
Hope you’re getting over your jet lag. Just in case you don’t know this, if you’re going to be living in Seattle proper, you’re going to want to get to work immediately on the school assignment issue. No first-hand experience, but I do know that kids do not necessarily get assigned to their neighborhood elementary school. There’s some kind of complex sign-up system, and the schools are quite variable in quality. I’m sure Seattle dopers could tell you more, but, since schools are going to be a particularly critical issue for you, I wanted to raise the subject.
Good luck! You were Shanghaied for 30 years, and now you get to come home. Although home isn’t really the right word… Anyway, I hear Seattle is a great city!
Ha ha, it would be fun after 20 years of teenage oneupmanship to tell them both that you got it backwards and the other one actually came out first. Oopsie!
Look, someone better explain to China Guy that disco no longer sucks.
We went to CostCo today, got our premium membership and dropped $300 on “stuff” without even trying. So, I guess we’re settling in.
We got stuck in Corporate Housing 3 story townhouse out in a 'burb for 2 nights, moved to a “classy” kinda yuppie place that bambina #3 did a runner on in 5 minutes and only slept 4. My “relocation specialist” sorted that out and we’re back in the townhouse in the suburbs. There’s a Trader Joe’s less than a mile away, and we have a playground right across the driveway that we can see from the living room window.
My wife decided in less than 48 hours that if she wants a big city experience, she’ll go back to China. For America, it’s strictly suburbian heaven for us.
Jet lag has been okay. Only bambina #3 has been up from about 1am to 5am (and me of course) and then we go back to sleep until mid morning. Others are more or less on schedule.
$300 on stuff at CostCo? That’s what, three items? 