Weeks 10 & 11
Derek made his first trip to Boston to visit my family. While we were in Boston Derek had a few firsts - slept 7 hours, he found his voice and babbled all week, he began to suck his thumb, flew on a 6 hour flight.

Derek did a LOT of smiling!!

sweet boy sucking thumbgaining even more control of his neck -sitting in Bumbo chair by himself for a little bit
Derek spent a lot of time with his grandparents. I had so much fun watching them interact with him. They loved every minute playing with him and cuddling with him. He is very blessed to have them in his life. They love him so much!Sweet time with Grandma.
Sweet time with Pops.
Derek got to meet his Uncle Patrick and Aunt Katie for the first time. He already loves them lots!

Derek got to meet Great Aunt Flo Flo and Great Aunt Elsie.

4 generations - Great Aunt Elsie and Florence, my dad, me and Derek!
I wish that my other Great Aunts and Grandmothers were alive to meet Derek as well. They would have loved to met him.

Since we were on the go a lot in Boston, Derek slept a lot like this....

Bath time in a BIG new sink.

We had a family cookout so that everyone could meet Derek. He was held my many people and never cried once. Once again, my dad reminded me that when I was his age I cried when any besides my parents held me and that I should be so grateful that Derek was not like that. :) Here is Derek being held by (from L to R) cousin Dana, Uncle Dave, Michaela, Jillian, Auntie Lee Lee, cousin Seth, Jackie, Judith, and Elise. There were several family members that I did not get pictures of. I will try to take those at Christmas when we go back to visit.Took Derek into Boston on Saturday morning for a cappuccino in the North End!

Derek did amazing on the flights to and from Boston. We were a little nervous for the flights because they were so long, but he did not cry much at all and we were thankful. Just in case he was fussy though we wanted our fellow travelers to be nice to us so we made goodie bags for them. We handed them out before the flight took off. They were a big hit.
On the flight home, Matt's brother and sister-in-law upgraded us to first class. Its pretty funny to think that Derek flew first class when he was 10 weeks old! It was such a treat! We are INCREDIBLY thankful! Not only did we have a lot more space, but we got a yummy meal (including a hot fudge sundae for dessert) and personal DVR players to watch TV or movies. Derek slept the entire flight home and I felt like Matt and I were on a date!
Thanks Mark and Julie!

My dad really got Derek to start talking.
Here are 2 of my favorite videos of Derek learning how to use his voice.

2 Month Well Check

Here are Derek's stats from his 2 month doctor's appointment - weight: 12 lbs 4 oz (45%) and height: 23 3/4 inches (62%). In addition he got two shots and took them like a champ. Derek has just about doubled his birth weight (6 lbs 10 oz) and grown 4 1/4 inches since he was born. We love him so much, way to go Derek!!

Birth Announcement

Welcome to the world Derek Matthew! This is the birth announcement that we sent out to announce Derek's birth. Our friend Janet took the pictures and also designed the birth announcement. Check out her website http://www.fourharpdesigns.com.

Week 8 & 9
Derek loves to use his voice. He loves to have conversations with us (in his own way) and smile at us. He now recognizes our faces and will coo and smile at us. It is the best!! Derek has also found his fist and often uses it to soothe himself. This has been great since he does not like the Soothie.

Here he is weighing in at 11 lbs.

Derek is getting much more control over his neck. One morning he was on his tummy and I happened to have the camera out. He held his head up for over a minute and then began to roll.

This is right before he rolled to his back. When I saw him doing this I quickly flipped to video mode. I was quite lucky to get it on camera.

Ellen and I went to a Mom's Night out with some ladies at our church. Matt and Derek hung out with Jacob and Bryce (boys night in).

Our good friends Matt and Becca Ellis came to visit for the weekend. While they were here we hiked in Huddart Park, hung out in San Francisco, got frozen yogurt and just hung out. We cherish our time with them and try to take advantage of it while we live in the same state.

Derek sporting his Padres sweatshirt to go into the city.

Lunch at In and Out Burger

We at lunch in the park in front of Ghiradelli Square.

Derek loves his Padres outfit. Thank you Uncle Matt and Aunt Becca!!!

This week we began to use cloth diapers (bumGenius). This is our first week and so far its going well. We have 24 diapers in all different colors along with diaper pail liners and a sprayer that is attached to the toilet. When changing a diaper you put the cloth insert in the diaper pail, use the sprayer to rinse off the diaper (into the toilet) and then put the outside part of the diaper in the pail too. It feels so good to not be contributing to the landfills with all our paper diapers as well as Derek having a cotton diaper on his bottom.

Here is Derek sporting his new BumGenius diapers. He loves to sit up and look around. I really love this about his personality.
Tummy time on his new Gator blanket that Grandma Buman made for him.

Derek also loves to stand on his legs. They only hold him up for so long, but when they get tired he rests and then stands on them again.

Week 7
This week Derek took his first flight. We flew to Salt Lake City, Utah to visit Matt's family. Derek did really well on the plane to UT, even taking a nap, but on the flight home he did not sleep for 5 hours (he did not cry either). He wanted to look at everything in the airport, on the plane and on the shuttle ride to our car. Thankfully he fell asleep as we drove home from Oakland. We are hopeful that he will do this well on the next flight (6 hours to Boston).

First flight

While we were in Utah, Derek got to meet many new relatives.
He loved being held by all of them.

Derek with Grandpa Buman

Four generations - Derek, Matt, Marilyn and Grandma DDerek with Great Grandma D

Derek with his cousins Alyssa and Megan

Derek with Aunt Melanie, Uncle Steve and Cousin Kaitlyn (plus cousin boy Harris on the way)

In addition to seeing family we got frozen yogurt with our nieces and nephews, I went to see Eclipse with Emily, we went to the pool, enjoyed great food, and Matt and I went out on a date while Matt's mom watched Derek. It was a great vacation.

This is how Derek fell asleep in his car seat when we went to the pool. Looks comfy huh?

Family picture in the Buman's backyard.

Here are a few other photos from this week.

One of our friends in Gainesville gave Derek this outfit. Go Gators!

You can really see how much Derek has grown from these two pictures.
(L = 7 weeks old, R = 2 weeks old)

The meaning behind the name...

DEREK MATTHEW BUMAN

Before we were pregnant Matt and I decided that we were not going to share the name of our child until he/she was born. We did not want to hear or see people's reaction to names that we liked. We knew that once the baby was born and we gave him a name, he would grow into that name. So...once we found out we were pregnant we began to think of names. Neither of us were the type of people who had names picked out for our children ahead of time. We began to pray about choosing a name. I remember one night, while we were watching a football game, we started going through the alphabet and listing off all the names we could think of that started with that letter. When we came to the letter "D" one of us said the name Derek. To this day neither of us remember who suggested it. Both of us liked the name and we only knew one person with that name. But we kept on going through the alphabet. There were several other names that we liked, but only 2 names we seriously considered. Those 2 names stuck with us the entire 9 months. Something that was important to us in choosing a name was the meaning of the name. With the names narrowed down to 2 Matt and I decided to wait until our boy was born in order to decide on the name.

The name Derek means "gifted leader." We loved this meaning and felt that it was perfect for our little guy. Both Matt and I grew up going to a leadership camp in Michigan, Circle "A" Ranch. In fact that is where we re-met back when we were 20 and started dating. We want to instill in our son the gift of leadership. We pray that as he grows older he may lead others through his actions. So far, God has shown us through the birth and first 7 weeks of Derek's life that HE is in control of this boy and has great plans for his life.

We love you Derek Matthew Buman.