We started co-sleeping with Dao when he was very young and now he needed one of us to be his side. Now that we have Dan, Dana sleeps with him so that she could nurse him at night and I stay with Dao. I really enjoy being with him. In the beginning, I was irritated that he keeps on rubbing my arm and scrapes my skin if he runs across something rough like a scratch or a cut. He even presses down on my keloid sometimes, which stings a like needle. Now I don’t mind at all. In fact, I get to kiss his smooth and soft cheeks, thanks to all the organic milk he has been drinking.

When Dana was pregnant, she told me that she would train Dan to sleep all by himself in his own crib, yet every time I come over they both sleep in bed. Unlike Dao, Dan likes to be nursed constantly and now he has unlimited access to the breasts. He wants to be fed too often that she just nursed in in bed until they both fall asleep. His cheeks are getting puffy now and I can’t tell if he’s getting chubby from the milk or his jaws are getting swollen. Either way, they are perfect to be kissed. Whenever I get the chance, I kiss those cheeks until he screams.

Dana says that she enjoys her time with Dan because she is now less worried. With Dao, we didn’t know much and anything appeared a bit unusual put us in a panic mode. Now we know what to expect and we can navigate our way around him. I also enjoy being with him. He stares right into me whenever I talked to him or playing with him. I can feel the special connection between us. It’s the kind of connection that makes it worthwhile to be a parent, even though it’s a tough responsibility and it is only get tougher as time goes by.

We just learn as we go along. It’s a very long journey so we might as well get used to it. One of Dana’s uncles warned us that if you let your kids sleep with you, they will until they turn 18. I don’t think he’s exaggerating. Well, if that’s how long it will take than we might as well enjoy it.

In our recent bedtime stories, our imaginative Dao puts his own spin on Stan and Jan Berenstain’s The Bears’ Vacation. He replaces the Bears’ family with his own and he reinterprets the illustrations with his own narration. It’s quite hilarious to hear him reads the story using his own account.

In the original story, Mother Bear tells Baby Bear, “Small Bear! Small Bear! Don’t go too far. I want to see you wherever you are.” Dao reads, “Mommy noi Dao dung di xa qua.”

In the story, Papa tells Baby Bear, “Here it is… rule number five. Watch what you touch. It may be alive.” Based on the illustration, Dao reads, “Turtle [bites] daddy’s butt.”

All I can say is that I get a kick out of these precious time.

My wife was suppose to be discharged today, but her fever shot up. The doctors decided to keep her in the hospital overnight to make sure she is safe. She was disappointed because she wanted to go home to her boys. She misses them. I miss them too even though I get to see them at night. For the benefit of her health, however, staying another night will give us a peace of mind knowing that she’ll be ok to go home. Poor grandma looking up after Cu Dan. He woke up every two hours because he misses his mom’s breastfeed. I heard him cry last night, but I couldn’t get up because I didn’t get much sleep the night before.

I spent most of my free time with Dao these days. I took him to one of his classmates birthday party on Saturday morning. Unfortunately he didn’t like to participate in any of the activities. He just wanted to stand and watch other kids playing. I took him to the U.S. Botanic Garden to see model trains. It was not all that spectacular, but he loved it. I went to his Chanukah party today in his class and he wouldn’t let me leave. I ended up spending almost two hours with him at the playground before I could sneaked out.

Dao is a bright kid, but he is very shy and stubborn. The combination makes him very hard to deal with. The past few weeks I didn’t want to put up with him after long days from work. I was being impatience and a bit tough on him. Unfortunately, toughness doesn’t seem to work on him. I am changing my approach by being more patience, but still maintain a bit of tough or else I can not get him to do anything I asked him to. It seems to work out well.

With the kids taking up most of our time, my wife and I hardly get the time alone to talk to each other. These past few days, we had a chance to catch up on our boys. We both feel worried about Dao. He makes us laugh with the unexpected things that he says, but his not being social or not fitting in is a bit worrisome. As much as I love to spend time with him, I also want him to play with his friends. I am his father and I’ll be there for him no matter what, but I am not his friend.

Only a few more days until the holidays and I might not return to work until next year. Between the new born and Dana’s surgery, I used up both of my five sick days and five vacation days, which were generously given to me as a new employee. I am very fortunate to have such an understanding and supportive supervisor. In return, I promise to relaunch the new site for Mason Law in January 2012.

My poor wife was diagnosed with appendicitis earlier today. We were in urgent care around 10pm yesterday after putting the kids to sleep. She was then transferred to emergency room and then surgery center. She had laparoscopic at noon today. The operation went well and she’s recovering. We hope that she’ll be able to come home tomorrow.

We’re lucky to have Dana’s parent around to look after Dao and Dan. Poor Dao kept on asking for his mommy and daddy. Poor Dan ran out of fresh breast milk. He has to take formula for a couple of days because Dana is taking pain medication. She still has to pump and throw away her milk for forty-eight hours.

I am dead tired, but can’t sleep thanks to all the coffee I had been consuming in the last 24 hours.

Our lovely Dan makes our lives a bit easy by being such a good sport. He doesn’t cry as long as he’s fed and clean. The other day, I put the bottle of pumped milk into his mouth and he refused to suck on it. I tried it several times and he just wouldn’t react to it. After I changed his diaper, he finished two ounces of milk in less than a minute and dozed off to sleep.

When he woke up he didn’t cry at all. He was just chilling out and made some noises to let us know that’s he up. I sat by his crib last night and was marveled at how good this kid was. Dao was not like that all. Even today he has to have me or his mom slept with him. If he woke up and couldn’t find anyone around, he would cry and get up out of bed.

Maybe it is still a bit too early to say, but I am very happy that Dan is not as demanding as his older brother. I really do hope that he’ll continue to be that way.

With two boys occupying both of my waking and sleeping hours, I need to adjust my priorities. I no longer have the luxury of blogging. I’ll still do when I get a chance, but it will be sporadic. For now, my time will split between work and home. My goal is to find a balance between job and life without having the two mixed up.

As I was laying down with the two boys on each of my arms, I felt blessed and fortunate. They are my blood and life. They’ll make my blood pump and take my life to a whole new level. I need to be prepared. I need to refocus my energy wisely before I drain myself out.

Just for a quick second, I completely forgot that there was a child sitting in the backseat. While stuck in traffic, I told the car in front of us, “Come on, move the fuck up.” Dao repeated, “Come on fuck.”

Oops, my bad!

Lil Dan got another blood test today. He doesn’t seem to sweat the needle pinching at all. He gave a half-ass cry when the technician rubbed the tube against the old cut then went back to sleep. He’ll need to get tested again tomorrow since his bilirubin doesn’t seem to drop.

Dan has been eating and pooping well. Changing him is a bit of the challenge, but I am starting to get a hang of the rhythm: poop, pee and poop or poop, poop and pee or pee, poop and poop. He likes to do it without diaper. The more he cries, the more he does it.

After spending two days in the hospital holding Dan, we realize how much Dao has grown. He feels so big when we hug him these days. We should pat ourselves for not doing a bad job raising him. Last night he came into his baby brother’s room and shared his Thomas Train, something he has not done before. When we were at table trains with other kids, he guarded his train by putting them under the bridge and covered them up with his hands. He doesn’t take train away from other kids. He just kept on eye on his preferred train and waited until the other kids don’t play with it anymore. That’s my boy.

Another day, another blood tube. Still no cry today even though he was awake. Our lil Dan is one tough baby. He has been closely monitored for his Bilirubin. His level is peaked out today and should come back down tomorrow. He’s also regaining his weigh thanks to his loving mother for her continuous nursing.

Dan gets lots of love from his big brother. When he cried, Dao gave him kisses and told him, “It’s ok baby brother. Don’t cry. Big brother is here.” The first thing Dao did when he woke up was running over his brother’s room, giving him kisses and reading book to him. He picked out the book that he could memorize by looking at the picture. Already Dao proves to be a great big brother.

Dao continues to crack us up with his reasonings. “Please feed me the pear because it’s too cold.” When Grandma told him that her hands are dirty; therefore, she can’t play with him. He responded to her, “Here’s the towel grandma. Clean your hand and go play with Dao.” To grandpa, “Would you like to help Dao [setting up] bowling?” Seeing Dao continues to develop his personality makes me happy. Seeing him showing his love for his brother makes me proud.

Before having our second child, I was a bit concerned that I wouldn’t be able to love all my children the same way. Now I have discovered that I don’t have to love them the same way. Each of them is unique and my job is to nurture them and love them in their own way. That’s what make each child special.

Like mama, Dan lets nothing get in between him and his sleep, even a pinched needle. Yesterday he needed to get blood test for his jaundice. The technician worried that she would wake him up when she pinched the needle into his foot. I reassured her that he wouldn’t. She was amazed that he made no sound as all even when she squeezed his foot to draw the blood. The day before that he didn’t cry at all in the hospital when another technician took his blood while he was sleeping. The first time when he was awake, however, he was bawling.

Big brother Dao shows mucho love for his little brother. As soon as he woke up, the first thing he wanted to do was to stand by the crib watching his brother sleep. He also helped be getting the Vaseline and diaper when I changed his brother’s diaper. He showed his brother his trains and his iPod.

The gap between the two of them seems to bridge well. If his little brother were to come out when Dao was around two, we would have more tough time with them both. We’re also very fortunate that Dan likes to sleep. He was been sleeping so much ever since he came home from the hostipal. His wait has dropped 10% because he rather be sleeping than taking his milk.