Mới đó mà Đán đi nhà trẻ đã được ba tuần. Bây giờ nó cũng hơi quen quen. Sáng vô lớp khóc đúng một phút. Được cô đặt vào lòng ngồi thì nín liền. Chiều qua khi thấy ba và anh đến đón, nó mếu máo chạy ra cửa, vẫy tay chào các cô và bạn, nhặt đôi giầy mang vào, chạy đi lấy cập rồi cùng anh Đạo tung tăng ra về.

Trên xe Đán la lên không rỏ lý do gì. Anh Đạo bảo, “Baby don’t cry. Big brother’s here.” Rồi anh Đạo cho em ăn cereal. Hai anh em ngồi nhai nhai cho đến nhà. Phải chi lúc nào anh Đạo cũng dễ thương như thế thì đâu có gây gổ.

Sáng thì tôi đứa Đán đến trường trước vì cu Đạo ngủ trể. Ngày nào hai mẹ con cũng gần mười giờ sáng mới đến. Cũng mai là hai vợ chồng không có làm hãng xưởng. Vì nếu như cần phải đến đúng giờ mỗi ngày thì chắc mất công việc từ lây rồi. Sáng nay khi đặt Đán vào ghế nó chỉ qua ghế của anh nó rồi nói, “Anh Đạo.”

Đán không nói nhiều như anh Đạo lúc xưa như nói rỏ từng chữ một. Bây giờ chữ nó thường nói nhất là, “Daddy, ẩm.”

We’re in the process of readjusting our lives. Up until last week, we had grandma to relied on. After work we could go over to my sister-in-law’s place for dinner, went back home and called it the day. Now I pick up both kids, go home, give them a bath (bathing with them is more like it) and then feed them. On Monday, Dana told me to take them out to dinner, but I rather go to Whole Food to get something healthy. Going out to eat is such a pain and I can’t figure out where to take them. Fast food is obviously not a good choice, although Dao could be eat healthy at McDonald’s. He usual eats the entire side salad in addition to fries and two pieces of chicken nuggets. Dan, on the other hand, doesn’t like raw vegetables, but he enjoys drinking them.

Our weekdays are pretty much set in a routine. Get up go to work. Go home, eat, play a bit and go to bed. Dan goes out about 9 to 9:30pm. Dao goes out about 10 to 11pm. After Dan goes out, I go downstairs to wash the dishes and prep lunch boxes for the next day. After that I would do some freelance work, watch some NetFlix or read until about midnight.

With such a tight schedule, we hardly have the time to do things around the house. Our grass is growing wild. Our deck is deteriorating and needed paint. Our basement is in serious need of reorganization. I used to work from home on Fridays. The time that I spent commuting, which is one and a half our each way, I can use to mow the grass. Another advantage of working from home is that I could take a break, run down the basement and throw in some clothes in the washer or reorganize things around the house a bit.

Now I have to do things around the house on the weekend, which is very hard because the kids would run all over the place. Besides, I rather spend time with them then doing all these chores. Here are my choices: mowing the grass under 90 something degrees or taking the kids out to have some pho and hanging out in the mall with cool air conditioning? The choice is obvious. Some weekends we’re just out of town either visiting Lancaster or New Jersey. That’s how our little family rolls. We hardly stay home on the weekend, especially in the summer.

I might need to take vacation time from work to do work at home. Better yet, just enjoy the summer and get things done in the winter. We’ll see.

One loves Pho and one loves Mustang. You could probably figure out which boy likes which. Lil Dan loves Pho. We took him to Pho 50 two times and he ate like we haven’t fed him for a week. He also prefers to spoon feed himself; therefore, he made such a huge mess. As I was at the counter paying the bill, I overheard the bus lady told the owner in Vietnamese, “Look at the way Vietnamese kid eats. Isn’t that cute?” She was being sarcastic of course. Now whenever we go out for Pho, I just request a huge empty bowl for him to scoop. He did a very good job last night when we were at Pho Today. Dan doesn’t like eating vegetables, but he likes it when I juiced them. At dinner, I made a glass of juice contained kale, baby spinach, baby carrots, celery, orange and banana. He drank half of the glass.

Dao, only the other hand, likes eating vegetables. Just dip into ketchup and he would eat it. Dao is also making a transition from train to car. His latest obsession is convertible Mustang. Every time we’re on the road, he would spot out a convertible Mustang miles away. He recognizes the shape of Mustang as well as the horse logo.

Daycare wise, Dao is already fit in. He enjoys his time in there with his friends and teachers. Dan, on the other hand, is having a tough time making the transition. After the four-day weekend, I took him to daycare this morning and he started to cry as soon as I made a turn into the daycare. Then he would clung on to me the whole time. Even though I had been through this experience with Dao, it still feels awful hearing hi screamed. I really hope he’ll get past this stage soon.

Only three days into his daycare life and Dan is already losing his voice. I took him in this morning and he cried as soon as we stepped into his classroom. It was painful once again to hear him cry. Dao took quite a long time to settled in even though he started daycare when he was one. Dan is going to be even harder because he started at 19 months.

When I came to pick him up this evening he could hardly talk. Ms. Ester said he cried every time someone comes in or out the door. He was expecting his parents to pick him up. As soon as he saw me, he stopped crying. As we walked to our car he said hi and smiled at everyone he saw.

Dao was out sick today. His fever shot up to 103 degrees. It looks like he’ll be home for the rest of the week as well. Daycare is such a crazy place.

Although Dan seemed to be having fun playing ball with his teacher when I picked him up yesterday, Ms. Ester told me that he was having a rough first day. He was happy to see me, but didn’t stop what he was playing to greet me like Dao. He was still carrying on with his game. When he spoke to me, I noticed the scratchiness in his voice. He must had cried a lot. Then he felt warm.

After we went home, I checked his temperature and it was up to 103 degrees. The good thing was that he was still very active. We gave him some Tylenol and he slept well, but the fever was still high this morning so we let him stayed home with grandma. I was teasing his cousin Khoi who started daycare last week that he got sick just after three days in daycare. Now Dan got sick for just one day. He broke all the records.

Dao, on the other hand, is probably already getting used to the environment. He enjoys playing with water and other activities in daycare.

Dan’s first day seems to be good. He didn’t cry at all when we dropped him off. It was a busy morning and the teacher just took his hand walked to the playground. Dan is in Ms. Ester’s class. She was Dao’s previous and favorite teacher. I am sure he is having a blast.

Dao is also back with Ms. Chantel who is also his previous and favorite teacher. He was a bit whiny when we brought him in, but then completely content when he sat on her lap. I came over to see how he was doing and he said, “I want to see my baby.” Ms. Chantel promised that he would get to see his baby brother later on.

Can’t wait to pick them up in the evening and treat them to Baskin-Robbins.

I envy those parents who stay home with their kids. I know a handful of moms are doing that already, but I also found out the other day that a friend who is a web developer quitted his job to be home with his first daughter. I whined to my wife every once in a while that I wanted to be a stay-at-home dad as well. I told her my plan would be to spend time with the boys during the day and work on freelance projects during the night. The problem is that I am really suck at doing business. I only take on side jobs that I like and I only take on projects that come to me. I despise going out of my way to pick up clients; therefore, I won’t be able to pay the bills if I do my own business.

As much as I love my kids, I realize that I am not the type of guy that could handle constant craziness. Dao and Dan are at the age that they could go on all day long without getting tired. They both are super active. Dan alone is a handful. He climbs, runs, yells and he loves to do anything except sitting still. He has yet to listen to what I say. In fact, whatever I tell him not to do, he would do it. For example, whenever I say, “don’t put that in your mouth,” and he would put it in his mouth. He’s starting to pick up Vietnamese words like dirty, car, hand, mouth and so forth. For now, he learns mostly Vietnamese.

With Dao, he could watch TV all day long if I let him; therefore, I have to play with him as well to keep him occupied. Dao is such a witty kid, especially the things that he said. For example, a couple of days ago, he told me, “Daddy, my ‘cu’ (penis) gets bigger when I eat a lot.” I replied, “You are absolutely right, son.” I must admit. I don’t give him much attention as I should. For instance, if I take both of them to the playground, I constantly have to look after Dan. This little fellow has no fear. He climbs and does things as if he doesn’t think he would hurt himself. On the other hand, Dao is a very cautious kid and he knows his limitation; therefore, I let him do anything he likes without much of my supervision. This is one of the reasons, I always want my wife to join us so that each of us could give each kid our attention. I can only focus on one kid at a time.

In any rate, stay-at-home dad is not going to cut it for me. I can’t be looking after two kids at the same time. Spending just a full day with them is already exhausting. I can’t do it day after day. As much as I would like to be home with my kids, I simply can’t. I am not cut out for it.

Cu Đán hể nó thân thiện với ai là nó đứng đối diện với người ấy và nhìn chứ không đụng đậy gì cả. Hôm nọ nó thấy thằng Mỹ con lớn hơn cu Đán vài tháng đang ngồi chơi với ba nó thì cu Đán chạy đến trước mặt thằng nhỏ. Thằng nhỏ cũng hơi ngạc nhiên nên quây sang ba nó. Tôi liền bảo, “Đán, say hi to friend.” Đán vẫy tay thì ông ba cũng bảo thằng con chào lại. Thế là hai đứa chơi với nhau được vài phút.

Hôm kia cu Đán thấy một em Mỹ nhỏ hơn nó một tí đang ngồi trong xe đẩy nó cũng đến gần nhìn. Tôi cũng bảo, “Đán, say hi to friend.” Nó cũng vẫy tay và con bé vẫy tay lại. Nó nhắm con bé đã rồi thì lại bỏ chạy đi chỗ khác.

Cuối tuần vừa qua, cả gia đình đi ăn sinh nhật con của thằng bạn chơi với nhau ở trung học. Đến lúc cả đám con nít đứng vào để chụp hình. Thàng Đạo thì không chịu. Còn thằng Đán thì tôi cũng đưa nó vô đứng chung. Nó liền chạy đến thằng nhỏ bận áo cam và đứng trước mặt. Thằng đó thì lớn hơn nó vài tháng thì phải. Thằng đó nhanh chóng lấy tay đẩy Cu Đán. Cu Đán vẫn đứng yên. Tôi định bảo Cu Đán chào bạn nhưng chưa kịp thì thằng đó đẩy mạnh làm cu Đán bị mất thăng bằng và ngã xuống.

Tất cả cha mẹ điều đứng xung quanh. Tôi liền chạy đến đỡ thằng con mình lên. Còn cha mẹ của thằng đó không lên một tiếng để nhắc nhở thằng con của mình.

Lúc hai cha con trong tiệm bước ra, Đạo nói, “Daddy, I see smoke. Why is there smoke?” Tôi nhắc nó, “Con nói tiếng Việt đi.” Nó hỏi, “Tại sao có khói?” Tôi trả lời rằng, “Thì người ta hút thuốc nên ra khói.” Nó hỏi tiếp, “Daddy, tại sao người ta hút thuốc?” Tôi ngập ngừng chưa biết phải trả lời như thế nào thì nó tự trả lời lấy, “Because người ta bị bệnh.” Tôi mỉm cười trả lời, “Ừ thì chắc là như vậy.”

Nó cũng có lý. Hút thuốc cũng là bệnh mà là bệnh nghiện. Một hồi tôi mới nghỉ ra tại sao nó nói thế. Thì ra là mỗi khi nó bệnh, tôi điều nói với nó là phải uống thuốc nên nó nhớ thuốc là liên quan đến bệnh.

I was watching some video of Dao’s classes and came across a clip in which a doctor came to his class to talk about healthy choices. Unlike everyone else who sat on the floor, he sat on one of his favorite teacher’s lap. The doctor asked the kids what are some of the everyday food and Dao yelled out “corn.” Then she asked, “What are the choices that sometimes food, but not everyday food?” Dao responded, “Ketchup.” Then one of his teachers who was filming busted out laughing and said, “He eats it everyday.” The teachers know him well. He eats everything with ketchup or “tuong den” (the black sauce that you put in Pho).