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.

Unlike her exceptional Lênh Đênh Nhớ Phố, Giang Trang opted for a new sound on her follow-up Hạ Huyền. Still covering Trịnh Công Sơn’s music in her minimalist delivery, but she replaced the simple violin-guitar combo (Anh Tú and Anh Hoàng) for more complex quartet consisted of guitarist Nguyễn Văn Tuấn, flutist Sương Mai, cellist Lê Thanh Long and percussionist Trần Xuân Hòa.

While she gains more textures in the arrangements, she completely loses the interpersonal interaction with the instrumentations that made Lênh Đênh Nhớ Phố so damn intimate. On most tracks, particularly “Còn Tuổi Nào Cho Em” and “Như Chim Ưu Phiền,” she seems to be fighting with the flute. The percussion adds no rhythmic value to the arrangements. On “Như Chim Ưu Phiền,” the flute is indeed sounding like an annoying little bird keeps tweeting in her way making me wish I could slingshot that sucker.

Setting the flute as a main melodic accompaniment is the arranger’s biggest misstep for the album. Perhaps the only outstanding track on Hạ Huyền is “Vết Lăn Trầm.” With the flute and percussion out of her way, she delivers Trinh’s heartfelt lyrics like she lived it.

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.

Cu Dao is obsessed with train. He plays with train all day. Even when we took him shopping today, he looked for train. When he couldn’t find any, he looked for his best friend aka mommy. Now he’s watching train on my iPhone while his mom is surfing on the iPad. Dan is the only one sleeping right now.

We’re spending the last few days of 2012 in New Jersey with my in-laws. Cu Dan is now walking all over the house. He walks like a little drunk dude falling and tripping all over the place. Whenever he gets a hold of my iPhone somehow he manages to turn on Thanh Thao’s 2012 Remix and dances to it.

My days have been filled food and kids. I definitely need to change my eating habit next year. I am eating way too much and feeling like shit most of the time. When the kids go to bed, I stay up to work on a side project. Even though I turned down quite a bit of projects in the last few months, I can’t turn away one of my favorite clients. I love the clients who give me complete freedom to shape the site. I am very excited. The site is coming along well. I hope to launch it early next year.

I am rereading a few books on typography because I didn’t get to learn much in my Advanced Typography class. Sofie Beier’s Reading Letters: Designing for Legibility is such a pleasure read for such a technical topic. Ellen Lupton’s Thinking with Type (2nd edition) is a great preview. Jost Hochuli’s Detail In Typography is a little gem.

I’ve also learned that I have two very young, loyal readers. I have to be careful with my word choices. It was strange and a bit embarrassing to hear my nephew read out loud my posts on parenthood.

I came down with a cold in the past couple of days. I hate coughing; therefore, I try to prevent it as soon as possible. Been taking NyQuil to get rid of it. Tonight should be the last night taking it. My head is getting a bit heavy. The drug is kicking it. Goodnight everyone.

Spending the last few days of 2012 eating donuts, drinking coffee, watching the snow, being with family and reflecting on the past year. 2012 was rough. We lost our main man. We struggled emotionally, but we maintained. We stayed together to raise our lovely kids. They are growing up fast. We’re deeply thankful for the family support.

As for myself, I was busier than ever. In addition to holding a fulltime job, I started grad school despite having two toddlers. Now I could see why people can’t finish school when they have kids. The demands on both sides are impossible to keep up. I going to take it easy next semester.

For 2013, my goals are to manage my time and my appetite. I need to balance my time for work, school and family. I also need to balance my diet. Eat less and get back to jogging. That’s all. Happy New Year my lovely readers.

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.

While the kids are sleeping, I am sitting on the blue sofa and looking out the rainy, snowy, dreary sky. I used to observe my father-in-law doing the same not so long ago. I miss the man.

1. Thu Phương – Hà Nội và Tôi: Thu Phương crafted a concept album of her very own Hà Nội.
2. Giang Trang – Lênh Đênh Nhớ Phố: Giang Trang’s simplistic approach brings out the pure beauty of Trịnh Công Sơn’s music.
3. Thanh Thảo – Nonstop 2012: Bạc Trắng Tình Đời: Thanh Thảo and producer Bảo Lư pumped out one of the hottest club joints in 2012.
4. Thủy Tiên – Ra Đồng Giữa Ngọ: Thủy Tiên returns with a solid Trịnh Công Sơn’s songbook.
5. Quái Vật Tí Hon – Đường Về: A rock album filled with original, engaging storytelling.
6. MTV – Nếu Chỉ Sống Một Ngày: This album marks a tremendous growth for MTV group from being a banal pop-rock boy band to a matured, lyrical rock group.
7. Đức Tuấn & Vựa Lúa: A fun, youthful album with various experimental group singing.
8. Dzoãn Minh Vol.7 – Xa Vắng Người: A solid, romantic album focused on Ý Nhi’s music.
9. Lâm Thúy Vân – Bảy Năm Mối Tình Câm: A soulful, straightforward cover of standards from Lâm Thúy Vân.
10. Hiền Thục – 3:15 PM: This album demonstrates Hiền Thục’s commercial success.

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.