Ringing in the New Year, by Ringing Out the Cloth

Since Jonah's staph infection cropped up a few months ago, he has not been using his cloth diapers. We unknowingly contaminated all of his diapers with the infectious bacteria, before we even knew that he had a staph infection. He got the infection from wearing Luvs diapers while on vacation, in a pinch. I tried disinfecting the diapers with everything I could think of- first the natural remedies: Tea tree oil, grapefruit seed extract, and vinegar. Then the less natural remedies, but still "diaper safe," such as borax. Finally, after none of these got the bacteria out (as was proved by the infected rash cropping back up on Jonah's bum) I took drastic measures and soaked them in bleach. Yes, big "no-no" I know, but I was SOOO desperate to get rid of this infection! It didn't work.

Someone told me about a natural cleaning product called Bac-out, made by Bio Kleen. It is labeled as a stain remover and odor eliminator, but the way that it removes stains and odors is by killing the bacteria that causes them. After reading tons of reviews on this stuff, all of which claimed bac-out worked miracles on cloth diapers, I ordered some. Because of the holiday season, the delivery took a while and my box arrived on December 30th. So, on New Years Eve, I carried out my plan for a last ditch effort on salvaging my precious cloth.

I found a large bucket, into which I poured a cup of bac-out and two pots of boiling water. I added my diapers and let them soak for about a half hour. I had to work in small batches, because of the size of the bucket as well as the amount of water that I was able to boil at once. After each batch of diapers was soaked, they went into the washer. Once I had enough soaked diapers for a load, the diapers were washed as usual, with Tiny Bubbles detergent, and for security's sake, I added quite a bit of tea tree oil to the rinse. I ended up doing two loads of diaper laundry this way, washing each load four times each in the washer. As the ball was dropping at midnight, I was just finishing up our diaper laundry.

The results remain to be seen. Jonah is in his cloth once again today. We are all very happy to have the cloth diapers back. I am feeling less guilty about the amount of waste we are throwing into the landfill, Daryl is happy to not need to buy diapers this week, and Jonah genuinely seems more comfortable in his cloth. When I put the first diaper on him this morning, he got this funny grin on his face, and then did this cute little tush wiggle. He was always pulling at the disposables, and seemed uncomfortable in them, as if they itched him or just felt bad on his skin. I'm also hoping that our elimination communication will be set back on track with the cloth diapers. We have been having some setbacks recently which I think were caused by the disposables.

The only conclusion that I can make as of now, about the bac-out, is that it made the diapers smell amazing once they were cleaned. It has a very pleasant lime scent (the main ingredient is lime extract.) I have the feeling that this will become one of my main cleaning staples in our household. Both for diapers and for general cleaning usage!

We will know in a couple of days if the staph infection is out of the diapers. I really wish that we had another way to tell besides just putting the diapers on Jonah's bum and hoping that the terrible rash stays away! We will be using g-diapers rather than completely disposable diapers for our upcoming trip to Arizona, as well as if we find that our diapers were not completely disinfected from the staph infection!

Christmas Morning: The Big Dissappointment

I was really excited for this year's Christmas morning to come around. On Christmas Eve, I dutifully wrapped presents and stuffed stockings. We went out to eat a special Christmas Eve dinner with Daryl's family, and got home just in time for Jonah's bedtime. He posed for a few pictures in his spiffy new Christmas PJ's, I read to him How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and tucked him in bed. I know that he's only one, but Jonah is old enough to understand when he is getting new toys, and when there is something special happening. I was really excited to see him open up his gifts in the morning.

Daryl and I decided before we even had children, that our Christmas gifts would be relatively low-key. A stocking, and one or two really nice gifts that the children will appreciate. We're hoping that this will take some of the commercialism out of the gift-getting process, and teach our children to accept gifts graciously and with appreciation. So while Jonah didn't have a ton of things to open (from us- the grandparents are a different story!) I was still excited to see him dig into his stocking and tear into the wrapping paper. This year, Jonah is old enough to understand opening gifts, and one of his favorite things to do is to take stuff out of bags and containers. I made opening his stocking into a little game. Some of the stocking items were wrapped, but the idea was for him to pull everything out and put it back in. We play this game ALL the time with other containers. I thought it would be a big hit.

Well, Christmas morning arrived, and Jonah was up with the sun. Thank goodness for us, Jonah is still young enough that Daddy and Mommy have a chance to make coffee before Christmas begins! In our living room, I had placed both Jonah's stocking and the dog's stocking. Yes, we give the dog a stocking, but it is just a small one with some special doggie treats and a new toy. We set the boys loose in the living room, encouraging them to explore the stockings in the middle of the room. "What's this over here?" We asked Jonah. "This bright red thing! This wasn't here last night! What's in there?" Paddington the dog tore into his. It was a frenzy of squeaks and wrapping paper, and then the little fur ball ran off with his freshly unwrapped new toy. Jonah on the other hand, did not want to look at his stocking. He promptly crawled to his toy box, and chose one of his old shaker bottles to play with.

"Jonah! Mommy has a sack, and there's stuff in here!!!" I demonstrated the game that I had planned out so well- taking items out of the stocking with great emphasis, and putting them back in. "Jonah! Come play 'take it out' with Mommy!" Nope. Jonah did not want to play with Mommy. We took the stocking over to him. He touched the fuzzy top and giggled, then went back to the shaker bottle. Daryl held it up and pulled the top item out halfway. Yogurt melts. The ultimate treat for Jonah! Okay, so that got his attention. He pulled the yogurt melts out of the bag and clung to them. We tried to entice him with the other items. Boats for the tub? Nope! New crayola markers? Nah. Small books? Nada. Nothing but the sugary treats would interest this child.


So Daryl decided to see if he would open up his "big" gift from Mommy and Daddy. We were really excited to see him play with this toy. It is a Fisherprice Colorflash Laptop. The box says that it is for children age 3 and up, but we read the reviews and a lot of people said that their one year old just loved it. There are no small parts for him to choke on, and all he has to do is push the keys to get the screen to light up and play music. We chose this for him because Jonah loves our laptops. He loves to push the keys. He also loves to take the keys off. My keyboard is currently missing a fully functional " and E key because he has taken them of. They work if I hit them hard enough repeatedly, but we wanted to find something that he could play with the keys, and not be able to destroy anything. This little laptop has keys that he can push, and get results from pushing them, but he cannot break it! Perfect!

So Daryl sat with Jonah in his lap, holding the big silver box. He showed Jonah where the paper would tear. Jonah pushed it off his lap, and squirmed away, again to play with his old toys. Eventually, Daryl did convince him that what was in the silver package was more interesting than the yogurt melts.
In the end, Daryl and I ended up opening Jonah's presents that day. He played with a few of the books, and his new shapes puzzle, while we were opening the other gifts. But in general, Jonah was not interested in anything that anyone had to offer him, until our guests left. The day after Christmas was much more enjoyable for him. He sat and explored all of his new books and toys. I am not sure if Jonah was just overwhelmed by the chaos of the morning, especially when we went upstairs to join the rest of Daryl's family, or if he just needed to be given a little time to get used to the idea of these new items. I'm thinking that everyone, including me and Daryl, had too high of expectations for the morning.

"Holiday Traditions" or "The Obligatory Christmas Pictures Post"

I haven't blogged much about our holidays. Much of this is because everyone in our household was fighting a nasty cold the two weeks before Christmas. Sadly, I think Jonah got it the worst. This put a huge kink in our plans for holiday and winter activities, as I have a strict rule that if the kid (or anyone else) has the sniffles, we do not go out and spread our germs!

We did manage to recover in time for a few fun activities though! Right before the cold hit, we took Jonah and Paddington to see Santa at Petco. The picture was $10, and that money went to a local animal shelter that my sister in law volunteers at. Toledo is notorious for the rate that they euthenize strays, so I feel that it is important to support shelters in the area that have a "no-kill" policy. Plus, it's fun to have a Santa picture that includes our beloved doggie!
On Christmas Eve, it is a tradition in Daryl's family to go to dinner at the Toledo Club. The dinner is pretty formal, and so every family stops to get a picture taken in front of the main Christmas tree while they are wearing their dressy clothes.When we got home, we took some portraits of Jonah in front of the tree, and read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" before bedtime. Jonah got to open up his special "Christmas Eve" pajamas, and we took a couple pictures, but he didn't actually get to sleep in them because we've been having bed-wetting issues. We changed him back into them when he woke up in the AM, needing a fresh pair of jammies on. We are still trying to figure out why we are having this backslide in pottying. He was waking up completely dry.
I am going to save Christmas Morning for another blog post, because I have a bit more than a paragraph to say about it. So I will just skip ahead to the day after Christmas. We went to the Toledo Zoo for their "Lights Before Christmas" display. Nevermind that we went "after" christmas, I never really liked the name of the lights display, but it really is a fun thing to go and see. Jonah absolutely loves it. We happened to pick the warmest night of the week. All of the snow had melted that day, and we were able to enjoy being outside rather than freezing. Later that night, the temperatures dropped and it began snowing again, so we were really lucky that we had gone during that window of warmth!


The next day, all of our guests were put back onto their respective planes to the places they call home. It was a very busy holiday season, made even more stressful by the whole family falling ill. But it was also a lot of fun, and a good excuse to take a break from "real life" to enjoy our family and those who are closest to us. It is not over yet, though! We are having Christmas with my family this Friday (New Year's day!)

Becoming a "Big Boy"

Jonah is definitely moving out of his baby stage and into the toddler stage. I realized this more than ever last week, as I cleaned out his toy area in anticipation of our holiday guests. While I've been pretty good about switching out his clothes and diapers as he outgrows them, I have never packed away any of his toys. Still in his toy bin were rattles, and colorful "manipulative" toys. Things he hasn't played with for probably about a year or so. The day after Christmas came the big day for organizing. All of his rattles were replaced with puzzles, and his security blankets have been replaced by a basket full of board books. The more I look at his play area, the more I see toddler playthings rather than baby items. His bouncy seat was put into storage, as was the bumbo, and a series of stuffed animals that he won't even look at anymore.The rainforest toy that hung on the side of his crib, that he loved to look at before naps, is now the Twilight Seaturtle that projects constellations and pictures of animals around his room. My baby is becoming a big boy.

It's not just the toys that are changing. We are also going through a series of transitions to "big boy" stuff right now. From the high chair to his "big boy" chair (the booster) and from his pack n play (which he's been sleeping in ever since the crib was recalled) to the "big boy" bed. He is even getting a "big boy" potty seat to use in the upstairs bathroom, and eventually one for the downstairs bathroom to replace his tiny potty chair.

The transition to the big boy chair at meal times has been relatively smooth. It actually started by accident, during Thanksgiving. My family has a huge dinner party on Thanksgiving, with a lot of family and friends. This year, there were four tables packed tight, and no room for a high chair. We had brought along our fisherprice rainforest booster seat, which has a tray on it like a high chair but straps to a regular chair. It seemed so impractical to try to fit the seat in as a high chair, with the tray on it, so we just took the tray off and pulled it up to the table. Jonah handled it like a pro. And I noticed that several of the behavioral problems that we were dealing with at mealtimes, had disappeared. Jonah was not rocking his chair, trying to feed the dogs, or throwing his food and cup as much. I wasn't sure if it was just that situation, or if Jonah really did behave better in the booster seat.

Last week, we went to lunch at the Olive Garden with our holiday guests. My sister in law arrived to the restaraunt first, and ordered a booster rather than a high chair. Once again, Jonah ate like a pro. Every morsel went into his mouth. He even used the spoon! There was no screaming, banging, or rocking. Just a perfect little gentleman, eating his mac n cheese with tomato.

At home, I'm beginning to use the booster for breakfast, lunch, and snack. Because we eat dinner upstairs with the rest of the family, we have to follow my mother in law's wishes that he stay in a high chair for dinner. We are trying to convince her that the booster is the better choice. It is definitely much less stressful for me, when I know that Jonah is sitting happily, eating, rather than when he is rocking the chair hard enough to make the legs come up from the floor, or throwing his food to the dogs, or knocking everything down by throwing his cup.

I am not sure why Jonah behaves so much better in his booster seat. My guess is because he is closer to us, at the table actually eating with us rather than to the side of us. I'm hoping that if I get a big plastic place mat to put in Jonah's place, my mother in law will warm up to the idea of putting the high chair into the basement, and using the booster from now on. For now, we have it set up downstairs for a few select meals of the day. Which is fine for the time being, since it is still the transition period for the seat!

A Boy and his Gorilla

Since birth, Jonah has gone through a number of different comfort items. You could call them lovies, snoodles, binkies, security blankets, or babies. Every child has some strange item that he or she has attached themselves to. At the preschool I taught at, there was a toddler who was attached to the very edge of his old recieving blanket. The blanket had frayed and worn away, until just one little patch of the silk lining was left, and Little D carried that patch around, rubbing it against his cheek. He called it his "mimi." And if he decided at any moment that he needed his "mimi" you'd better have it, or watch out!!!

For Jonah, his first "lovie" was my boob. No joke. He would sit in his sling, half nursing/half cuddling, 24 hours a day. I got to be quite good at hiding the fact that my nursing shirt was open in order to pacify my infant. With the ring sling, it was actually very easy.

Then, Jonah moved away from needing my breast all the time, to needing Seymour, the Musical Seahorse. Seymour was bought as a gift, from my best friend Elizabeth. Jonah would not nap without Seymour, would not play on the floor without Seymour, and absolutely would NOT ride in the car without Seymour!Seymour's batteries do not last forever, though. And we all know how some toys will get set aside to get new batteries "when we get around to it." The main problem is that Seymour doesn't take normal AA batteries. Oh no, he takes watch batteries. So, Seymour's music has been silent for quite a few months. Without the glowing belly and soothing music, Jonah quickly lost interest in Seymour.

Then, in the early spring, we went to the zoo with my mom. Jonah absolutely loves the gorillas at the zoo. He has ever since our first visit. He will sit and watch them swing and play for hours. I'm convinced that the large male gorilla at the Toledo Zoo recognizes Jonah when we visit now, because we spend so much time watching the gorillas. Sometimes, the male will come to the window to study Jonah. One time, a teenage girl pushed me while I was holding Jonah, so that she could get a picture of this gorilla, and he was so upset by her that he charged at the glass where she was standing. I'm convinced he was trying to protect Jonah, but that might just be me being sentimental.

At any rate, my mom thought I was crazy when I told her how much Jonah loves the gorillas. He wasn't even a year old yet, so I can understand this. When we went to the zoo, she saw how much he just loved them. So she insisted on buying him this plush silverback gorilla from the souvenier shop.

At the time, the gorilla was not much smaller than Jonah. We brought the gorilla home, and I expected to simply put him on the shelf in Jonah's bedroom. Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. Within a couple of days, the gorilla had gotten quite a bit of playtime in. It became apparant that he needed a name. We picked Hank. Hank the Gorilla. Soon, Hank became the very first toy that Jonah would pull out every day.

Then, while I was shopping one day, I found a stuffed gorilla for $5, and the profits went to a charity that was helping children learn to read. I bought it, noting that it must be a female gorilla. I brought her home and introduced her to Hank. The chemistry was instant. Hank had a mate. We named her Gloria the Gorilla. While Jonah will accept Gloria as a substitute for Hank, he will sleep with her and be happy to have her along on walks and outings, Hank is still his favorite.

Now, Jonah is never anywhere without either Hank or Gloria. If we are playing with other children, and a curious tot comes and looks at Hank, Jonah gets very posessive. I've never seen him get posessive of any other toy or object. If anyone dares to pick Hank up, be prepared for some screaming!

What strikes me the most is how much affection Jonah gives to Hank. He hugs him, and gives him endless kisses, buries his face into his fur, and the newest form of affection for Hank is biting. Jonah will bite his nose and his hands while giving him a huge hug. I'm a little worried that this will translate into biting other people or our dog, but so far Jonah seems to know the difference.

Of all of Jonah's lovies, he is definitely the most attached to Hank. Hank and Gloria are now an integral part of our family, and we have managed to work them into all of our daily routines. I don't think anyone could imagine our lives without Hank anymore.

Update on All the Doctor's Visits

This past week, Jonah went to see the doctor for the fourth time in a month. The last time that I posted about a doctor's visit, it was because Jonah had broken out in hives, thought to be caused by an ear infection. After we treated the ear infection, the hives persisted. They had begun to appear on his face. And so, we went back to the doctor a week later, and then we bumped his fifteen month check up to a week earlier as well. The doctor prescribed Zertec, because Benadryl did not seem to do anything for the hives at all. She told us that she hated to subject Jonah to yet even more needles and tests, but if the hives did not go away within two weeks she would refer us to an allergist to have tests done. In the meantime, we were to cut out dairy completely.

We cut out dairy from Jonah's diet, which was difficult since sometimes the only things he will eat are cheese or yogurt! But even with a strict dairy free diet and the new allergy medicine, the hives kept spreading. I was at my wit's end. He had been having these hives pretty much since Halloween. Finally, Daryl's mom had a revelation. She had just had the carpets cleaned Halloween weekend. I thought she had them steam cleaned, so I was happy to give her permission to get the carpets in Jonah's bedroom and play area cleaned. We have a lot of pets in our home, so I really welcomed having the dirt and dander removed. However, it came to the surface that the carpets were not steam cleaned, but a cleaning solution was used on them.

We put rugs down where we could, and kept Jonah off the carpets. Miraculously, the hives went away. It was the cleaning solution that was causing the hives. This is one reason that I prefer natural cleaning methods such as steaming or using naturally made cleaning products. I just recently bought a book that has several natural cleaning remedies, including herbal and natural carpet cleaning solutions:
I've already used some of the all-purpose cleaner "recipes" and have been very happy. I think the next time that we decide the carpets need a cleaning, we will try one of the solutions from this book as well.

So this past week, we had the follow up appointment with the doctor. Sadly, the hives were not the only item that we were following up on. At the 15 month appointment, we discussed Jonah's cognitive development. I've been concerned about his development for quite a while now, but that little voice that says every child develops differently kept pushing me to wait and see how he does. While I agree very strongly that every child is different, I also believe in mommy instincts. If Mommy feels that there is something going on with her child, most often she is right in my opinion. When I felt that Jonah was too small and too skinny, everyone told me that all babies grow differently, and he is just the right size for Jonah. It turned out, he was *not* just the right size for Jonah, and there was indeed something very very wrong. Had our current pediatrician not listened to my mommy instinct, I get chills at thinking about what might have happened to our beloved little boy.

And so I've had kind of the same feeling about his development, really since about June. It's not even that he's meeting milestones later than most children in his age (he's coming pretty close to the 1%ile in both speech as well as gross motor skills)but it seems to take him a lot longer to get from one step to another. For example, going back through my facebook notes, I realized that I had posted in September that he was letting go of objects and standing on his own for a few seconds. I exclaimed in these posts "We'll be walking by Halloween!" It is just my experience and observations that when a child begins to stand on his own, it is only a matter of weeks before the first steps are taken. Jonah did not take his first steps until mid-november. Again from my experience and observations, it usually only takes a child a week or so to go from taking a few unsure steps, to walking in order to get to places or objects across the room. Jonah is still only taking two or three steps at a time. He has ben taking two or three steps for about a month now. I know he will walk eventually, I am not worried about that. I am worried that it seems to be taking him much longer than other children to "get" things.

He is also gradually moving from "slightly delayed" to "moderately delayed" in speech. At sixteen months, though he knows and uses fifteen ASL signs, he relies on only a handful of phonemes. Dadada, Mamama, and jeejeejee. He doesn't use these phonemes to refer to anything, he only babbles them. I have never heard him use the ba or ga or ka or la phonemes, all of which he should have mastered by now. I notice this the most, of course, because of my intense studies and interest in speech development and acquisition. He very obviously understands language, because he uses sign language to refer to objects, actions, and people. There is just something about producing the words that he isn't picking up on.

Other things that Jonah cannot do that are of concern to me and the doctor are: stacking three blocks (he lines them up in perfect rows, but will not stack them) scribbling with crayons when shown, looking at me or Daryl if someone says "where is Mommy?" or "Where's Daddy?" pointing to body parts, looking for an object after it rolls behind a screen (most babies will look to the other side of the screen to see the object roll out, by nine months) and grasping items such as a spoon. These are just small flags though, the walking and talking is what really has us concerned.

Also, although I am well aware of the ultimate mommy-rule "do not compare thy baby to thy neighbor's baby," I can't help but notice that when we go to music class or play group, that Jonah is just... well, different. Seeing him alongside of these other children his age, or even his cousin who is three months younger than him, I can really see that he cannot do what they are doing. The differences are enough to make me cry some weeks at our music class.

These are not things that Jonah has not been exposed to. I have worked with him for a long time on all of them, knowing that they are important developmental milestones. I am afraid that last winter, when he stopped growing, his development was slowed. The doctor referred us to a specialist who will come to our home to do a full assessment. While part of me feels that she will not be able to tell me something I don't know, I also am glad to have someone who is coming at this with fresh eyes. Depending on what she says, we may have to go to occupational therapy with Jonah. Perhaps I am over-reacting, but if there is a problem with his cognition, it is much easier to get him back on track than it will be later in life. Perhaps it will all play out on its own, but if he needs help now then we will do what he needs.

Quick and Easy Pasta Meal for Picky Eaters

Jonah is a pretty picky eater, so I try to fit extra nutrients in wherever I can! Something that has helped me boost the health of his meals tremendously is substituting items typically made from wheat and other grains, with items made from quinoa. Quinoa is actually more of a leafy green than a grain, botanically speaking. But if it is prepared correctly, it takes on the same cooking properties as other grains. For those on a gluten-free diet, quinoa is a large dietary subsitute for grains. It provides calcium, protein, iron, vitamin E as well as B vitamins. When I was a vegetarian, quinoa quickly became a staple in my diet. Now, it is easier to find not only quinoa, but items such as pasta that are made with quinoa. I didn't have it so nice fifteen years ago as a vegetarian!

So when my young toddler began dismissing meats and other important foods, I turned to my old staple to sneak in some vital nutrients. This meal is not only healthy for Jonah, but it's fast and easy (something else essential in meal-planning for toddlers!) and I found all the ingredients at my local Giant Eagle.

Butter and Herb Pasta with Carrot Coins:
1/4 cup Quinoa Pasta (I found it in the organic section of my supermarket, with the other organic pastas)
a few cherry tomatoes quartered (use your judgement on how many tomatoes your little one will eat)
1/4 tsp olive oil
1/4 tsp butter
Oregano to taste
garlic powder to taste
basil to taste
(if you want SUPER quick and easy, use one of the Italian Herb mixes, or Pasta Sauce spice mixes)
1 carrot, washed peeled and sliced into bite size peices

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add the pasta and boil for about seven minutes, or until tender. Note that Quinoa pasta is a bit more dense then pasta made from flour, so the consistency may seem different to you when it is done.

While the pasta is cooking, place the carrot slices into a microwavable bowl and cover with water. Heat on high in the microwave for about five minutes, or until soft.

When pasta is done,turn the heat off on the stove. Drain the water and place the pasta back into the pot. DO NOT RINSE THE PASTA. Add the olive oil, butter, tomatoes, and herbs while stirring. The heat of the pasta will continue to cook the tomatoes and melt the butter.

Serve the carrots along side the pasta