November was a special month. Erica's side of our family celebrated her parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary by going on a cruise on Thanksgiving week. We departed from Long Beach, CA and took a 5-day Cruise to Puerto Vallarta, then to Mazatlan and finally to Cabo San Lucas, before heading back to Long Beach.
Not only did we have a blast on the cruise, there were several milestones that occurred during the month of November. When either Erica or I sings "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," Derek motions his body like if he is rowing. Another children's song that he can do the motions to is "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." Whenever the words "head" and "toes" is seen or heard, Derek touches the corresponding body part. Another milestone that he picked up on during November was recognizing and saying the word "bubble." We have a mechanical bubble machine and when he sees bubbles in books and floating in the air, he can say "bubble."
December marked the very first time that we spent Christmas in our new home. We did our usual celebration format in which we spend Christmas Eve with my(Dean) side of our family while we spend Christmas Day with Erica's side of the family. Everyone from my side of the family gathered at our home and Derek had such a good time that he fell asleep at 7PM. We were still able to take a family pic with him though, via his baby monitor. On Christmas Day, we drove up to Delano early in the morning and celebrated the rest of the weekend.
We've noticed and experienced several new revelations from our boy. On the subject of children's songs, when Derek hears the song "I'm a Little Teapot," he acts out the "tip me over and pour me out" segment of the song whenever its being played. He kinda looks like LaDainian Tomlinson after he scores a touchdown. Also, we noticed that Derek can say a bunch of new words, including horse, ball, cat, car and both the words light and ilaw(the tagalog version of light). Not only can he say and recognize all of these words mentioned, he also can play peek-a-boo. Finally, another huge milestone during the month of December was the conversion of his crib into a bed. Since then, Derek has been sleeping on a full-sized bed and sleeps the whole night in there. He sleeps from 8-9 PM during the night, wakes up for a couple of minutes at around 3:30-4:00AM, goes back to bed and then wakes up at around 6AM. He’s established this schedule and we’re so glad that he gets over 8 hours of sleep. We can’t promise that for ourselves, but at least our little guy is getting adequate rest.
The month of January has brought more interesting events and more milestones to our family. We spent our First New Year’s day in our home. Derek knocked out during his usual bed time. Erica and I stayed up until the New Year’s countdown and about 15 minutes later, we hit the sack. We never were the party/outgoing types of people during New Years. We’re home bodies so it didn’t phase us that we spent the evening at home.
There were lots of food, drink and mouth-related milestones this month. As for food and drinks, Derek actually fed himself and he can drink from a cup. First thing in the morning after he gets up from his beauty rest, he eats two small bowls worth of Cheerios and Milk. During the beginning of this meal, we’ll feed him tiny spoonfuls, but towards the 2nd portion of his cereal and milk, he grabs the spoon and feeds himself. Not only does he eat cheerios and milk on his own, he can also eat table food such as rice, chicken and meatballs. The other day while we were at IKEA, he ate several meatballs and mashed potatoes on his own. Also, he can drink water and milk in a cup unassisted. Speaking of food, we know that our little boy is Filipino when he can say and recognize the word rice (and the tagolog word, kanin). Finally, we’ve noticed that he’s grown a few teeth this month, included his molars. His teeth count after 17 months is now at 14! Oh and he’s picked up what certain animals say, including saying “moo” when we ask him what sound a cow makes and mimics a gorilla voice when we ask him the same question, inserting gorilla for cow.
Our boy is growing up so fast. Cheers to more milestones and feats!
