My nose has been bleeding daily. Getting out of the heated car to the outside temperature could easily trigger the breakage. I felt the blood flooding down my nose this morning as I dropped Dan off to grandma. For a second I almost passed out.

It’s definitely caused by the dryness of the cold, but the cough syrups and coffee might have made it worse. My cough is gone so I am not taking any more syrups and I am trying to take it easy on the coffee, but it is so damn hard.

For the past week, Dan woke up almost every two hours. He’s probably teething or his allergy is bothering him. I can’t wait for him to see the allergist next week. When he got up he rubbed his face against the pillow to the point that made electric static; therefore, I had to pick him up to sooth him back to sleep. He slept much better on my shoulder than on the bed.

The first few nights I was quite cranky, but now I am getting used to it. The only problem is that I really need caffeine in the morning to get by, but then this whole nose bleed is giving me no choice. I don’t want to go back to cauterization, which helped for a few ears, again. It burns like crazy.

It occurred to me today that Dan had not worn a pair of shoes yet even though he already started walking for a week. Because of the weather, he had been walking mostly inside the house barefoot or with socks. This late afternoon I took him straight to Stride Rite to get his first pair of shoes.

I picked out three pairs for him. Getting him to tried them was not hard at all. I remember trying get Dao to put on the shoes took quite a bit of efforts. Dao is very resistance. He wouldn’t do anything I asked him to. Dan, on the other hand, would do anything I would like him to. He trusts me completely. The funny thing was that he didn’t know what to do once the shoes were on. He just looked at his feet and wondered why he was wearing them. I would never forget that expression on his face.

I couldn’t get him to walk so I picked the pair that I liked the most. After paying for it, I held his hand and we walked together. He started out walking on his toes, but once we got to the big water fountain he began to walk on his feet. I let go of his hand and we walked like a little drunk kid. Five minutes later he was speed-walking all over the mall. I was too excited as well as too anxious that I forgot to film his first walk.

After we left the mall, he drank regular cow milk and slept. Today I am transitioning him from breast milk to cow milk. He took the first sip of cow milk and tossed the bottle. Five minutes later I gave it to him again and he drank it all.

I really enjoyed spending my last day of the long holiday break with him. I will never forget this fond memory with my lil Dan.

Please put down that iPad, iPhone, iPod, laptop or any Internet-connected device and play with your kids. That goes for yours truly as well.

I have been unintentionally neglected my boy Dao. I paid way too much attention to the little guy even when they were both under my watch. Dan has started to walk already, but he’s still putting things in his mouth. I could not take my eye off him for 30 seconds. On the other hand, Dao could play all by himself.

When we visited my mom, Dao played with his cousin Eric most of the time until Eric got bored or worn out. Dao was feeling sad when Eric had no desire to play with him. I could see it on his face so I handed Dan to his mom and played with him. He showed me how to fix the train track using his fist as a hammer. He looked adorable.

Dao definitely wanted someone to play with. Unfortunately his little brother isn’t one. Unlike Dao, Dan knocked things all over and Dao didn’t like that. I tried to explain to him that Dan is too young to understand the proper way to play and I offered to help him fixing up whatever Dan messed up. He seemed to like that.

Yesterday around noon, Dao refused to eat and said that he was tired and wanted to go to sleep. I thought he tried to get out of eating so yelled at him a bit and took him to bed. Five minutes later he slept on my arms. I felt horrible for yelling at him earlier. I rubbed his back and gave him kisses. He held my hand even though he was already sleeping. My baby could be so lovely when he wanted to.

Dan’s blood test result is in. He’s moderately allergic to white egg, milk, soy and shrimp. He’s highly allergic to peanut. The doctor subscribed 4 packs of EpiPen for both kids and recommended to take them both to allergy pediatrician.

True be told, I never paid much attention to allergy until I become a father. I am either lucky or don’t know any better because I can’t think of a type of food I can’t eat, but I can think of what type of food would give me diarrhea. I can’t imagine what it would be like if I have food allergy. The positive outcome would probably be I wouldn’t get so fucking fat. Lately I have been getting so ridiculously hungry at night and I always ending up eating something around one in the morning.

Now the kids have all kind of food allergy. I really feel bad for Dan because he loves food as much as I do. He would eat anything we give him. So now we have to eliminate food that he’s allergic to. Fortunately I don’t care much about peanut. I wouldn’t miss it if I don’t eat it again ever.

My car stereo died on me last week; therefore, I have been commuting with no music. This evening when I parked my car at Dao’s daycare, I put on my headphone and listened to Thanh Thao’s remix album for ten minutes before picking him up. Once we were in the car and driving home, one of the songs stuck in my head so I sang out loud: “Thà là bỏ đi hết ta làm lại từ đầu / Thà là bỏ đi hết ta chẳng nợ gì nhau.” Dao immediately told me, “Daddy, don’t sing.” I asked him why and he replied, “I am allergic to your song.” I flipped out hysterically. That has to be one of the most hilariously sad criticisms I have ever heard.

Not sure what prompted me to ask Dao, “Are you a train?” He replied, “No, you silly. I am not a train. I am a people. I have feet. Trains don’t have feet. Trains have wheels.” Sounds like he made his case clear.

As we were stuck in traffic on our way home yesterday, Dao said, “Cars please move out of the way so we can go home.” I asked him, “Why do you want to go home?” He replied, “So I can see my mommy. She’s my best friend.” I asked, “Am I your best friend?” He said, “No, I am not your best friend. Baby is your best friend.” I said, “Oh I see. Baby is my best friend. I miss my baby.” He said, “And I miss my mommy.” He made his case once again.

The other night, Dao took a dump in the potty, got up and shouted, “Daddy, daddy, I pooped butterfly.” I took a look and his shits somehow curled up like a shape of a butterfly. I invited my wife to take a peek and we laughed hysterically. Dao actually is more of a visual guy than me.

The funny thing is that Dao poops a lot even though he hardly eats much. On the other hand, Dan eats everything and yet he poops so little. He does only once a day and his shits look like chocolate chips (the ones that you put in cookies). The biggest he created is about the size of a Hershey’s Kiss. Sorry if I ruined your appetite.

By the way, our little Dan has started to walk. Love seeing him taking his first steps.

Mỗi lần nhìn thấy mặt con nổi đỏ trầy trụa ba đau xót vô cùng. Thảm thương hơn là thấy con vẫn cười. Có ngứa và đau lắm không con? Đêm đến thấy con đưa tay lên gãi ba cố nắm lấy tay con để con khỏi phải gãi chóc da nhưng con không thích lắm.

Dạo này con cũng hay thức giấc rồi khóc to. Những lúc ba chỉ vuốt nhẹ lên lưng con để con ngủ trở lại. Có lúc ba để con khóc một hồi rồi ngủ trở lại. Đêm qua con không mãi không thôi. Ba la một tiếng “nín” thì con lại nín. Một lúc sao con lại khóc tiếp ba lại la thêm tiếng nữa thì con cũng nín. Bây giờ mỗi khi ru con ba cũng để tự con ngũ. Con nhào qua lộn lại cho đến khi lắng xuống rồi thiếp đi. Ba chỉ đỡ khi nào con xắp đập đầu vào tường.

Bây giờ con chập chuẩn đi. Trông tướng con rất dể thương. Giờ đây con cũng đã bớt bỏ đồ vào miệng. Con đã biết tự chơi một mình. Con biết cách đẩy xe chạy tự nhặt lên những gì con thích. Thấy con phát chuyển tốt và khoẻ ba vui mừng lắm. Mỗi ngày ba tự cười thằm và vui vẻ về hai thằng con trai của ba.

Cái cảm giác làm cha thật khó tả. Mỗi một suy nghỉ của ba điều liên quan đến hai con. Có những lúc ba thật mệt mỏi và muốn được yên tỉnh một mình. Nhưng rồi những thứ ba làm ba điều đắng đo rằng nếu ba làm những việc ấy mà phải không có thời gian với hai con, ba có nên làm không? Dỉ nhiên là không. Tiền thì chẳng bao giờ kiếm cho đủ còn tụi con thì mỗi ngày mổi lớn. Thời gian không bao giờ dừng lại. Mới ngày nào Đạo còn nhỏ xíu mà bây giờ đã có cá tính riêng. Mới ngày nào ôm Đán trọn trong tay mà bây giờ đeo con một chút là bị đao lưng đao cổ.

Anyways, I love you guys.

Whenever Dao plays with his model trains, he has to have five cars as a set. I didn’t really get it until the other day when he asked me to set up my train to play with him. I just put together a bunch of trains, but he said, “No daddy, you have to the main engine first [Thomas, Percy, James etc.], then tender second, then freight car, then two cabooses.” My son is now officially a connoisseur of train. Here is their early Christmas present.