Legoland, Flowers & Strawberries

This past weekend was fun and relaxing. Erica and I decided that we should get annual passes to Legoland and take advantage of free admission for Derek while he still can get it at no charge(under 3 is free). It was actually a great idea. We don't have to worry about seeing the entire park within a day and we can go to the new aquarium and soon-to-be-open, Legoland Waterpark. This was Derek's first trip to Legoland (besides when Erica was pregnant with Derek). We first started our weekend by taking a morning jog at around 8AM. Then we headed over to Derek's Little Kickers class at 9:30. As soon as that was over, we ate and made some lunch and headed up to Carlsbad for Legoland. We got there at around 3PM and didn't realize that the park closed at 5PM. Its a good thing we got our passes. First, we hit up the Coast Cruise boat ride, which took us around some really nice mini lego structures of cool monuments like the Taj Mahal, New York, Mount Rushmore and others. Then we hit up Captain Crank's Challenge , Derek's first actual motion rollercoaster-ish ride. We found out at this ride that Derek does not like to get his height measured by strangers. The next ride we went to was called Flight Squadron. Erica rode with Derek on this one. Then Derek and I rode Sky Patrol. The last ride of the day was Safari Trek. Can't believe we packed all that in in less than three hours.












On Sunday, we decided to go back to Legoland and take advantage of our passes. We spent about an hour at the playground area. Derek played with this fountain-type of contraption where he placed legos in a pool of water.







After our brief stay, we picked up Erica's parents at the Oceanside train station. They have been watching and baby sitting Derek while my parents went a Mexican Riviera Cruise to celebrate both of their Birthdays. Happy Birthday Mom & Dad! We headed to the Carlsbad Flower Fields, where they had beautiful displays of a variety of flowers. At this attraction, we took a tractor tour around the fields.











As soon as we were done at the Flower Fields, proceeded to the Carlsbad Strawberry Company U-Pick, a strawberry farm just south of the Fields. We paid for an empty bucket, similar to the size of a KFC bucket of chicken, and picked our own strawberries. Derek, Erica's parents, Erica and I had a blast. We picked enough strawberries to make nearly 10 servings of strawberry shortcakes.

Easter Weekend 2010

During Easter 2010, there were a lot of events, including Derek's first official San Diego Kickers soccer class, 3 Easter Egg Hunts and his first earthquake. Time flies so fast. Just last year at around Derek's first Easter, he could barely walk around. Now he's running all over the place.

On Saturday, Derek began his official first day at San Diego Little Kickers. For those who don't know what Little Kickers is, its a soccer class for kids 18 months old and up. They separate the groups by age group, with the youngest being 18 months. We got the heads up from our good friends Ralph and Sheryl. Their son, Andrew is about the same age as Derek. Hopefully they'll grow up as friends when they get older, playing all kinds of sports.





The first of three Easter Egg hunts was a big disappointment. It was located at our local community center called Winding Oaks. I'm sure their intentions were good, but what was really bad was the fact that they did not separate the kids by age group. It was a free-for-all and all of the big kids were snatching eggs left and right. Erica and I managed to get just 4 eggs for Derek. The highlight of the day for Derek was the Easter Bunny. We took several pics with the bunny and Derek kept hugging him. I think he's ready to see the characters at Disneyland now. We capped the night by prepping for Derek's 2nd Easter Egg hunt. Erica dyed about a dozen eggs while at the same time, I searched all over Otay Ranch and Eastlake for the last set plastic eggs(should have bought them earlier in the day).






On Easter Sunday, we decided to create a private Easter Egg hunt for Derek. Erica hid the eggs while I distracted Derek. This one was much better since there were no older kids stealing his glory. He had a great time and picked up about 10 eggs out of the 32 eggs that we hid. We took a few photos during and afterward the hunt.






After Derek's 2nd Easter Egg hunt, we killed some time in our backyard. We hit a couple of wiffle balls in the backyard and Derek took a quick nap.



We then went to my parents house for a Buenaventura Family Easter. My parents cooked and BBQ-ed and my whole side of the family enjoyed a nice Easter lunch. Derek played all day with his cousins and his grandpa. He participated in his 3rd and final Easter Egg hunt of the weekend. Even though his cousins, Jalen and Jolene were a few years older, they actually let Derek pick up some eggs. He ended up with 15 eggs. After a few hours of the egg hunt, Derek experienced his first earthquake (too bad I didn't get any video or pics). It was approximately 6.9 on the rictor scale in Mexicali and we felt the shake for about a minute-and-a-half. This was the first Easter that the entire side of my family. It was a great end to a wonderful weekend. Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend like we did.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and More Milestones!

As everyone can tell based on the last full update, we've been extremely busy with lots of events and living life. From spending Thanksgiving on a Cruise through the Mexican Riviera, to celebrating our first Christmas and New Year's in our new home, we've watched our little man grow into a smart and fun-loving person. Here's a glimpse of what we've been up to since the last update.



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!

Update coming soon!!

Hi All, Erica here!

Just wanted to let you all know that we're still here. We got a new camera in November and just now uploaded all 16 gigs of photos that we've taken since then onto my laptop. I'm sorting through them and hoping to put a new post up in the very near future. Here are a couple of photos that we took yesterday to tide you over until then. Derek is now 16 months old, and will turn 17 months old tomorrow.




Enjoy!

Derek's 1st Haircut

Last Saturday on November 14th, 2009, we took Derek to get his first ever haircut. We stopped by this place called Pigtails & Crewcuts, a creative kids salon, located in the Otay Ranch Mall in Chula Vista. The mall is literally a few blocks away from our house. Since Derek was born nearly 14 months ago, he's had his same locks of hair. We decided to get his hair cut not just because it was getting super long, but also in preparation for our parents' Erica's side of the family) 50th wedding day celebration. Check out the before and after pics. Enjoy!