To cope with the previous night, I had three cups of coffee yesterday. One in the morning, one at noon and one at night to complement the last piece of chocolate cheesecake that had been sitting in our freezer forever while watching Glee, which has becoming my favorite show. Still, I was ready to catch some sleep by midnight.

At two in the morning, Duke started to fuss. His infection bothered him and he couldn’t sleep. I woke up and felt like I had a hangover. My head was pounding. I tried to calm him down, but didn’t work. I picked him up and wrapped my arms around him. He slept on my shoulder once again. Unlike the previous night, I could barely walked. I tried my best to keep him sleep in my arms for half an hour. I thought that he was already deep asleep so I put in down. The little guy woke right up.

I gave up and handed over to mommy. Duke continued to cry and woke up grandma as well. Grandma took him over to her bed, his mom followed, and I just got knocked out. This morning, Duke looked so scrawny that his eyes appeared to be big.

I got a call from Duke’s teacher checking on him. It turned out that the daycare closes next week, not this week. Dana had looked at the wrong calendar. I might have to take off a couple of vacation days look after Duke since grandma will be gone this week.

Last Friday evening, I had an opportunity to meet up with one of Ngoc Lan’s devoted fans and she introduced me to Thai In Shirlington. She recommended the drunken noodles and it was delicious. The taste was well balanced, not too sweet and not too salty. I tried some of her beef salad. Although the grilled beef was marinated to perfection, the meat was a bit chewy. It would had been great if the beef was not too cooked. I had fresh mango and sticky rice for dessert, which wasn’t so bad. I also tried some of her fried roti dough, which was similar to the Vietnamese version of xoi vi (fried sticky rice), and it wasn’t bad at all.

I was glad to get to know a Ngoc Lan’s fan in DC and I am still amazed how that angelic voice had reached so many people in many different ways. The fan I talked to spoke little Vietnamese, yet she knew by heart the songs Ngoc Lan had covered. Although we only met for the first time, we could talk to each other so easily. Our passion for Ngoc Lan made that possible. We both thought that it would be cool if we could get a bunch of Ngoc Lan’s fans together, try out different restaurants and talk about Ngoc Lan, politics or whatever. Any Ngoc Lan’s freak in is DC up for this? There are two of us now, but the more the merrier.

Last night, Duke had rashes on his behind, which caused him to be feisty all night. Poor little guy tried to sleep, but he was so itchy that he rubbed his butt against the sheet and cried with his eyes shut. Nothing we could do to calm him down. We gave him some Tylenol and took off his diaper, but nothing helped.

The only way for him to sleep was to hold him in our arms. Dana and I took turn carrying him around. He slept like a little puppy on my shoulder for a couple of hours. I tried to catch some sleep on the couch with him on my lap, but it was too uncomfortable. My head was pounding and I needed to take a leak, but I had to hold off because I didn’t want to wake him up, so I did some reading on my iPod Touch to kill time.

The next morning I called the pediatrician immediately, but the earliest appointment was 2 o’clock. It turned out that Duke has caught up with some bacteria, which he might had picked up from his toe.

Cu Dao stays home with grandma for the week since daycare will only open for today and half a day tomorrow. Besides, grandma will return to New Jersey the end of this week so we thought they could spend some times together. I am sure Cu Dao will miss his grandma. She is now the closest one to him. He clings on to her every chance he gets. He laughs whenever she laughs. He eats the most when she feeds him. Grandma always takes her time with him. Will see how Cu Dao do without grandma starting next week.

Jeremy Keith’s “A Brief History of Markup“:

There won’t be a single point in time at which we can declare that the language is ready to use. Instead, we can start using parts of the specification as web browsers support those features.

This is the reason I pre-ordered his new book HTML5 For Web Designers.

With my mother-in-law staying with us, I have been watching more TV than in the past. We watch Dancing With the Stars on Mondays and American Idols on Tuesdays. Tuesday nights are still my favorite even though I am no longer interested AI. Clearly Crystal Bowersox is the most inventive and has the most potentials even though the judges haven’t complimented her two weeks in a row. If she loses, AI will become a joke.

What comes after AI is getting me excited. The first time, Glee caught my attention was its rendition of Young MC’s “Bust a Move.” I thought it was cheesy, but funny as hell. Tonight, Glee brought me back to Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” and MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This.” Rachel’s version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” was a perfect show-closer. Lea Michele’s pitch-perfect tone made the campy tune sounded fresh.

Ben Michael Ward:

Want to know if your ‘HTML application’ is part of the web? Link me into it. Not just link me to it; link me into it. Not just to the black-box frontpage. Link me to a piece of content. Show me that it can be crawled, show me that we can draw strands of silk between the resources presented in your app. That is the web: The beautiful interconnection of navigable content. If your website locks content away in a container, outside the reach of hyperlinks, you’re not building any kind of ‘web’ app. You’re doing something else.

Word.

After two weeks, we finally sent little Cu Dao back to daycare yesterday. His teachers were very excited to see him again. He still cried, but made some progress. He was doing fine when they took him outside for a stroll, but cried when they brought him back into the room. I hope that he’ll adapt soon even though one of his sweet teachers is leaving to go back to school.

Over the weekend, we spent most of the times with just the three of us. We went for a little train ride around the park and he went on the carousel for the first time. I bought this cool ride for him at a garage sale for $5. The little guy is loving it. We’re loving it too because we don’t have to bend over to push him like this one.

Some notes I jotted down while reading Ruth Yaron’s Super Baby Food. I thought these tips might be helpful to first-time parents; therefore, I post them on here.

First food (p.14): Whole grain cereals, banana, avocado, cooked sweet potato.

High chair (p.16): Never leave baby alone. Buy JPMA-certified products.

Best time for meal (p.23)
– Morning or early afternoon
– Introduce new food at breakfast or lunch, never supper
– Feed when he’s not too hungry
– Relax, confident, tolerant, smile at meal time (p.25)
– NEVER force baby to eat

Leftovers (p.26): Throw food away if contacted with baby’s saliva

Food Allergies (p.28)
– Wait four days to introduce new food (one at a time)
– Cow’s milk, soy, egg white, wheat, peanuts
– Honey, corn syrup (p.36)

Prevent burns in the kitchen (p.43)
– Pack your table cloths away

Prevent Dental Problems (p.43)
– Drink water or rinse after meals
– Clean teeth with Q-Tips
– No sleeping with bedtime bottles or while breastfeeding
– Soak toothbrush in Listerine and rinse well before placing in baby’s mouth

NEVER FORCE A BABY TO EAT (p.53)
– No shoving!
– If baby doesn’t eat certain food, don’t push it (p.56)

Baby’s bottle should contain only milk (p.61)

Water
– Tap water only. No bottled water (p.62)
– Use only cold tap water. Boil for hot water

Juice
– Must be pasteurized (p.65)
– To pasteurized: boil for 3-5 minutes to kill bacteria. Refrigerate immediately. Discard after two days.
– Juice should be diluted (p.65)

Vitamin Supplements
– Give with food and not on empty stomach (p.68)
– Baby needs iron. Not enough iron may cause serious health and development (p.69)

– Praise the good, ignore the bad (p.73)
– No toys during meal (p.71)
– Save a favorite toy when dine out

Food Hygiene
– Keep a spray bottle filled with water mixed with a few tablespoons of antibacterial dishwashing liquid near the sink (p.155)

I called my old man last night and he happened to be doing some work at the temple he helped built when I was five. He handed the phone over to chi My Chau, the youngest monk who treated me like her little brother when I lived in the temple. We chatted and she brought back some of the fondest memories of my life. I ran from the school back to the temple without my books and bag because I was afraid of getting flu shot. She remembered the times she walked me to school and picked me up at the end of the day. She reminded me our favorite dish: “gasoline” fried rice. I once asked Su Co (the second highest monk) how she made such delicious fried rice and she told me she used gasoline. The joke stuck.

One of the biggest reasons I loved to stay at the temple was chi My Chau. We played together and she made me all kind of fun toys like kites, coconut-leaf animals, paper airplane and plastic lanterns. We lived a simple life. We woke up in the morning. We prayed with Su Co and Su Ba (the highest monk). We had meatless breakfast and I headed to school. After school we had lunch, we prayed and then I got to take a nap. After that I got up, played and watered the flowers. We had some time to study before dinner was served.

Chi My Chau, who is at least five years older than me, is one of the sweetest ladies I have met in my life. I don’t know exactly how she ended up at the temple and I don’t know much about her background. Unlike me she was either born to be a monk or she didn’t have a choice. She was sent to the temple and that is how she lives for the rest of her life. She got to go to school, but never got to experience the life outside the temple. Sometimes I think about her and keep wonder how she does it.

I still recall my last day at the temple. Chi My Chau was sad and mad at me for leaving. I could see the disappointment written all over her face. She seemed lonely. Until this day, I could never forget that expression. From that moment on, my life had changed forever.

I went back home and started first grade. At the time, I was obsessed with video games (Contra, Natra and Mario Brothers), billiards and Chinese TV series (Natra, Te Thien, Vo Tat Thien). I even stole money from my mom to feed my addiction. I can’t even imagine how messed up my life would have been if I didn’t come to America.

Migrated to the States was another life-changing experience for me. I was lonely and felt as if I was deaf and muted. I couldn’t make any friends and I couldn’t hang out with American kids. I got picked on and laughed at. At that point, I really missed the time I was living in the temple. I loved the calmness atmosphere and the times I spent with chi My Chau. I had thought of going back, but it was impossible at that time and my mind was already corrupted. There is no turning back, but I still hope one day I could go back to the temple and relive some of that peaceful experience.