Daddy and Dan

When brushing Dan’s teeth this morning, I held his face next to mine and looked at the mirror. Holy crap, the kid looks so much like me from his spiky hair to his big head to his cute smile. Yet the biggest common we shared is food. Unlike Dao who hardly has an appetite for food and is obsessed with cars and trains, Dan is all about food. Whenever he sees me eating something, he would crawl to me, pull himself up and try to snatch whatever on my hand. He seems to have quite a bit of food allergies so we have to be careful what we give him.

At 11-month, he already has 12 teeth. Because of his big appetite, he seems to be happy most of the time. All I have to do is giving him food whenever he gets fussy. At night, when he gets up and cries I just hand him a bottle of milk and he feeds himself back to sleep. The major problem with his good appetite is that he would eat anything he could get his hands on. This morning he even tried to eat styrofoam while I was trying to iron my clothes. We can’t leave him alone for 15 seconds without him putting something in his mouth.

Dao never had that problem when he was at that age. We could let him play with beads and not afraid that he’ll put them in his mouth. Dan is the total opposite. From car toys to pennies to pieces from his play mat, everything gets on his hand would ends up in his mouth as well. On the good side, feeding him is an ease. He would finish a bowl of cereal or baby food in less than five minutes. He would scream if we don’t feed him fast enough. I used to get bored feeding Dao because he took forever to eat. He would do anything to distract us from feeding him.

I have to say having two kids is quite a joyful experience. Each gives me a different appreciation. Before Dan comes into our life, one of my worries is that we won’t be able to spend time with Dao, but that has not been the case. We still do many things together like we used to and Dan seems to enjoy the experience as well.