Letters to Dannica: Diving Into Daycare (Month 6)

Dear Dannica,

You celebrated your very first Tết (Lunar New Year), sporting an áo dài with Mommy and Luc.

You are our early riser and often like to pester Luc, batting at his face and cooing to him in order to wake him up and get him to play with you.

Nothing cracks you up quite like Daddy’s antics. You prefer to sit, stand in your baby bouncer, or be worn face-out to explore the world. You’d often reach for nearby toys and have taken quite a liking to Luc’s cars. Your favorite trick is blowing air past your closed lips, and you'd make a "pfffffttttt!" sound at us all day.

At 6.5 months, you started daycare, much to Luc’s delight since you get to go to school together. You seem to like it, too, smiling at your teacher during drop-off instead of your brother's often teary and dramatic goodbyes. You eat well there, but you don't sleep so much since you prefer to be awake and not miss all that's going on, for there is so much to learn and do and see.

Luc takes his big brother role quite seriously, walking ahead of your stroller to lead the way and showing you the ropes at school. However, you caught your first-ever ear infection after a bad cold, leading to a very restless week as you round up your sixth month. You had to be on antibiotics, and I felt so sorry for you when you'd throw up the Tylenol since you don't like the taste, or lunge for your milk bottle when I'd offer it after you are able to choke down the bright-pink Amoxicillin.

For President's Day, we took leisure local walks around Campbell, Mountain View, and Los Altos. We see the giant Android Operating System sculptures on Google's campus. You are a tech baby after all, and need a tech tour.
 

And yet, maybe you will long for a simpler country life when you grow up; instead of being engrossed in front of a screen and immersed in the grand goals of Silicon Valley, you would be content to live on a lush, green farm and watch the seasons change, marveling year after year as the azure sky peeks through thick clouds of springtime blooms, as the world begins again anew. I love dreaming these dreams for you, holding these what-ifs in my imagination until you are able to articulate to me the desires and longings of your heart.