Boring stuff to read about me.

I have been putting off blogging about anything important....mainly, because I feel as though I don't have anything really important to say. Nothing too exciting is going on around here. I don't have anything witty or interesting to say. I suppose I could give you an update, which, like I said isn't really all that exciting, so I would completely understand if you just stopped reading now.

1. Jonah had his 18 month appointment last week. All is well. He is growing just like he should and is slimming down due to the last few months of walking (uh....running!). The doctor was just as understanding about our choice to not vaccinate Jonah (at this time or ever....it's still up in the air), which is awesome. He apparently has 16 teeth, I don't know how the doctor schmoozed his way in to Jonah allowing him to look in his mouth, because I can't even do that without getting bitten. He also suggested that it might be time to give up the binky.

2. On that note, regarding the binky, here's my take on it. I never wanted to be the parent to FORCE anything upon my child. I mean, I know, I have learned that there are some things that you have to be forceful about (playing with the stove or standing on top of the coffee table), but most of you know my parenting style is one of compassion, I try not to yell and attempt to always explain to him why I am telling him "no". We do not spank him and if I have my choice, never will, it's just not my thing. So when it comes to taking away the binky or the bottle (the doctor didn't ask about the bottle, so he didn't have anything to say about that, plus, it's only a bottle of vanilla soy milk before bed), I am not one to take it away and let him suffer until he gets over it.

But circumstances forced me to attempt to at least keep it away from him for as long as possible. With the teething and the massive amount of saliva, he was breaking out in a terrible rash all around his mouth, and the binky was not helping this situation. It would trap the saliva against the skin, causing the rash to be terribly worse. After many suggestions from my Tweeps, I rested on using the Bee Balm that I had used for his dry skin in the past. It helped a bit, but I really think the fact that I was able to keep the binky away from him for almost 48 hours now has been the key solution. His rash is much better and there was only one time last night that I really wanted to give it back to him, but refrained and all was well. So we have officially been binky free for about 2 days now, and he has only really seemed to WANT it once or twice, but with redirection and extra lovin', he moved on and so did I. It's actually kinda nice to see his face more often, cuz its such a darn cute face!

3. We went to Toddler Time at our local library last week, and loved it. Jonah got to play around with some other kids his own age, and of course there were stories and songs and bubbles and dancing, all of Jonah's favorite things. The children's librarian there was so sweet and has the cutest little voice, PERFECT for a kid's librarian, they all just love her. And the best part is that it is all kid's Jonah;s age (between 12-24 months), so it is absolutely directed towards him, and not older or younger.

4. We went to our local apple orchard again yesterday, and this time actually took the tractor and went out to the orchard to pick apples. I was so excited to go and show Jonah and of course, take pictures. Yet, this was the only picture I got of Jonah and the orchard.

That's right. He fell asleep on the tractor ride out to the orchard, and stayed asleep for 2 hours after that. Needless to say Todd and his brother had a good time, ate WAY too many apples, and we even got a few smaller ones just for Jonah.

Yep, that's it for now.