I miss taking and posting photos of Cu Dao. I left the camera at my sister’s house and I am not sure when I will get it back. I blame the car for it. It was packed before I could remember I didn’t put the camera in.

Duke not only takes up so much room in the house, he also takes up so much space in the car. My TL and my wife’s Camry aren’t big enough for all of his stuff. His new convertible car seat takes up two spaces in the back. His stroller, clothes and diapers fill up the entire trunk.

We thought of selling my wife’s Camry and get a Sienna, but our budget is kind of tight right now. We can’t afford another 30 grants in debt. Furthermore, we’re trying to send Cu Dao off to daycare, and that’s another $1,500 a month. We have decided to go with the Jewish Community Center even though the price is a bit high. Cu Dao is now on the waiting list for the next available spot.

As for Duke’s development, he has been doing great. He is very active in crawling around the house and he also has a very good appetite. He takes solid food well and he still drinks his mommy’s milk from the bottle during the day.

Night time is a whole different story. We moved him into his own room, but his mom couldn’t let him sleep by himself so she joined him. It feels cold and lonely in the master bedroom, so I joined them as well. All three of us sleep on a little-ass mattress with my legs touching the floor.

Truth be told, I joined them because my conscience eats at me for letting Dana taking care of Duke during the night all by herself. I could get an interrupted sleep all by myself, but the guilt wouldn’t let me. These days, Cu Dao doesn’t just wake up and cry. He sits right up, screams and crashes his head into my chest and sometimes my face.

I have to pick him up, hold him in my arms, and bend my knees repeatedly—my man Tim gave me the bending knees advice and it works every time—or cuddle him tight and tap his butt continuously until he goes back to sleep. Since he gets up like every hour, I get too tired to do either one, so the last resort is breast-feeding, and of course, that is when Dana takes over. I can’t hardly wait until the night that he would pull straight through.

My last week of 2009 was spent entirely with Duke. It was a joyful experience learning how to feed him, how to lull him into sleep, and how to make him laugh. I love feeding him because Cu Dao loves to eat. From brown rice cereal, banana, avocado, apple, butter squash to chicken noodle, it was a great pleasure and accomplishment to see him opened up his mouth and took in every spoonful of nutrition. To my astonishment, Duke cleaned up every dish I cut out for him. I treasured every moment we walked together around the house listening to jazz as well as the quiet time we both fell asleep. Yet, nothing excited more than hearing him said “Ba ba ba…” all day long.

I also got to spend some time with my mom, which I don’t do much these days. The weather had been mostly cold and crappy so we only stayed in the house. I was glad that she played with Cu Dao and away from the kitchen. Every time we went to my sister’s house, we never saw her out of the kitchen. These days my mom and I have lots of differences, but I understand. She hasn’t changed for the last 60 plus years, so she’s not going to change any time soon. She is the hardest person to get a gift for. She would turn anything down cold. This year, I thought I had came up with the best Christmas present for her. I printed out a 30×20 poster with a close-up of her smiling face. I framed it up and everything. The day we got ready to get back to Virginia, she handed me the poster and told me to return it. I was in shock even though I knew she did it unintentionally. I accepted it and will hang it on my wall.

On the bright side, 2009 was quite a year for me. Dana and I owned a house in January. Duke came out in April and continues to rule our world. Despite the recession, I had done quite well in 2009. In addition to my full-time gig at The George Washington School of Business, I took on some contract works, notably the design for Thirsty. More sites will be launched early 2010 as well since I have done my part. It’s up the owner to get them up. I don’t want to set too much expectations for 2010 because I want to improvise as we go along; however, I hope to pick up more web design on the side, spend more time with Duke and maybe a little sibling for him.

When I was residing at the refugee camp in the Philippines, I witnessed the grossest scene ever: a mother sucked the mucus right out of her little daughter’s nose. The girl was around 12-month old and she had a running nose. Why did she do it? Out of love, of course. She even said that even though it was not a pleasant thing to do, she did what she had to do because that’s her child.

I kept saying to myself that I would never do that even when I have a kid. I was so dead wrong. Duke is incredibly sensitive when it comes to touching his nose. He had a running nose the other day and his nostril was all congested. He breathed heavily and we couldn’t get him to stay still to clean his nose. Q-tips, Kleenex, Little Nose, and even the nose suction couldn’t do the job. At that moment, the scene of the woman came to my mind, and out of desperation, I put my mouth to his nose and sucked up the boogers.

Seeing his nose all cleared and hearing he could breath better, it was not all that bad. Big thanks to the woman who gave me the encouragement.

Duke is the smallest guy, yet he takes up most of the space in the house. Over the weekend, we put in a futon mattress in one of our four bedrooms for Duke. So now he has a playroom, a bedroom, a crib in our room, and a whole living room to himself.

We only used the mattress in his room for the obvious reason: so he won’t fall off his bed. Cu Dao actually has been really smart about crawling off the bed. He would only come close to the edge of the bed and then would turn back no matter what I tried to get him to go further. Even with just the mattress, he wouldn’t go off it.

Now that Duke has his own bed. He should be able to sleep by himself, yet I am the one who ended up sleeping by myself because his mom can’t leave him alone. It’s nice though since I get a whole bed to myself and don’t have to get up in the middle of the night. Occasionally I do miss getting punch in the nose by Duke’s forehead.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been working like there’s no tomorrow. I am taking on a couple of very exciting projects for both GWSB and consulting. Lately, I have been very motivated to design and I have to thank Duke for it.

Watching him sleep every night somehow inspires me. After Dana nurses him to sleep in our bed, it’s my job to watch him in case he wakes up and crawls off the bed. He no longer sleeps in his crib. With a reading light, a stool to sit on, and the corner of the bed as a computer desk, I have been working way past midnight cranking out designs and codes for my consulting works.

The night is so quiet and the only sound I would hear is when Duke twists and turns. All I have to do is tapping his butt and he would go back to sleep. Sometimes I just look at him and so damn proud of myself.

Duke has been very fortunate to have such a loving grandma watching his every move. Since they spend most of the day together, the bond between them is transparent. No one can feed him more bottles than grandma. No one understands Duke better than grandma. He knows when it is time for a stroll. If the weather permits, they stroll around the block. If the weather doesn’t, they stroll around the house. Just watching them strolling around the tiny space inside the house warms my heart. Now that Cu Dao can crawl, he follows her wherever she goes.

When being asked how grandma feels about taking care of Cu Dao, her response was that she gets to know a child better even though she has three kids of her own. At that time, she was busy making ends meet; therefore, she didn’t get to see how her children grew. Now it’s a joy for her to witness every progress he makes.

Last month, grandparents went on a cruise vacation for ten days. Grandpa said that grandma missed Cu Dao so she opened up her cell phone and browse through the photos she had taken of him. In a few months, grandma will no longer take care of Cu Dao. She has to babysit someone else. I am sure they’ll miss each other, but I will remind him the time he spent with his grandma so he won’t forget.

I love this photo of them together.

We converted our smallest bedroom into Duke’s playroom since we needed a space to put all the stuff animals his aunt and uncle gave him. They are his buddies. Dana got him a bead maze table. Although he’s still too young to move the beads around, he still likes to hold and spin them.

Yesterday, Dana and I were in Toys”R”Us and we found WordWorld characters on sale for $5 a pop. We went nuts and bought all the characters available in store. I had no idea what WordWorld was, but I was immediately hooked on the concept of combining typography with visual character. We posted them on one side of the wall so Cu Dao can choose which one he wants to take down to play. When I showed him the characters, he just looked and smiled. Dana has already looked into getting more characters.

Duke’s playroom is now becoming my favorite place to spend with my boy. I am sure we will accumulate more toys, but I am still missing a good stereo. We could kick back, play with the toys and listen to some jazz. Now that’s my ideal family quality time together.

Despite the rain, Dana and I toured nine daycare centers around our area and Dana’s workplace. We narrowed down to two choices: Horizon Child Development Center in Fairfax and Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia.

Both facilities are the cleanest. What sets Horizon apart is that it is the only place that has a full-time nurse on site and the cheapest fee ($270/week) out of all the centers. The staff appeared to be passionate and the kids looked happy. They waved and smiled as we entered (with our shoes off). When it was nap time, some of the kids just laid down with a bottle in their hands. They seemed to behaved well. They also get to learn sign language, music and Spanish. The only down side is that it is not too convenient for either of us. The traffic from our house to the facility is a bit crazy and the late pickup fee is $5/minute.

The Jewish Community Center, on the other hand, is a bit more convenient for us, but the tuition is also a bit higher ($1,350/month plus $70 monthly membership fee). The caregivers seemed care-giving and the kids appeared to be happy to be there. It had a good vibe. Jewish folks seemed nice and friendly, my only little worry is that Duke is the only none-Jewish baby. Is that even an issue?

We still have a bit of time to decide since grandma has extended her time until next summer. Grandpa worried that January would be too cold to take Duke to the daycare so he asked grandma to stay a bit longer. How sweet of him? We still want to get Duke to the daycare though so he’ll learn to get along with other kids. Unlike his daddy, Cu Dao seems to be a very outgoing baby. He loves to go outside and meets other people.

My sun rises every morning around 5:30 with a big smile. I didn’t even realized it was raining outside this morning until I started to go to work. The showering weather makes me want to stay home with Cu Dao and Dana who gets to spend a whole Veteran day with my little sunshine. I am so jealous.

Yesterday, I scheduled six daycare tours for this Friday. We are looking to send Duke to daycare by early next year. Experienced parents, what should we look for and what questions should we ask on the tours? Any tips are welcome.

I still can’t imagine sending Duke off to daycare; however, I have seen many positive results with kids who go to day care. They often behave better and they don’t cling to their parents like kids who stay home. Most importantly, they can eat all by themselves. I saw a three-year-old boy who goes to daycare tearing up a piece chicken while another boy who stayed home with his mom being chased down to be fed.

Cu Dao started his solid food a few weeks ago. Like daddy, he loves sweet potato. For the past three nights, Duke gets his sweet potato while adults get dinner. From the way he chew to his commend for more food if I don’t feed him quick enough, watching him digesting his food is heaven-sent. I don’t even have to put the spoon into his mouth. He just leans forward and grabs the food. I hope his appetite will continue like this all the time.

Duke could also sit on his own, but not for too long. He simple doesn’t pay attention. So if he gets off balance, he just let himself drops to the ground (on the soft surface of course). Cu Dao also started to crawl. He finally figures out how to use his arms instead of his head. Whenever he raises his left arm, he lifts up his right leg as well as if both were wired together. He looks amusing with one leg and arm in the air. Whenever he sees a toy he likes, he would crawl to it, but stop about a foot away and scream to tell us to pick up the toy for him.

Cu Dao smiles more often these days, but I do miss that serious look on his face from time to time. The other day I was singing “Trong Vang” along with Phuong Thanh but with my horrendous, not-remembering-the-lyrics phrasing and he busted out laughing so Dana could capture his two bottom teeth.

Oh no, Foggy Bottom station is already here. I have to run. It’s going to be a busy day at the office.

I am back at work today and only a few hours away from my boy, yet I miss Duke terribly. On Tuesday, I was coughing and sneezing so I couldn’t be near him even though we were in the same house. Yesterday, I felt much better so I spent a whole day with him. Dana and I took him to the doctor yesterday for his six-month visit. Disappointedly Duke only weighs 14lbs and 6oz, which is only in the 10 percentiles. Feeding him in the morning is quite difficult. The only time he would take the milk is when he was about to fall asleep. The problem was that he could only take 3oz before he fell asleep.

The doctor encouraged us to let him sleep on his own. The problem is he would roll over as soon as I placed him in the crib. He would rub his face against the sheet or drag his face by pushing his feet. He would get all rash all over his face. I tried to hold him on his back, but he would scream and wake up. I held him in my chest for ten minutes and he slept like a puppy. After that I can gently placed him in his crib.

Last night, I fed him some sweet potato for dinner. He ate so well that I kept feeding him and feeding him until he threw everything back out. I should have stopped when he had enough. I am now sitting here reminiscing on the time we spent yesterday. The beautiful smile on his eczema-laced face revealing his two bottom teeth is what I miss the most.