Playgroup and Other Things

Hmmm. Where did I leave off? Little man is now 16 months old and growing daily. He literally learns new things everyday. To my dismay, he has learned how to climb on his picnic table and proudly stands on the top squealing. He gets down immediately when he sees me coming. In fact, he climbs down and claps his hands, trying to slap himself. Yes, I slap his little hands when I correct him. He now does it himself. It is hilarious and frustrating at the same time! He is learning new words all of the time. I love hearing him pop out with those sweet little words. He is a mess, but a happy one.
We have started playgroups with women from our church. I think I love them more than him! It breaks up our week and gives me a chance to visit with other adults. I am learning that he is a bit timid and unsure of things when he is in new places and in the middle of new people. He is never more than five feet from me for the first thirty minutes or more of each playgroup. It takes him awhile to get comfortable and then he will play well. When I host it, he does a lot better because he is on his own turf. The last playgroup was here and he played really well with the others. The backyard was filled with three different size pools, a water station, a slide and lots of outside toys. It was much fun. With summer here, I think we will have a lot more pool days.
His new toy is a jump-o-line. I planned to put it in his room, but I discovered it is much too big for that. We put in our foyer! It fits perfectly. Frankly, I have always said that was wasted space anyway. Now, it has a good use. Caleb loves it. He has been bouncing in his bed more and more and I saw this and had to get it. I don't have much restraint when it comes to buying him new toys. I am sure someone somewhere will say that I should do better, but it is just soooo much fun. Nothing makes me happier than hearing his squeals of delight! You can see for yourself from the pictures. He LOVES it! I love watching him enjoy it all. So he is a little spoiled, I am fine with that. Just know, that he is also a sweetheart. I think he just may turn out to be a gentle giant. Seriously, he loves loving on the little animals (even in books) and on the family (at least the ones he is used to).
Anyway, things are still good here. I count my blessings everyday! Caleb keeps me in stitches. Who can complain about that? Look at that child! Can you hear him laughing???

My silly boy!

Rub a dub dub, three kids in a tub! Playgroup friends, Easton, Reagan, and Olivia.

Easton and Caleb enjoying one of the pools.

Olivia and Caleb enjoying a sweet moment. Is it love?

Easter With The Family

This year, I am proud to say that we celebrated with my side of the family. If you know my family at all, you know that Christmas is the only holiday they will consistantly get together to celebrate. This year,I managed to get them here for Easter too!!! I am so excited. It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time. We did all the old fashioned traditional things. Jon grilled steaks for us all. They were yummy good. Then, we dyed eggs and pocked them too. Pawpaw thought by dying his egg over and over, it would make it stronger. He was proven wrong after three pocks. Ha. We did an Easter egg hunt for the boys outside. Caleb got distracted by my flowering plants and kept wanting to pull them apart. He didn't really hunt for eggs at all, but the boys did well. They counted them up and Jacob found 25 and Nick found 21. Not bad! I did find one today that they missed. Oh well.
Later in the day, Nick and Pawpaw went fishing in our (neighborhood) pond out back. He didn't catch anything, but they said they could see the fish swimming in there. Maybe they weren't hungry!
I really enjoyed visiting with my brother and Karla. They live so close, but we rarely get to see each other. Life gets in the way! Anyway, I feel especially blessed this Easter. I got to spend it with some of the people I love the most! It doesn't get any better than that! Jake and Nick showing off their eggs after the big hunt!

Caleb picking my flowers instead of the eggs!!!!

Podking with Uncle Jon!

Caleb loves to play in Nick's hair and with his eyes! Nick is so sweet to let him pluck away.

Showing off Caleb's Easter basket. This year he will actually get to eat his candy! Yummy yum.

Acadiana Zoo- Caleb's first Zoo Experience

We took Caleb to the zoo last week for the first time. Given his love for the horse next door to Memaw's house, I figured he may enjoy seeing other animals. He did! The zoo itself is not grand by any means, but it is nice and for Caleb, it was perfect. We ate lunch in their picnic and snack area. We road the train. We sat in the front of an attachment car, so he loved looking at the wheels and when we got to the animals in the back... Well, he about climbed out of the train to chase the zebras. He wanted to touch them sooooo much. We fed the lamas and goats in the petting area. Caleb kept trying to open his mouth (like he does to our dogs) for the goat to kiss him(that is what the dogs do). I found it funny. NO, the goat did not kiss him. I put food for the goat on his tray so the goat would get close to him. He did, but Caleb apparently finds goat food tasty too! He sampled a couple of the bits. Yuck. I don't know what to do about that. He eats the dogs' food too when we forget to pick it up. Anyway, our first zoo experience was a good one. I am sure we will go again in the near future. Look closely. You will see the food they both enjoyed eating!

Caleb is waiting for a kiss! Sorry Caleb, the goat is not interested.

The greedy little lamas! They are so used to being fed that they try to lick it out of the dispenser before you can get any food.

Lunch outdoors. It was a perfect day for this kind of thing.

One year already!

It seems that every time I have a moment to update the blog, Caleb wakes up or something happens to distract me. Caleb turned one on January 23, 2010. This year has been a blast. I have loved every minute of it. It amazes me how much he has changed and the things he can do now. He is literally half my height at 33 inches long and weighs a grand total of 26 pounds, 6 ounces. He is no light weight. We love every inch of him. He continues to bless me with every giggle and sweet smile. He is starting to take a couple of steps on his own, but mostly he relies on his walking toys. We can usually tempt him to walk to us with his favorite puppy or some kind of sweet treat. We are continuing to introduce new foods to him daily. He loves bananas and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Peas and carrots go down pretty easy too.

He is also starting to attempt a few words. He can say:mama, dada, "boof" for woof and "ba" for ball. He is also trying to say "oo-oo" for the monkey sound, but is comes out more like his dog sound. He loves to make the snake sound "sssssssss". He is also starting to locate his belly button. Waving good-bye is rare, but he can do it. Sweet eyes are hopeless at this point. He loves for me to do them and then procedes to pluck my eyes out! He can give you five, but most times it comes out more like ten. It seems every day he learns something new! It is all so exciting.

For his birthday we had both sides of our families over along with Rebecca and Tommy.We went with a jungle theme this year. I realize I have only a couple of years before Caleb starts to choose the themes. I did what I liked. We served pulled pork sandwiches and chips and cake, of course. Caleb didn't know what to do with his cake at first. Jacob tried to give him a bite off the fork, but that made Caleb want the fork. He proceeded to stab away at his cake and then nibble off the icing. Don't get me wrong, it is not that he doesn't like cake, he just didn't know what to do with a whole one.

The kids played beautifully inside and outside. Matthew and Daniel gave the two youngest boys rides in the wagon. They loved that! All the kiddos enjoyed playing with Caleb's toys and the adults got comfortable wherever they landed. It was a good time for all. Hayden and Caleb getting wagon rides!
He finally started to eat some of his own cake. I made a tiny lion cake for him.

Kellers made the large cake. It was yummy good with strawberry filling. I left a napkin for her to use as a guide. I think she did a good job.

Caleb and all his cousins, well most of them. Lisa is older and didn't want to get in the picture.

Our First Family Christmas

Our first Christmas has come and gone. Three days of good family gatherings, lots of food and plenty of presents. We are left exhausted, but feeling very blessed. TheLord has been good to us.

Caleb was as cute as could be. He made the long days without much fussing at all. I am very thankful for that. He didn't really know what to do with the presents. He took off the red bows and pulled on the red tissue paper. I am thinking that my little man likes red. Haha. I love that! Anyway, he really didn't rip into the gifts. Jon helped him unwrap them and he picked and poked at a couple of the gifts as they opened them. He played with his stocking the most. It has jingle bells on it. The items in it were of no concern to him. Next year, I am sure it will be a bit more exciting for him. Santa left him a wagon. He LOVES wagon rides. I have already taken him for a ride twice since we have gotten it.

Our Duplechain family Christmas was great fun. It was one of the shortest, but everyone kept saying it feels like midnight, so I assume we all packed in our fun in that time. By 8pm. everyone was on their way home. We had delicious crawfish and corn bisque, ham, casserole, and green beans. No one went away hungry. We gave mom a desk and table set. Dad got a three piece rolling toolbox unit. He put it together and had to put the top piece on a shelf because it was so tall he couldn't see what tools were in it. Haha. He said that he has plenty of room now. The kiddos seemed very content with their gifts. All went as well as it could. Caleb got,not one, but two Vtech riding trains! We sent one to Memaw's house. She will keep it in the playroom for him and the other kiddos to play on.

The Johnson family Christmas was our last day of celebrating. We traveled to Natchitoches for the day. We had more great food: ham, stuffing, yams.. all the traditional fixings for Christmas. Yummy good. We spent the day playing with our nieces and nephews and visiting with the rest of the family. The kids were so excited with their games. They wanted to open them immediately. However, their dad said no because most of the games had small parts and Caleb was likely to get into it and choke. As cruel as it was, they were not allowed to play with their games. Jon and I will have to pick better gifts next year! We took turns taking pictures with our little man in front of the fireplace.

We waited until Jon got off of work to do our Christmas. It was evening so we decided to spend it in our jammies! Personally, my favorite kind of clothing.

That is not Harry and David items. We just used the box for his deer shaped bath towel.

Who cares what is inside. Mom, it jingles!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Baking and Christmas Tags

One of my favorite memories of Christmas is the baking days we had growing up. Tricia and Victoria would spend every Christmas with us and we would bake all day long as our relatives came by for visits. It was great fun. Now that we are all grown up and they live in Texas, we don't get to do that anymore. In fact, mom has dropped out entirely and the last few years I have baked alone. This year was different. Tricia came with her boys and we baked ALL day long- Thirteen different recipes, if I remember correctly. The only one missing was Vic. Maybe we can do it again with her one year. We made several different cookie trays to pass out the next day. Mom and couple of her sisters had a blast doing that. The picture shows just a few of our sweet treats.

Now, this is our first Christmas as a family. Jon and I are so excited for Caleb to have wonderful memories like we both have had over the years. We hope to create our own little traditions and continue the ones we love so much. What caught me off guard was the emotion attached to filling out Caleb's Christmas tags. I have wrapped presents for years,but this is the first time that I have the honor of writing "Mom and Dad". I wasn't prepared for the rush of sentiment that came with filling out a simple tag. Maybe it is because we waited so long for him to arrive. Maybe it is because I am a GIANT mush pot on any given day. Who knows, but it brought tears to my eyes. I am so proud to be a mother. People used to ask, "What is your passion?" I could never really say. I loved teaching, but I wouldn't say it was my passion. I found my passion in being a mom and wife to my wonderful husband. Nothing brings me more joy and satisfaction. I love them both so much it hurts! Anyway, I look forward to our first family Christmas and see how Caleb behaves with the presents. He has been told "NO" so many times as he continues to play with the bows. I wonder if he will even attempt to open them. We shall see! A few of our Christmas treats!!!

Braxton and Nick had fun playing in the "play center"(mom's kid's room) while we baked.

The boys also went on wagon rides through the neighb0rhood. Yes, it was cold, but they didn't seem to mind.

Tricia and I have many years worth of pictures that look very similar to this one- Head tilt and all!!!

On the Move

Caleb is on the move! Little man is crawling all over the place. It is so much fun and a little exhausting too. He loves pulling on cords. I am constantly slapping his hands and saying, "NO!". He appears to be a very determined little boy. It doesn't seem to phase him. I will not give up though. I have made it a little easier on myself and unplugged his lamp and the cd player for the time being.

He has also gotten his first haircut. I should say half a cut. He got so mad and was crying so loud, that we stopped half way through. Thankfully, his curls disguised the uneveness of his hair. I did eventually get the other half cut. I went back about three weeks later to do my own hair and we finished off his too.

We celebrated his first Thanksgiving this year. He wore the turkey bib in honor of this great day. We had Jon's family over for dinner. Unfortunately, I burned the pork tenderloins and managed to burn the onions. Oops. I can't say that has ever happened before. They are so easy. That is why I made them, in addition to Jon frying a turkey. Caleb has discovered that he likes sweet potato casserole and pecan pie (only the filling). Sweet man is an eater! He seems to enjoy whatever we put in his mouth.

As you can see, we are already taking pictures for the Christmas card. I am so proud to actually have a picture card this year. I secrectly have always wanted to do one, but didn't feel comfortable putting just Jon and me. He smiled so big. He smiles a lot. I accidently posted the pictures in the wrong order, but too bad. I am not going to reload them all. haha. I have a Santa suit he will be wearing in the next couple of weeks too!!

I am so in love with my little guy. I didn't know love could run so deep. It is both the greatest and scariest thing I have ever known. Sometimes I think it is too much for my heart to contain. He is our greatest gift. I thank God for him every day. I love watching him grow. I say that a lot, but it is so true. I don't want to miss any of it. It goes by WAY too fast.
Our Christmas card will have this photo on it. The rocker is from PaPa Dude. It was his rocker as a child. He saved it and painted it red. Caleb has the honor of getting it.

I love that his little teeth are starting to show in his pictures!

We bought him a pair of personalized long John's. I think he is adorable in them.

This is before he started throwing a fit. You can start to see the fear in his face though.