Dao’s summer camp ended last Friday. His teachers sent some photos of him singing, dancing and playing with the water. Dao made some impressive progression over the summer.

Dao no longer cried when we dropped him off in the morning. He could sing the entire “ABC” song and six bars of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” He also mastered “The Wheels on the Bus.” He could count in Vietnamese from 1-8 and 10 (he still leaves out the 9). In English, he counted “1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16.” I am sure he’ll fill in the missing numbers one of these days.

What impressed me the most is his manner in communication. For example, when he wants to play with the iPod, he would ask, “Ba, ba cho Dao muon iPod, please” [Daddy, daddy, let me borrow the iPod, please]. As much as I try to restrict him from using the iPod, I cannot say no to that. When I handed over the iPod to him, he would response, “Thank you, daddy.” We no longer have to reminded him that.

Whenever one of us sneeze, he would say, “bless you.” When I coughed, he said, “Ba, ba, be careful.” Earlier today, Dana expressed some pain and he asked, “Mommy, are you ok?” I rested my leg against the table, he said, “excuse me,” as he tried to walk by. Whenever he needed me to do something for him, he would tell me, “Ba, ba, help Dao.” The other day I spilled milk on the floor. He ran into the kitchen, picked up the towel, wiped up the milk and said, “Dao help daddy clean up.” The only thing I could do at such moment was held him tight and gave him a big kiss. What a sweet boy.vSure there are sweet moments like that as well as not so sweet moments that I just wanted to spank him, but kids are kids.

I am really glad that he’s picking up quite a few good manners over the summer. I also think that he’ll be a great big brother. He gets along well with other kids and has not have any problems like fighting for arguing with his peers. As seem in this video, his treated his six-month cousin with love and kiss.

A few weeks ago, I played Jazz for Kids: Sing Clap Wiggle & Shake in the car hoping Cu Dao would like it. He was hooked immediately, but only to the opening track, Ella Fitzgerald’s playful rendition of “Old McDonald.” As soon as the song is over, he would request, “Daddy, daddy, McDonald please.” The song has been repeat whenever we’re in the car.

Yesterday, I finally was able to draw his attention away from the song by playing Clark Terry’s “Mumbles.” He started to imitate the scatting and sounded hilarious. I wish I had the camcorder with me. Dao has learned to sing “ABC” and the first four bars of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” He sang and danced every night before going to bed.

On a different note, I moved his photos from Flickr to Picasa.

It’s 10:42p.m. and Dao finally went to sleep. He napped almost four hours today in the stroller at the mall. Dung went shopping and I read a whole book. I was so happy that when he woke up I wanted to take him to play some golf, but the rain was pouring. We took him golfing last weekend and he loved it even though he was having a hard time getting the ball in.

On Saturday we went to a friend’s cookout. One of Dung’s old friend has a six-year-old boy. She told us that her son keeps asking her why he doesn’t have a brother to play with. So they are working hard to fulfill his request. The poor guy was bored at the party because most of the kids were girl. Dao is too young for him. So he just stayed with him mom the whole time.

Soon Dao will have a brother to play with so he won’t be a loner. Last night we asked him, “Em cua Dao dau [Where is your lil brother]?” He responded, “Day ne [here]” and pointed to his belly. We corrected him so now he’s pointing to his mommy’s belly.

Speaking of the new baby, he didn’t seem to like pho today, probably because of too much MSG at Pho 75. I have been thinking about the boy’s name, but the only one came to mind is “Duc.” I told my wife that we will named the following kid “Gia” so that we’ll have “Dao Duc Gia [fake morals].”

In a serious note, I would love a Vietnamese name that would be easy to say in both Vietnamese and English. Dao turns out be quite an easy name to say in both languages. Even his friends and his teachers could say his name correctly. His nickname, Duke, is now rarely used. He even refers to himself as Dao like, “Dao is smart,” which is his new compliment to himself.

The ultrasound result is in. Dao will have a little brother by the end of the year. The little fellow is doing well, no anomalies observed. He’s weighing in at 11 oz (41%). Unlike his older brother who moved around constantly, he stayed calm during the ultrasound.

Dana is also doing well. Her cervix is about 3.7cm long and appears closed. The doctor wants her to gain at least one pound a week. That’s not going to be a problem. I already feed her a huge burrito at Chipotle. We’ll just have to hit Cheesecake Factory for some hamburgers and revisit Blue Pearl buffets more often.

When Dana was carrying Dao, we used to hit iHop in the middle of the night for stack of pancakes or hit the diners for some late-night chicken wings. Now that we have Dao, we won’t be able to do that with the second baby. Maybe I’ll just buy stuff home for us, but it won’t be the same as experiencing the night life.

I got home a bit late last night so we decided to eat out. I suggested Cheesecake Factory because it locates about five minutes from our house and I was craving for its Glamburgers. After we sat down and made our orders, I took Dao to the family restroom to change him and to wash his hands.

After putting on a new diaper for him, I told him, “Dao dung day doi Daddy dai nhe [Dao, stand here wait for Daddy to take a leak.” As I was doing my thing, he stood aside and cheered, “Daddy dai, daddy dai, daddy dai.” His voice grew louder and louder and he was jumping up and down clapping his hands as if he was a cheerleader. After I finished, he ran up and flushed the toilet. That was the first time in life I was being cheered for taking a piss. Only being a parent gets this kind of weird joy I guess.

So I had a banging wild mushroom burger with the ultimate glass of margarita and Dana had a delicious plate of shrimp pasta. Dao shared the pasta and my fries. We finished everything and even shared a slice of the original cheesecake. After that we all fell sleepy and didn’t want to do anything when we got home. Not bad for a Wednesday evening.

Dao has been going to class all by himself for a week. No more carrying and no more crying. This morning when I took him off the car, he said “Bye xe cu [old car]. Di hoc [Go to class].” He held me hand we walked toward the building. He pushed the button to open the door and swiped my card to let us in. When I opened his class’s door, he ran right in and handed his hat to one of his teachers. He blew me a kiss and began to play with his classmates.

Dao also enjoys watching Japanese animation nowadays. He liked Ponyo and My Neighbor Totoro. He refers to Totoro as “penguin bu [big].” Again, his ability to associate objects with things he already know is just hilarious.

Dao is already addicted to the iPod. He knows exactly what apps to play and he also knows which buttons to push. For instance, once he’s done playing with a game, he knows the “Not now. Thank You” and the “free version” buttons. He’s now a little pro with Angry Bird. He can sling that bird better than me. He prefer the iPod when he plays game and prefers the iPad when he watches YouTube. I am just amazed how kids pick up these things so fast.

Lately Dao have excuses for everything. When he wants to reject foods, he would say “nong qua [too hot]” even though the food is cool. I fed him ice cream the other day, but he didn’t want it. He was about to say “too hot,” but he realized that he couldn’t use that excuse so he quickly changed to “nhieu qua [too much].”

We were at the playground the other day and he said to me, “Dao so [scares].” I asked him in Vietnamese what was he afraid of and he said, “nang nong qua [the sun is too hot].” I asked him to go to the garden to pick cherry tomatoes with me and he said, “No, too hot.”

Here’s the best excuse so far. He was holding my iPod Touch and watching “Curious George.” A minute later, he told me, “Ba ba cam iPod cho Dao. Nang qua [Daddy, daddy, hold iPod for Dao. Too heavy].” To me, these are some of the best moments of being a parent. Love my boy.

This morning when I dropped him off at the daycare, it was time for them to go into the playground. I put his clothes and lunch in his cubby and watched him played outside through the window. I stood there observing for ten minutes before I left.

I dropped Dao off today and he walked with me from the parking lot to the building instead of nagging to be carried in. He looked at the flowers and said hi to people who walked by. For the first time, since he made the transition to the new class, Dao didn’t cry when we walked in. One of his teachers asked him to come sit down. Not only he came toward her, but he also blew me a kiss. All three teachers were like, “wow.” It’s must be the new Dao. Just yesterday he didn’t even want to go into the room when I opened the door for him. I held him in and tried to play with him a bit, but nothing worked. He just held on to me tight. Eventually I had to let him go and one of the teachers had to hold him. As I walked away, I could still hear him screamed. Today is a brand new day and I hope he’ll continued to be this way.

Last night when we were about to go to sleep, Dao rubbed my head and said, “Daddy, toc dep [nice hair].” I haven’t heard that compliment for a while. I was flattered even though I know don’t have much hair left.

As I was ironing my clothes, Dao pointed to the iron and said, “Tau chay [running boat].” I love the way he visualizes objects. At the same time he was jumping out and down the bed and all of the sudden I heard a fart noise. He said, “Ouch, Dao pooped.”

At a restaurant, I gave Dao my American Express and showed him how to tuck it into the bill holder pocket. He brought the bill up to the cashier and handed to cashier. He stood there waiting, but she didn’t return the card. He cried out loud and said, “The [card] Dao.” I had to explain to him that she was calculating the bill.

At Pho Hoa, I took him to the men’s room to wash his hands, but before we do that I told him that “Daddy need to pee pee first.” I carried him to the urinal and he me to “bo vo [put in].” I was like, “Say what?”

Dao returns to his crying when I drop him off at the daycare. This morning we met Ms. Ester on the way in. She came over to say hi to Dao, but he turned away, held on to me and didn’t want to interact with her. Ms. Ester used to be able to get him to show her things on his shirt to distract him from crying, but he didn’t even look at her this morning. I said to Ms. Ester, “It’s the morning thing.” Her response was, “It’s ok. It happens when they move to upperclass. I still miss him.” I felt bad and I knew that Dao didn’t mean to do that. He’s just not a good sport in the morning. I explained to him about how not being nice to Ms. Ester, but I doubt that he registered. I took him to class and couldn’t get him to play any toy at all. I had to let him go and let him cry.