Over the weekend, we took Cu Dao to Gymboree classes for a tryout. On Saturday afternoon, we went to a level-2 class, which is for kids from 6 to 10 months. He was doing fine until he puts on his usual move trying to kiss and head butt an eight-month girl. I pulled him away as soon as he attempted to head butt her. He cried and didn’t want to participate in any of the activities. He just clung to his mom the whole time. We managed to calm him down, but he still didn’t want to do much.

Sunday morning, we attended a third-level class, which is for kids from 10 to 16 months. He was the only guy in the class who couldn’t walk yet, but he managed to do fine. He did tried to make his move again, but I jumped ahead and gave him a light head butt instead of pulling him back. He didn’t give me a kiss though. What’s up with that?

Mommy stood out and observed did participate in some of the class activities with daddy and enjoyed the session. Next week, we’ll let him try out the music class before signing up for membership. It was a joyful hour spending with him and other kids his age. I am definitely looking forward to next weekend.

I also managed to snap up some photos of Cu Dao over the weekend. It’s for you, Hoang. Damn, I miss you already after spending a whole night together.

I am excited that Duke will go to our first-choice daycare, which is the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia, in the second week of April. It feels as if he has been accepted to Harvard. I’ve been checking on them almost everyday for an available spot. I hope Cu Dao will be happy there with other kids and teachers.

I haven’t been adding new photos of Cu Dao lately. It’s hard to take a good shot of him nowadays. He would rush over as soon as I pull out the camera and start to grab it. Not just the camera, he would dash from the living room to the kitchen as soon as one of us open the dishwasher or the refrigerator. One of his favorite toy is obviously the stereo system. Like a DJ, he switches records from jazz to Vietnamese to hip-hop every three seconds.

A hilarious moment happened Last week when we were driving back to New Jersey for Vietnamese New Year. Duke was sleeping for about two hours to soft music. Suddenly the CD player changed to Thanh Thao’s remixed album. He swung his feet as soon as the bass kicked it while his eyes still closed. I was just rolling and wished I have captured that on film.

Both Dana and I took Cu Dao to the pediatrician this morning for his 9-month check up. As we have predicted, Duke’s weight (15 pounds 15 ounces) is falling off the curve because he has been refusing to take the bottle for a whole week. Dana tries to nurse him at night, but it is still not enough. We need to suspend his solid until he takes some milk. He is doing fine with everything else.

Duke are growing two more upper teeth so they are now six together. I feel bad for Dana every time she breastfeeds him. She screams in pain whenever he bites, but still let him latch on until he’s satisfied. After the doctor, we took him to La Petite Academy to drop off his application. The waiting list for Jewish Community Center, which is our first choice, is taking a long time so we decided to go with La Petite Academy, which seems nice and convenience for us.

We took him to the infant room to play with other kids. Duke was playing with a musical toy by himself until another 9-month boy crawled over and pumped into him. He immediate did the head-butt affections. Sometimes I am not sure if that’s how he shows his affections or testing his head. Last night he was standing with his hands holding on to the table. He slipped and banged his head against the round edge of the table. I pulled him away as he started to cry. He swung off me and crawled back to the table. He stood back up and banged his forehead against the table to hear the way it sounds. I was just wondering what the heck was he thinking.

We were invited to Dana’s friend for some banging chao long (Gut porridge). One of Dana’s friend’s friend happened to be one of my friends from high school. She has a daughter who is two weeks older than Cu Dao. Kathy and Duke met for the first time last night. When we sat them face to face, they stared at each other for about ten seconds before Duke made the first move. He pulled out his left arm and tried to grabbed her. Then he crawled over and kissed her. Then he head-butted her lightly, but enough to make the little girl cried. It was so cute. I wish I could have recorded it.

On a different note, Duke has been refusing milk for the past week. Today, I stop feeding him solid altogether to get him to drink milk again. Trying to put a bottle into his mouth and he would scream and spit it right back out. Both of us took turns trying to feed him, but with not so much success. I was finally abled to give two ounces before he took a nap. The battle continues when he wakes up.

According to this post on trouble-sleeping baby: “In a gifted baby, this could mean he has a hard time dialing down on the stimulation so he can get some z’s.” I really hope so because Duke’s sleeping fussiness is a nightmare for us. He wears both of us out every night crying instead of sleeping. He could play forever if we allow him too. Last night, he put him to bed around 8:30, but he didn’t fall asleep until 9:45.

“Pretend play” is another sign of being gifted according to the article. If you look at this priceless moment, you can tell that he pretends to laugh at midpoint of the video. He’s either gifted or just being a good sport. Gifted or not, I am thankful and blessed to have him in our lives despite all the challenges he put us through.

Last Friday, we decided to take Duke and grandma to Blue Pearl Buffet because we haven’t been to a Chinese buffet for a year. It turned out to be the first buffet I ended up eating instant noodle later on that night. The food was not so bad. I just didn’t get a chance to eat.

We put Duke in a high chair and fed him his food. Two spoons later he was no longer interested in eating. He was just screaming out of excitement and everyone in the restaurant could hear him. To calm him down, we gave him a some jello to play with. It was a bad idea even though he stayed quiet for about five minutes. He smashed the jello and smacked them all over the place including his face and head. Dana cleaned him up and held him for a bit while I was trying to gorge down some dishes.

There was a Vietnamese couple next to our table with a two-year-old boy. He was a very nice kid. He came over touched Cu Dao’s hand and feet. He liked it by smiling back, but as soon as the boy went back to his table, Cu Dao would scream again. He wanted to play with the big boy.

I didn’t want to disturb another patrons who went out and paid for a nice and calm meal at the restaurant with Duke’s yelling. He was not fussing or crying, just screaming out of excitement. Silly little boy. We probably won’t take him to a another buffet until he’s a bit older.

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.