Weekend With Dao

We didn’t do much this weekend. No traveling and no visiting the museum. On Saturday we spent some time at the mall. Although the indoor playground was packed, Dao managed to run around, laughing, sliding and were having a good time. That was actually the first time I saw him enjoyed the playground. The funny thing was that as he was running, he would put out his arms to protect himself if he saw kids running toward him.

We bought him an alphabet train puzzle. Each piece of the puzzle is placed together in alphabetical order with each animal, except for letter “u.” Is there an animal that begins with letter “u?” The puzzle uses umbrella instead. Dao has already know quite a bit of the animals and he could recognize their features even though he doesn’t get the name right. For instance, when I showed him the picture of the fox, he said cat. When I showed him the picture of the vulture, he said “chim” (bird in Vietnamese). When I showed in a picture of a frog, he said “ech” (he only knows Vietnamese name for frog). When I showed him picture of the gorilla, he said “Bac Ky” who is my sister-in-law’s husband. Yes, I was puzzled myself on that one too.

Sunday afternoon at 2:30, we went to Eden’s birthday party. Eden is one of Dao’s classmates at the daycare. Eden’s parents booked an hour and a half at The Little Gym, which located on the second floor with a beautiful view of Fairfax Corner. I picked up one of the club flyers and the price for a birthday bash is $300 for up to 15 kids.) Before we went, we tried to give him a nap, but he only slept for half an hour. By the time we headed to the party, Dao was already acting up. While other kids did all kind of activities, Dao played basketball with his buddy Aidan. At school, Aidan and Dao are best buddy. The teachers said they do everything together even sharing their food. At the party we could see why. Just the two of them shooting hoop while the rest enjoyed jumping up and down the inflatable bed. While the rest sat in the room enjoyed pizza and cake, the two of them running up and down the hallway. Brit who is also one of Dao’s buddy joined the two boys.

Dao made some hilarious comments this weekend. When he sneezed, he said “bless you Dao.” When I carried him on my arms, he said “Dao nang” (heavy), but refused to walk when I put him down. Whenever I asked him to do something for me, like getting a towel or throwing clothes in the washing machine, he would complimented himself, “Dao gioi” (good).”