New Milestones

Its been almost two months since we updated this blog so we have plenty of milestones to share with the world for our little Derek Joshua. Let's start off with the month of June. We've noticed that at the beginning of the month, he looks under couches in search of toys. He's very determined, our little boy. Derek also says "hi mama" every now-and-then. He also likes to slide his upper body while crawling with his legs. When we shake our heads in a "no" motion, he also shakes his head and smiles. Babbling became abundant in June. Derek also distinctly waves when someone waves at him. We also heard him say "dadda" several times. When we brush our teeth, we hand him a baby tooth brush and he "brushes" his teeth too! Cruising around on couches as also appeared in June. On the 19th of June, Derek slept in his room for the very first time! He was sleeping in his crib in our room, next to the bed. When we till him "arms up," he raises his arms. Derek loves bathes and on the 20th, we gave him a bath in our master tub for the very first time. He didn't want to leave. Towards the end of the month, he picked up on where his mouth and eyes are. At the end of June, his upper two front teeth broke through. Lots of events in the month of June.





In the month of July, Derek continued to master the milestones mentioned above and then some. He can clap his hands! Also, Derek likes to give kisses, a lot of open mouth kisses to his mommy. He uses more stuff to assist him in crawling, including remotes and papers. Derek also points and laughs when we point at him. On July 13th, Derek poo poo'ed and peed on the potty! Yes people, Derek was almost 11 months old when he first did it! To his day, he goes at least once a day and sometimes twice. On the 16th, he stuck his tongue out on command and still does it when we ask him "Derek, where's your tongue?" Also, he touches his ears when we ask him to do it. On July 19th, Derek started climbing up the stairs on his own. Also on the 19th, we got Derek baptized at the Mission de Acala, California's first ever mission. The following day, we discovered that Derek can also touch his toes on command. He began to touch his head on command on the 25th. On the 26th, we took Derek swimming for the first time at our community swimming pool and he had a blast! At the end of July, Derek found out that he can sort of walk with a toy walker. He pushes it while he moves his feet. Also, he can drink from a sports bottle.









At the beginning of August, Derek got his first free balloon from Trader Joe's. The next day he got his second one. We got him this toy train that shoots out toy plastic balls and so in addition to the balls, he also puts random toys in the train. During baths, we have this baby basketball hoop and he actually dunked his first basketball.




On the 26th of August, Derek will turn 1 and Erica and I will be married for 3 years (August 19, 2009). Time sure flies and we wouldn't change anything!

Derek at 8 & 9 Months

Every month, we've been taking portraits at Sears, tracking Derek's growth on a month-to-month basis. Here are some pics from his 8th and 9th month sessions.

Derek at 8 months:












Derek at 9 Months:

Lots of New Milestones For Our Little Man...Our Baby Can Crawl!!!

Within a month's span since the last time I wrote an entry in this blog, there have been a lot of new actions and discoveries for our little man Derek Joshua. He just turned 9 months old this past Tuesday and already he is recognizing and picking up things at a rapid pace. First off, our boy can spot Elmo in the pages of his books. Speaking of pointing at things, we have a hole in our ceiling from a recent minor water leak and when we ask Derek "where's the hole?", he quickly looks into the direction of the ceiling. Derek has also grown a 2nd tooth, right next to his first one at the bottom of his mouth. With these two teeth, he bites toys and sometimes Erica and I. Those things are sharp! He now gives kisses on command, especially slimy, drooly ones. Yum! Also, I'm not trying to jumpstart a career for him in the NBA, but when I dribble a basketball, he copies my hand motion like if he was dribbling too. As soon as he starts walking, we're buying him a little tykes basketball hoop!







One of the biggest milestones not just for Derek and our family, but for any other baby and their parents is his ability to crawl. Our boy can crawl, and not just an army type of crawl, but a full out hands and needs motion. Once we put him down, sitting up position, he goes straight into crawling position and moves like Lebron James. It was not too long ago where he could barely sit up. Now his so mobile that its tough to keep up with the little guy. Sometimes after crawling, he sits up and rocks back and forth, another cool thing we noticed. He also crawls toward toys and knocks down rubber block towers. He can also pull himself up by grabbing onto furniture.





Our baby also sleeps through the night! For a little while, he was sleeping at his usual 7:30-8:00 PM bed time, but he would get up at around midnight. Now he's out like a light from the same bed time to about 5:30-6:30 AM. Not only that, he is now comfortable sleeping in his crib. We're pretty sure it was the mattress because when we picked up a new one, that's when he started to sleep in. Speaking of his crib, he pulls himself up in it and plays and babbles, putting himself to sleep. He does the same thing when he wakes up. I think its his way of telling mommy and daddy to get up. He's our personal alarm clock, but instead of a high pitched noise, its a laughing and chill baby. Also, since he likes to stand up in his crib, we had to lower the mattress. Otherwise, he could easily climb out of there.

Man Derek is growing so fast. Before we know it, he'll be running around all over the place!

Derek's First Easter

Last week was Derek's 1st Easter. We spent the weekend in Erica's hometown Delano, CA. I decided to take the Friday before Easter off so that we could get a head start to the weekend. Instead of getting up to Delano at the usual 4 hours, it took us nearly 7 hours. Damn L.A. traffic! For those who live there, I don't know how you guys deal with it. Thank God we live in San Diego! During one of our stops to take a break from the traffic, we decided to take a few photos. Check them out:






We left Chula Vista at around 11AM and we finally made it to Delano at around 6. It was nice to get there while the sun was still up. Once we arrived, we relaxed, had some Elmer's fries and poppers and slept.

The following Saturday, there was an Easter egg hunt hosted by the Filipino Community of Delano. This hunt was Derek's first official Easter egg hunt. Although he wasn't able to walk and grab eggs on his own, he still had a great time. He even won a few prizes, including his first Easter basket with goodies and $6. Check out the pics:









On Easter Sunday, Derek had his first Easter egg hunt with family. We had a bunch of excess eggs from Saturday and we used those for the family hunt. Once again, Derek had a blast. He won more prizes with the help of the family. Overall, it was great to get away from San Diego and back to Delano.

Couple of Milestones

Since the last time I wrote in our blog, there have been several new events and milestones. Its been almost a month in our new home and we are making progress in settling in. At the end of March, our lease at Mission Valley's Portofino Apartments was up and we were pretty much moved out of our former apartment. As a family, Erica, Derek and I did one last walk through and reflected on the year and three months that we spent living at Portofino. After all, our apartment was Derek's first home. Erica spent all of her pregnancy there and we brought Derek home from the hospital at that place. Lots of great times, but it was time to move on to bigger and better things, including our brand new house!










Couple of milestones. First off, Derek now eats baby food. We started him out on Gerber Baby Cereal Oatmeal. Now he's eating organic sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, summer vegetables, mixed vegetables, squash and brown price & peas. He is also eating organic bananas. Also, he can grab and drink out of a sippy cup. In addition to his daily breast milk, he munches on the contents of one of these bottled meals. Of course, everything is organic!



Today, Erica discovered our baby Derek's first tooth! She was feeding him some mixed vegetables baby food and next thing she knows, she hears a sound as if something was clicking on a spoon. As soon as I got home from work, Erica pointed it out to me and after further investigation, we concluded that its is first tooth. Its a really tiny and sharp one. We're very proud parents! He's growing up so fast. Derek is already 7 months and counting. Where has the time gone!?