Friday Favorites

Welcome to Friday Favorites, the medicinal edition! As I said in a couple of posts back, little Benito and I have been sick, and apparently, still are :( My head cold yuckiness seems to be returning (argh) and my buddy went to the doctor today for his 15 month "wellness" check-up and we discovered he STILL has gunk filling his ears that's the consistency of glue, even after being on antibiotics again a week ago. Fantastic. So he's on ANOTHER antibiotic (the doctor has little hope of it actually working *sigh*) and is headed down the road of tubes (double *sigh*). I'm still praying that this will NOT have to happen. I know the two are TOTALLY unrelated, but my brother had to have tubes and had a LOT of ear problems when he was really little, and he ended up with big time speech problems, and is also learning disabled, which has affected him and our family all our lives. In my mind, the two just seem connected, even though they're not in reality, so tubes make me a bit nervous/anxious.
Before I begin the official favorites, I'll end this little piece of yuck on a positive note: During his check-up, I was telling the doctor that Bennett can say around 15-20 words, and he said that's fantastic because that's on the level of an 18 month old, and it's especially impressive since he probably hasn't been hearing all that well for a month or so (due to the glue in his ears). So that's great, and it made me feel a lot better! And here's the list of words (or all that I can remember right now): ball, whoa, wow, duck, this?, yes, uh-uh, outside, dog, water, banana, catch, thank you, mama, more, cookie, Joseph, stairs, book (he also nods his head and says "yeesh" or shakes his head no to answer questions we ask him, so he's a pretty good little communicator!).

Medicinal Favorites:

1. BENNETT'S DOCTOR -- he's affiliated with Cook Children's and is AWESOME!! He's totally laid back, extremely helpful, very patient, and great with babies. I have 4-5 other friends that use this doctor and we all LOVE him! He answers all of my silly questions, and one time in the midst of all this ear ridiculousness, I had to schedule an appointment with a different doctor because ours wasn't available, so we went in and were in the little room waiting, when the nurse appeared and said our doctor had seen we were here and had just gotten out of a meeting, so he'd see us instead, because he really wanted to see how Bennett was doing and to make sure we progressed the way we should with everything. SO cool. If you want to know his name/location, let me know and I'd be happy to pass it on to you.

2. SNACK TRAP/FRUIT CHEERIOS -- this is a two in one deal and is my favorite errand-running companion when Bennett is with me. My son will knock over, spill or mess up anything he can get his hands on, but the snack trap makes that a LOT less likely and would have prevented an entire cup of hundreds of cheerios from spilling out all over the floor right in front of the cash register at NY & Company (my favorite store...you will probably see this in a future Favorite Friday)...if I'd had one at the time. The snack trap is $5 at Babies R Us and they carry them other places, too. If your kiddo moves impulsively and at lightning speed wherever food is involved like mine does, this thing is totally worth it. And as for fruit cheerios, I used to offer B. those cardboard regular cheerios, but when he got older, he let me know under no uncertain terms that these were tasteless and unacceptable. I've convinced myself (without looking at the actual box) that the fruit ones must be healthier than the honey nut, or some other sugary cereal, though I confess I don't know this for a fact. But I do think it says somewhere on the box that they use real fruit juice (probably just a drop, but it's better than nothing :)). And in case you were wondering, this item was included in the medicinal edition of Favorites because it was a lifesaver at the doctor at 8:30 this morning.

3. MUCINEX DM -- while the name totally grosses me out, this medicine rocks my socks. I get the same crud about twice a year without fail, and in the past, if I didn't immediately begin to heavily medicate myself with Robitussin (disgusting), I'd get really sick and have to go to the doctor. What I love about Mucinex DM is that you only have to take it once every 12 hours, and it's in pill form, as opposed to NASTY cough-syrup stuff that finds me wiggling, gagging, and gargling water for a full minute afterward to remove the taste from my mouth. This stuff kicks some serious tail.

That's all for this week. Peace out.