After reading a few of Dao’s favorite books, I turned off the light to go to sleep.

Dao: Dao co [have] sticker.
Dad: O dau Dao co sticker? [Where did you get the sticker?]
Dao: Co Jeannette cho Dao. [Ms. Jeannette cho Dao.]
Dad: Tai sao co Jeannette cho Dao sticker? [Why did Ms. Jeannette give Dao sticker?]
Dao: Dao helped clean up… Dao bo [put] train vo ro [in the basket]… Dao shared toys voi ban [with friends]… Dao shared train, truck and airplane.
Dad: Good boy. I am so proud of you.
Dao: Thank you, daddy.

Dao picks up quite a bit of new words from school. Last week, we had steamed escargot and fish sauce with ginger. He loved it so much that he busted out, “It’s delicious.”

When we give him a compliment for doing something good, he said, “Dao is excellent.”

I was tickling his ear this morning. He giggled and said, “Ba not nice.” (I am pretty sure he picked this up from his mom.)

Yesterday evening he wanted to get out of the car seat, but we didn’t let him. He said, “I hate you.” I was like, “what did you just say?” He repeated again. This one probably comes from one of his friends at daycare.

Hôm nay và ngày mai nhà trẻ đóng cửa để ăn mừng năm mới của người Do thái. Bà xã bận công việc nên tôi lấy hai ngày phép để trông con mặc dù thứ tư tuần tới là ngày cuối cùng cho việc làm hiện tại. Xếp mới nhất (xếp thứ ba của tôi trong vòng sáu tháng) cũng thông cảm.

Sáng nay dậy cũng sớm nhưng hai cha con nằm xem iPod đến mười giờ. Đạo muốn đi xe lửa ở trong mall nên hai cha con mới xuống dường. Đánh rang, thai đồ, ăn sáng xong và khi láy xe đến nơi khoảng 11 giờ thì Đạo đã thăng. Đành láy về nhà lại rồi bê cả con lẩn ghế vào nhà để con ngủ tiếp. Tôi cũng nằm ghế sofa suy nghỉ vớ vẩn nhưng rồi thiếp đi được một tí.

Đến 2 giờ Đạo mới dậy. Đói meo ruộc nên hai cha con dắt nhau ra Chipotle ăn trưa. Hai cha con đá sạch tô burito thịt bò. Đạo ăn ngon lành cơm, đậu và rau. Tôi cũng làm thêm một ly margarita. Ăn xong no nê, chúng tôi kéo nhau vào mall lại.

Đạo rất thích được đi xe lửa chạy vòng trong mall. Hôm nay ngày thường nên không có ai đi cả. Ông tài xế cũng định nghỉ luôn thì thấy có hai cha con. Vì biết Đạo là khách quen nên ổng cũng láy. Nguyên một đoàn xe chỉ có hai cha con đi thôi. Đoạn đường chạy rất ngắn. Một vòng chừng hai phút nên mỗi chuyến được hai vòng.

Tuy thời gian rất ngắn ngủi như tôi cảm thấy rất bình thản. Nhìn con ngồi yên rất hồn nhiên làm tôi cũng thấy thoải mái và nhẹ nhỏm. Tôi định trả thêm 20 đồng nửa để hai cha con được thêm 8 vòng thư giản nhưng thôi để cho ông tài xế nghỉ.

Chỉ cần những giây phút như vậy đối với tôi hiện bây giờ thật sự quá hạnh phúc. Tôi rất mông ước được có thể trở lại tuổi âu thơ như Đạo nhưng điều đó không thể nào được. Thôi thì tạo cho con được những ngây phút thơ ngây và hồn nhiên đó để sau ngày nó không núi tiếc như mình bây giờ.

One of Dao’s favorite bedtime stories is Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman. A baby bird hatched while his mother went out to look for his food. As the baby bird searching for his mother, Dao asked, “Trung dau roi [Where is the egg]? I replied, “Trung be roi [Egg is broken].” Dao responded, “That’s so sad.”

Then he gave me a report from school today: “Daniel pushed Dao… in the gym… Dao nga [fell]… Dao khoc [cried]… Co [Ms] Jeanette kissed Dao.” I kissed him, held him tight and he fell asleep. Not a bad night at all.

I think about you the day that we knew you will be coming, but you have been on my mind a lot as the days are getting closer. Your brother, your mother and I are very eager to welcome you into this world and our family. Your mom has been telling me that you have been very well behaved. I am glad to hear.

Your grandpa has given us some names for you, but I not settled on any yet. Do you know what you want to be named? Please make up your mind and let me know before you arrived. I am just kidding. Just kick back and relax while you can. Enjoy being in your own little word because that will change completely in another 90 days or so. But don’t you worried. We will be there for you every step of the way and that is my promise to you.

I love you very much. Be good to your mother.

Daddy

After publishing the post about my lovely boy, I went upstairs and lay next to him. I was having trouble settling down because I still had many things on my mind. Around 1am, he got up and vomited all over the bed. We cleaned up and put on new sheets.

I went to the basement to do the laundry. Dao stayed with his mom, but didn’t fall back to sleep. He dozed off a bit, but then wanted milk. At first we didn’t let him because he was just vomited, but then we gave in just so he could go back to sleep. As I was pouring milk downstairs, I heard Dana through the walkie talkie saying that he threw up again. We cleaned up once again and moved to another bedroom because we ran out of sheets.

I went to the basement again to do laundry at 3 something in the morning. I called off work the next day because Dao was not ready to go back to daycare. Yesterday I also stayed him with him half of a day and then Dana stayed with him the second half. Poor fellow. I am hoping that he could return to daycare today. We’ll see.

Some funny Vietlish he said:

“so hot dao an khong duoc (so hot Dao cannot eat)”
“Dao khong want roi (Dao doesn’t want it anymore)”

I notice that he uses third person a lot. He hardly uses I, me or “con.” Not sure why that is.

With classes, I get home two hours later than working schedule, but I still can spend some time with Dao. We have dinner together then I get to give him a bath. We watch a bit of Bob the Builder before brushing his teeth. In bed, we read a few books before I turn out the lights. We hold on to each other and then we would go to sleep.

I have a light cough for a couple of days now. While I was changing him, I started to cough. Then our conversation began:

Dao: “Are you ok, daddy?” He ran to the table, picked up the cup of water and said to me, “Drink some water daddy.”
Me: “Thank you Dao. Daddy bi ho (Daddy has a cough).”
Dao: “Daddy bi ho, daddy di bac si (daddy go to the doctor).”
Me:: “Ba khong sao, cam on Dao (I am ok, thank you).”

These are some of the best moments being a father.

Dao gets to stand against the wall quite often nowadays for his misbehaving. I usually give him three chances to cooperate. If he refused I would make him stand against the wall. Seeing him standing and crying breaks my heart, but I have to do it. At two he needs to be disciplined. In the past two years, I have failed getting him to listen without making him standing against the wall. I tried to talk to him and also tried to minimize the punishment, but it was been really hard.

Once I got him to get still against the wall, I tried to explain to him what he had done wrong. He seemed to be responsive. Here’s how the conversation went recently:

Me: “Dao co ngoan khong (Are you going to be good)?”
Dao: “Yeah”
Me: “Dao xin loi mommy (Say sorry to your mom)”
Dao: “Sorry mommy.” Still crying and went on, “Dao muon di (I want to go).”
Me: “Dao muon di dau (Where do you want to go)?”
Dao: “Di vong vong (go around).” Before I could dismiss him, he stepped toward me and gave me a hug. He got me.

Labor Day weekend, we were at my sister’s house and Dao acted him when we tried to brush his teeth in the morning. He was kicking and biting hard on the brush. I made him stand against the wall while Eric stood and watched. Ten minutes later after I let Dao go, Eric came up to me with two plastic knives in his hands. He looked at me with his red, teary eyes and said, “I saw what you did.” He was about to fight me for what I did to his cousin.

Being home for a week sets Dao back to morning crying. Yesterday and today, he clung on to me like a monkey holding on to a tree branch. His arms and legs wrapped tight around my leg. This morning I stayed with him for a bit trying to get him to play with toys, but still didn’t work. I just had to hand him over to his new teacher, Ms. Amanda.

By the time I left his daycare, the parking lot at the Metro was full. I had to drop by the nearby Starbucks to work remotely until 10 o’clock when the reserved spaces were freed to park. The rain was pouring hard. I got to work all wet.

These days Dao and I sleep together. He got up several times looking for my arms. I had to get up to wrap him around me or else he wouldn’t go back to sleep. The problem is that he fell back to sleep much easier than I could.

We were watching choo choo train on YouTube together yesterday after dinner. Dao rested his cheek on my arm and uttered, “I love you, daddy.” That was the first time ever he said those words to me. I was touched.

Over the weekend, Dao met his niece who is four months younger than him. He held her hand and give her kisses. He also spent time with his cousins Eric and Sammy. They enjoyed mini-golf.