The Dotsons

Yesterday, we went over to the Elams' house for playgroup. It was a big group - our biggest to date! There were 6 moms and 6 kids, ages ranging from 6 weeks to 14 months. We had a great time chatting, eating lunch and watching the little ones play. Here are a few pictures...

Isaiah (almost 12 months) and Hunter (10 months)



"the boys"



Isaiah and Caleb



Caleb and Sam (14 months). They went on their 1st date several months ago and Sam introduced Caleb to Cheerios! :)



I didn't get a picture of Sylvia or Eden. They were both sleeping and left Sam to fend for herself with all the boys!

Saturday, we took Caleb to the zoo for the first time! We got there around 10:30am and walked around checking everything out until lunchtime. Given the fact that we skipped the morning nap to go, Caleb did great! He definitely isn't old enough yet to really get the full enjoyment out of everything, but we still had a great time. The Houston Zoo is really nice and I love how it's so shaded. It will be so much fun to take Caleb back once he's up and running and knows what all the animals are. I didn't get too many pictures, but here are a few...

Caleb eating goldfish while watching the fish, LOL

I think he probably enjoyed the aquarium the most b/c he could easily spot the fish swimming by. A lot of the animals were hard for him to see, especially if they were small and camoflouged. I think we'll try out the Downtown Aquarium next!

Checking out the elephants with Daddy

With mommy at the lion exhibit (oops, we blocked the lion with our heads!)

After the zoo, we went and had lunch at Lankford Cafe. Rhett had been there for Burger Buddies, but this was mine and Caleb's first time to eat there. Their burgers are so good! We also got blackberry cobbler topped with Bluebell homemade vanilla icecream! Oh.My.Gosh. It was delicious! Caleb liked it, too. :)

...if a woodchuck's name was Caleb?





Yes, that's right. Caleb decided it would be fun to completely ruin his crib by gnawing on it. Since I took these pictures of the side, he has also chewed up the front rail. I ordered a crib rail cover to keep him from doing it again, but until it comes in this is what I did....



That's his crib bumper. When he's old enough, I just might make him do a few chores to pay for this! :)

Along with the monthly bear pics, I'm going to continue Caleb's montly posts. These have really been useful for us along the way. Sometimes we'll ask each other "when did _____ happen?" or "when did Caleb do such and such?" and I can go back through the monthly posts to help us remember! Plus, I'm terrible at keeping up with the blog on a daily or weekly basis, so this at least catches us up each month. Here are a few things I jotted down about this past month!

At 13 months, Caleb...

...weighs 23 lbs and is 30 inches long (at his GI appt on 9/17)

...has tried LOTS of new table foods and I've probably missed some - carbonnade (a beef stew), PW mashed potatoes, cut up cooked carrots, green beans, peas, mixed veggies, potatoes, sliced peaches, grilled cheese, scrambled eggs, whole milk, apple strudel, chocolate cheerios, mandarin oranges, goldfish crackers, apple cinnamon cheerios, pancakes, waffles, chicken/rice/veggie casserole, Mum-Mums (rice biscuits)

We started transitioning from formula to whole milk a few days before his 1st birthday. We started by replacing his lunchtime bottle with whole milk in a sippy/straw cup and kept the morning and bedtime bottles as usual (but mixed formula w/whole milk to get rid of the formula we had left). After a week or so, we replaced the morning bottle with whole milk in a sippy/straw cup. The bedtime bottle was the last to go. He is now completely on whole milk and so far, so good. He drinks whole milk with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and we also offer him some before going to bed. The rest of the day, he drinks water and a little juice.

...started consistently pulling up on his feet after his 1st visit to the Little Gym on 8/26. He has definitely taken his sweet time with standing up.

He LOVES to pull up standing against the ottoman and then tries to climb up onto the ottoman, all while laughing hysterically. I don't know why but he thinks this is hilarious. Then, once he gets on top of the ottoman (with help, of course) he acts so goofy and just laughs and laughs. If any of the dogs are sitting there, he tries to tackle them or love on them (in his own way...maybe a little too rough for their liking). He especially likes to throw his entire body on top of Roux. Oh, and he likes to throw the ball off the ottoman for Rio to fetch. The ottoman provides us with lots of entertainment these days! (it's a giant, square ottoman that goes with our giant sectional in case you're wondering how we can all fit on top of it)

...LOVES to dance to music...LOVES it! He will dance to just about anything, but his favorite tunes currently come from his "baby's 1st laptop" and his activity table - both birthday presents.

...waves "bye-bye" and sometimes "hi"

...seems to know the sign for "all done" - when I ask him if he's "all done" he makes the sign (not all the time, but a lot of the time)

...sometimes makes the sign for "more" if I ask if he wants more of something (while eating) He hasn't made the signs on his own yet, only when I ask him.

...jibber jabbers while looking through books, almost as if he is reading them....it is so cute! He also will hand us a book to read and say "ba" for book. He even flips the pages now. This is a big deal for us b/c he has never shown any interest in books until now. We want him to love reading!

...likes to crawl under our bed. I think he learned this by watching the dogs do it. He used to lift up the bedskirt and look at the dogs under the bed...then one day, he just crawled under! They can no longer hide from him under there!


Here are some pics from this month:

playing in the splash pad with Isaiah...

chowing down on cheese (he loves dairy-milk, cheese, & yogurt)

up to no good, I'm sure :)

trying to climb up on the ottoman...

pool time with daddy...

helping mommy with laundry...

"ba, ba, ba!" (translation: "PLEASE read this book to me 10 times in a row, Mommy!")

playing with Eden at a church playdate...

I've decided to keep going with Caleb's monthly bear pictures. I'm thinking maybe I'll go until he is 2 and then just do yearly pictures after that. He's still in the stage of life where you refer to his age in months and he's changing so much, so I want to keep taking his monthly picture. Here is his 13-month picture!

Caleb and I needed something fun and different to do every week to get us out of the house, so we enrolled him in Little Gym. So far, it has been a lot of fun! We go to one class every week and each class is about 45 minutes long. Every week there is a different theme and activities that we focus on. There are a few structured activities as well as a time for exploration. Caleb's favorite time is when he gets to explore and do what he wants! Actually, even when we have the so-called "structured" activities, he's usually off exploring or trying to get away from me so he can go explore! He is very independent, that's for sure.

His favorite activities include climbing up and over obstacles, diving head first off of whatever he's climbed on, and crawling under things. He likes pulling up on his feet and then actually climbing on top of stuff. We are trying to work with him on not diving head first, but instead, going backwards and feet first, but it may be a while before he gets this concept. His least favorite activities include assisted walking (he pretty much throws a fit anytime we try this) and hanging from a bar (assisted, of course). So far, he refuses to "walk" and will just tuck his legs under him and scream, and you can pretty much forget him holding onto the bar to hang.

He actually started pulling up onto his feet consistently after his first class at Little Gym. Before that, he'd only even tried it once or twice at home. Now he pulls up on everything! I think this class will be a great way for him to develop his motor skills. Maybe he will eventually even do the assisted walk without throwing a hissy fit!

Here are some pictures from his very first class...


The kids got to take a little ride on the giant parachute. We walked it around in a circle while they sat on it. I don't think Caleb knew what to think.

Pulling up and climbing: his two favorite activities!

I wish we'd gotten the picture from in front of him - he had his mouth wide open trying to hold himself up and balance while holding onto the bar. (These are not the bars he is supposed to hang from. They are actually a tall set of parallel bars)

Climbing over some obstacles...

Catching bubbles!

This summer I took a beginner photography class with my friends, Stephanie and Jennifer. It was a 4-session class through Leisure Learning. This was part of my Mother's Day present, along with the DSLR camera. The first three sessions covered all the basics of photography - shutter speed, aperture, depth of field, different types of lenses, ISO, camera accessories, lighting, photographic composition, and flash photography. At the last session, we presented 6 photos to the class for our final project.

The instructor gave us several categories to choose from for our project: candids, portraits, abstract design, nature/wildlife, photojournalism, and product illustration (including food photography and still life). At first, I debated back and forth between doing candids or portraits of Caleb...since that's really the main reason I want to learn more about photography (to take pics of our family). After trying my hand at getting some candid shots of Caleb around the house and trying out some portraits in the backyard....I quickly realized 2 things. 1. the lighting in our house is terrible so none of my candid shots were turning out very well. and 2. Caleb won't sit still for very long and has no desire to cooperate for portraits! SO, I chose my next favorite subject...FOOD!

I thought food photography would be easy because you control how the subject looks and it can't get up and crawl away from you! Well, I was wrong! I first tried to take some pics using natural light coming through our kitchen windows, but it just wasn't working out. It was definitely better than just the overhead light from our kitchen lights (which made everything look yellow/orange), but it just didn't have that crisp white look like the pictures in cookbooks. I talked to our friend, Josh, who knows a lot about photography, and ended up borrowing an external flash, a light diffuser, and a light deflector from him. We played around with the setup (Rhett was my assistant) and figured out what worked best. Rhett went out and bought a white backboard (like what you'd use for a science fair project) so we put that in the background. Then we changed out the overhead lights above the kitchen table with bulbs made to mimic natural lighting - this helped a lot! Also for lighting, I used the external flash and light deflector to give the pictures a soft, white appearance.

Once I got all this figured out, I think the next hardest part was actually setting up the food to look good. You want your food to look appetizing, not like it's been sitting in the fridge for three days. There are lots of techniques out there that "food stylists" use to make food look delicious. (some food in pictures isn't even real!) I actually found this part very interesting as it appeals to my crafty side. This part was actually a lot of work - setting everything up just right and moving things around until you get a shot that looks good. Not to mention, I actually cooked all of the food I photographed so it was like double the work! It was fun, though!

Here are the 6 pictures that I submitted/presented for my project:














So, what do you think?