The Dotsons

Our church has a fun Christmas festival for the kids every year. It is called Candy Cane Lane. They have a live nativity (well, the animals at least), bounce houses, pony rides, a train, hayride, rock climbing wall, cookie decorating, ornament making, and several other fun things. Caleb isn't old enough to enjoy all of it but we went anyway this year. He liked petting the camel, goats and sheep but this came as no surprise because he loves animals. He also enjoyed riding the little train. I think he was indifferent about the hayride (which was through the church parking lot - not exacly a real country hayride, LOL). He liked the bounce house for about one minute and then he wanted out! He didn't really know what to do. Here are a few pictures we took....

Caleb is now 16 months old! I am a little behind on writing this post so I am sure I will forget some things he's been up to. These are in no particular order - just off the top of my head....

* He has 16 teeth (newest are bottom right canine and first molar) so he's just got his last 4 molars left and he will have a mouthful!

* He is still not walking on his own but we are getting there. He can actually walk pretty well without assistance but I think he's still just uneasy about it. He is also extremely fast on his knees and crawling, so he still prefers those over walking. He actually doesn't crawl much anymore - he mostly knee-walks!

* We go to physical therapy once a week still. His PT wants to keep seeing him until he's walking independently.

* He is getting a little better about eating meat. He will still not eat just anything, but he's improving. His favorites are still mac n cheese, grilled cheese, carrots, mixed veggies, mandarin oranges, peaches, yogurt, cheese, apple cinammon cheerios, Kix, bananas, apple sauce, bread, pop tarts, pancakes, waffles, gold fish, gold fish grahams and Mum Mums. He loves to drink milk and water (and juice, which we give him every now and then). His "meat of choice" would definitely be Chick-fil-a nuggets!

* He doesn't seem to have any food allergies so far. He's had strawberry pop tarts and simply fruit (like jelly but it's just fruit w/o added sugar, etc) and now actual strawberries and no reaction. We have yet to try peanut butter, though.

* He's getting really good at putting the puzzle pieces on his Fridge Farm and Car Wash (both fridge magnet/puzzle sets). He can even match up the correct pairs (not all the time but he can do it). He knows the cow, pig, horse and duck on the farm set (still working on the sheep) and will find the pieces when you ask him to.

* He can say quite a few words (of course, you may need a translator if you don't speak "Caleb-ese" though!):

ball, book, bread, bear - all sound similar but he says them in context so we know he's saying them
dada ("da") - he is constantly pointing to Rhett and saying "dada"
mama ("ma") - only when he wants but he doesn't call me mama...he just says it if you ask him....sometimes (I don't even know if this one officially counts, but I'm counting it!)
Tag ("taa")
cheese ("ch")
teeth ("th")
hi (in a high-pitched voice that is hilarious and sounds so sweet)
bye ("biiiiiii")
goodnight/night-night ("niiiiiii")
banana/nana ("naaa" or "naanaa")
puppy ("pup-pup")
deer ("dee" for reigndeer)
eye ("iiiiiiii")
ear ("eh")
girl ("ga") - he doesn't say this very often but he can say it (our dog Roux is "girl")

* He likes to play with trucks and pushes them around while making engine noises

* He still loves to read/look at books

* He hates wearing socks and will pull them off pretty much every time

* He knows where his ears, eyes, mouth, nose, teeth, feet, toes and belly are. He loves to point at his eyes and say "iiiiiii" at random times - it is so cute!

* Speaking of teeth...he hates having his teeth brushed. It is a fight every time. I read somewhere that you are supposed to brush little ones teeth three times a day for one minute each time...really?! I am lucky to get 20 seconds in. I hope his teeth don't rot out of his head!

* He is very social in stores. He makes friends every time we go out. He likes to smile, laugh, point at and talk to people everywhere. He also likes to offer his food to people at restaurants, LOL.

* He busts out laughing at random times and it never gets old - we laugh every time!

* He loves playing with and being around other kids...especially older kids. He is so content when other kids are around, even if they aren't actually playing together. Just having another kid in the room makes him happy.

* He still goes to bed between 7:30-8:00pm most nights. He usually wakes up between 7-8am (it varies but usually around 7:30am)

* He has been paci-free since the day after Thanksgiving! Overall, he's done well. We do notice that he seems to be more whiney but don't know if it's coincidental or a result of not having his paci.

* He dropped his morning nap when we took the paci away. He now has one nap, which usually starts around 12:45-1pm. The length of his nap varies from 1 hour to sometimes 2.5 hours.

* He still loves to dance and now has TWO dance moves! (the original "bouncing up and down" move and now a "side to side swaying" move, LOL)

* He seems to understand a lot more and can follow many different commands/requests (like if you ask him to pick up certain things, bring you something, put something away, etc). However, he still has a mind of his own and does not always listen when you tell him to stop doing something...like pulling ornaments off the Christmas tree! :)

* He knows what "what's on your shirt?" means and will look at his shirt, point to it and tell you what's on it (well, only if it's a puppy, bear or deer, haha). He started this one day a few weeks ago when he was wearing a shirt my aunt brought him from Yellowstone. It has a wolf puppy on it and he kept staring at it and saying "pup-pup" - so I started asking him "what's on your shirt" and now when I do, he responds.

* We don't let him roam around with snacks and most snacks are in his high-chair, but we are working on letting him sit on a blanket on the floor to have a snack from time to time. He can only have the snack if he's sitting on the blanket and the minute he moves off the blanket, we take it away. It actually didn't take long for him to catch on and he does really well. He will almost always sit back down when you tell him to.

Ok, that's all I can think of at the moment. Here are some pictures of our little busy body....


hammering Rio, LOL

He still loves playing on the couch.

This is the ONE AND ONLY time I've ever let him roam around with his snack cup and this is what happened. This was the first day we intentionally skipped his morning nap and before we had a new routine figured out....I was at a loss as to what to do with him, ha!

We had to nip this in the bud right away...

He's rotten but he's ours! :)

playing at church

standing at the door while Daddy puts up our Christmas lights...he loves his Daddy!

I gave him his Little People Nativity set early so we could play with it before Christmas. He put Mary on top of the manger where the Angel is supposed to go, haha!

What? You didn't know that Bob the bus driver was there the night Jesus was born?

He likes to crawl inside his dresser - crazy boy!

snot and drool - the life of a little boy :)

avoiding the camera (this is the donkey from his nativity set)

bear butt and boy butt - this is what happens when you try to make a 16-month-old sit still for pictures!

The boy is 16 months old! He's looking more and more like a little boy and not a baby. Waaaaaaa!!! (that's me crying) :)

Caleb has made so much improvement with his standing and walking while flat-footed! At the end of last week & throughout last weekend, he started walking flat-footed with his shoes on while I held both his hands. Up until that point, any walking he did was on his tip-toes and he really didn't want much to do with it anyway. Most of the time, if you tried to get him to walk, he'd fold up his legs and start fussing. He has really been tolerating it a lot more this week so we've seen lots of improvement!

Yesterday (12/9), I decided to see if he'd walk while just holding ONE of my hands...and to my surprise, he did! It was so fun to walk around the house with my little boy holding my hand! (he was wearing his high-tops this day) Today was so exciting! I figured I'd see if he would walk flat-footed without his shoes this time. To my surprise (again!), he did! At first, he walked with his left foot flat and on his toes with his right foot. I helped him flatten his right foot and for the most part, he'd keep it flat (both of them) while walking. He is still turning his left foot inward, but we are getting that checked out next week at a pediatric orthopedic doctor. We practiced walking all over the house today and he did so good! He barely even fussed about it, which is a big change.

Now, as if that wasn't exciting enough...after Daddy got home from work this evening, we decided to see if he'd try walking unassisted. We helped him go back and forth between the two of us and then we'd let go of his hands and he actually took several steps on his own! And he did it over and over and all the while he was laughing and we were screaming and cheering him on! He even let go of the ottoman all on his own and took a few steps towards Daddy! (I know there are a lot of exclamation points in this post but we are just so excited at how much he's improved) We really just can't believe how much he's accomplished in just one week (mainly in just the past two days). He's one hard-working little boy! Here are a few videos of his progress...

Caleb and I have made a couple of cute Christmas crafts lately. Caleb's job is to let me put paint on his hands and then cooperate with me as much as possible while I try to get a good handprint. I must say, it is not easy to get a 14-15 month-old active little boy to let you do this! It takes two people! The hardest part is getting him to keep his hand(s) open. Despite having to practically wrestle him to the ground to get him to participate, we've made some pretty cute things!

First, we went to Glazed Over with a few other friends from our Sunday School class. Glazed Over is a "paint your own pottery" place and it is really neat! I would definitely like to go back. You can pick from a million different things to paint and then they provide you will all the supplies and help you in any way they can. Once you've painted your pottery, they fire it and you can pick it up in just one week. We made a "Caleb's Cookies for Santa" plate and it turned out SO CUTE!



Today, we had another little playdate with friends from church and this time we made handprint snowmen ornaments. After my first attempt (with no assistance), I almost gave up...but I let Caleb take a little break and play, and then tried again. The second time, I kept him occupied with snacks while I painted his little fingers, then my friend, Nancy, helped me to place his hand on the ornament. Success! It turned out really cute as well! (oh, and after I let his fingerprints dry, I painted on the snowman accessories using a toothpick)



It will be fun to have these as a part of our Christmas decorations for many years to come!

Well, Caleb is officially 1 week and 3 days PACI FREE! We decided that Thanksgiving Day would be his last day with his precious paci. Rhett was off on Black Friday and the rest of the weekend, so we figured we'd do it then when he'd be home for reinforcement for three straight days. Actually, Rhett handled almost all of those first two days w/o the paci while I went shopping with my sister, Courtney and my friend, Lane. :)

Since taking the paci away, he has also pretty much dropped his morning nap...I guess mainly b/c he just doesn't have the beloved and comforting paci to sooth himself to sleep after only being up for 2 hours. He used to go down pretty easily in the morning but he just isn't having that anymore. I now put him down between 12:30-1pm for his one nap. All last week, he barely even slept for his afternoon nap...about 1 hour each day, which is not enough when you're down to just one nap! AND, he was pretty darn cranky all week. I don't know if it was b/c he didn't have his paci, b/c he is cutting a tooth, or b/c he was/is a little congested. I guess it could be all three! This past weekend (while Rhett was home, of course), he took a 2.5 hour nap on Saturday and a 2 hr 15 min nap on Sunday.

Because he's not getting as much naptime in during the day, we've been putting him to bed a little earlier. He was going to bed between 7:30-8pm and we are now putting him down closer to 7-7:30pm...not too much earlier, but he since he's getting more cranky in the evening, that 30 minutes helps. He's doing ok with falling asleep w/o the paci (the first few days were the hardest) but he definitely cries more now when he's in his crib. He cries for 10-20 minutes before falling asleep now, which actually isn't too bad, considering. The weird thing is, his "paci-free" cry sounds different from the way he used to cry when you left him in his crib. It's a little more heart-wrenching for me to hear. He also now wakes up crying, whereas he used to just wake up and sit/play quietly for a little while. Without the paci, he is not happy about just sitting in there...even though we put Ruff Ruff and Pirate (another puppy) in there with him. We tried replacing the paci with Scout (a talking/singing puppy...he loves puppies) but Scout just got him in trouble the first few nights. His little paws are sensitive to touch and a few times, Caleb would kick him (while he was asleep), which would turn his music/talking on...which would in turn, wake Caleb up! Then he would sit there and play with Scout for a bit instead of going back to sleep, LOL. So, Scout is no longer allowed in the bed but we do take him in the car and sometimes into the store to keep Caleb company.

So anyway....all this to say that Caleb has done pretty well overall! I do think that if he saw a kid w/a paci in the church nursery, he would probably sign "more" while frantically pointing to the paci...he might even try to steal it, LOL!


Last time to have his paci - we took it away right after this....

Caleb and Scout grocery shopping with Daddy (phone pic)

We are going to PT weekly now, so this past Monday was Caleb's second appointment. This time, Cheryl showed us some stretches to do with his little feet and ankles. She also had us put his shoes on him and she worked with him on standing up flat-footed. He did so great! She set up an "L" shaped little play area with a bench and a little toy shopping cart and he stood there playing for probably 5-10 minutes. We were so excited to see him actually stand with his little feet flat and he even shifted his weight to his right foot on his own a few times! AND, he even did a little dancing (flat footed), which was a great sign since he was able to really stretch those heel cords as he squatted down and back up. Overall it was a WONDERFUL appointment! Here are a few pictures that I took this week around the house...


squatting down and stretching his heel cords.

ok, this is just him being rotten. I had to move that diaper box b/c he wouldn't stop climbing up on the couch, LOL

he's doing so good standing flat-footed in his little high tops!

I set up an "L" shaped play area for him like we did in PT...so he can practice moving and shifting his weight back and forth from one foot to the other.

In addition to the PT, Caleb is also being evaluated by ECI, which stands for Early Childhood Intervention. ECI is a state and federally funded program that offers developmental assistance to families with young children (less than 3 years of age) who have disabilities and/or developmental delays. I wouldn't say that Caleb is really developmentally delayed b/c it is still considered "normal" for a kid to not be walking at his age (18 months is when you would start to be concerned), but we still want to do all we can to help him with his little foot issues so that he can learn to properly walk without delay. We would rather be proactive now.

Anyway, we had the initial appointment where we learned about the program and what to expect should Caleb qualify. He still has to be evaluated by a physical therapist (who works for them) and one other professional (something to do with developmental assistance...not 100% sure) before we would even proceed with this program. The one thing about this ECI is that, well, it's a government run program....so things are slow! The earliest we could get for his evaluation is the first week of January...a month away! Then, if he is approved at that time they have to set up an appointment just to formulate a therapy plan...THEN, we'd set up our appointments for PT. So who knows when he'd actually start PT with them. And, you can't "double dip" with PT - so if he qualifies for ECI's PT program, we cannot enroll with them AND still take him to our private PT. The one good thing about the ECI therapy is that they come to your home for everything...evaluations, assessments, therapy appointments, you name it. And, it's provided at a reduced cost (or free, I think, for low-income families).

Well, while we are waiting for all of this, we will continue to take Caleb to private PT at the TEAM Approach. We are hoping and praying that by the time all this stuff happens with ECI that Caleb won't even need the therapy. Cheryl (our PT) thinks this will all work itself out within one to two months. We will still keep our appointments with ECI, though b/c if he continues to need therapy into next year we will have the option of switching to them (should they approve him). Heck, maybe he will be walking by early January and they won't even have to come out! :)

For the third year in a row, we hosted Thanksgiving at our house and both of our families came to us! I have to say, it's really nice not to have to travel with a little one. On Rhett's side of the family, we had his mom, dad, and sister (who were staying at their house in Magnolia). His brother & his family stayed in NC. On my side of the family, we had my mom & dad, Stephanie & her bunch, Courtney, and my aunt & uncle. It was great to have everyone together and we did have a nice time, but my family is really missing Josh even more this time of the year. This is our first holiday season without him and although he was not typically home for Thanksgiving, there was still something missing. We would at least get to talk to him on the phone even if he wasn't home for Thanksgiving. We love and miss him so much, even moreso nine months later.

Rhett cooked the turkey, dressing, gravy, corn casserole, mashed potatoes, potato casserole, and homemade rolls. His mom & sister cooked the pecan pies, green bean casserole, and sweet peas. My aunt Jackie also brought some sweets, too. It was a LOT of food and there were a LOT of leftovers. Oh, I almost forgot...Rhett also smoked a brisket upon my family's request!

It was a typical Thanksgiving - food and football. In fact, my little sister Courtney, stayed with us through the weekend and she loves college football. I've never watched (although not intently) so many football games in one weekend. Man, it was definitely football overload! There was also some backyard football, of which I did not participate. I didn't take many pictures but here are a few...


Cousins - Luke (5), Jake (11), and Caleb (15 months)



Family pic on our little turkey's 2nd Thanksgiving...



A little backyard football fun. Here, we have "brotherly love" in action!















I made Caleb's turkey shirt. Jenn came over one night a few weeks ago and we both made one. I think we worked from ~7pm until after 11pm and still did not finish. It was a lot of tedious stitching but they turned out cute! Jenn even put a little bow on Camille's turkey.

"Look Mama, that's my turkey shirt!"





up close and personal with Mr. Turkey... His eyes weren't exactly the same and one leg was a little shorter than the other, haha!