Molar Misery

The last few days in the Rothwell house have been...well, painful...for everyone.  But poor Colin most definitely endured the most misery.  It all started with a head cold, something we've grown used to as an inescapable side effect of child care at the gym and church, playdates, and baby story time at the library.  To me, I think the benefit outweighs the negative in that I know Colin is having opportunities for social interaction that are so valuable, as well as building an immunity to bacteria and viruses that he'll encounter sooner or later anyways (and I'd much rather him feel yucky now when he can't remember it and won't miss any school as a result).  But, I digress.  With the cold came several high fevers and a mild ear infection.  So after a visit to the doctor, he's back on the pink stuff.  That's amoxicillin to you and me, but if you had a whiff of this bubblegum-flavored elixir it would take you right back to memories of your childhood sniffles.  We also noticed that Colin's appetite wasn't nearly as robust as it normally is.  As the days went on, it got to the point that he pushed away practically everything we put in front of him...even some of the tried and true favorites. We knew when he refused a cheese stick that something was definitely amiss.  Marshall solved the mystery last Friday evening by inspecting the inside of Colin's mouth with a flashlight, only to discover that BOTH of his top molars were pushing their way through.  We were relieved that we had an answer to this frustrating dilemma, but we also felt so terrible for our little guy.  We tried to offer soothing, easy-to-eat foods like yogurt, applesauce, and oatmeal...I even made him a frozen fruit smoothie.  But unfortunately for us all, the only things that seemed to offer relief were ibuprofen and his pacifier, and we just had to wait it out.  Luckily he was able to sleep just fine, and needed a lot of extra rest.  Finally today, we seem to have our baby back.  He had a regular breakfast (well, regular for him anyway...he eats an uncanny amount for such a small person!) and has been cheerful and active throughout the day.  At least now we'll know what to expect when the lower molars decide to make their wretched appearance.

The Holy Grail (a.k.a. The Sippy that Saved My Sanity)

Well, friends, I'm happy to report that we have found some success with a sippy!  Oh happy day!  (I may have even done a little jig when announcing the news to Marshall one day last week when he came home from work!)  After sending tens of - ok, well maybe ten - different varieties of cups to the sippy cemetery, we finally discovered one that worked.  Well, either that, or the timing coincided with the moment that Colin finally gave in.  And, as an added bonus, it just happens to be a straw cup!  This is a bonus because evidently the straw is better for oral language development and for teeth, etc.  At least that's what "they" say.  "THEY" know an awful lot, don't "they"?  This discovery came about shortly after my last post, when I decided to call one of my very best mom friends.  Tori and I have been friends since college, and she's helped to talk me off the ledge of a few parenting meltdowns.  She encouraged me to hang in there, and to stand my ground.  She also said that her little one seemed to really like the straw cup, but just the plain take-n-toss kind.  I had already bought a fancy straw cup for Colin, but - if I'm being honest - even I had a hard time sucking any liquid out of it because of a valve in the straw.  Apparently, you can either have a cup that leaks, or risk breaking a rib trying to suck juice through it's impermeable straw.  So that didn't work.  I decided to try out a regular straw in a regular cup, and Colin figured it out after only a few tries!  It only took a moment to realize that the take-n-toss straw cups weren't going to work because our little piranha could pry the lid off with his teeth.  So we needed a sippy cup with a regular-type straw and a screw on lid.  And then we discovered "The Holy Grail" of sippy cups...The Munchkin Weighted Straw Sippy Cup.  A weighted straw!  So he can actually hold it from any angle and get the last drop of milk from the cup.  It even has a flip-top lid that covers the straw while on the go!  I was ecstatic when Colin drank from it for the first time.  Hoping the novelty wouldn't wear off, I followed him around with his new straw sippy, and eventually he finished the whole cup!  I still have to add a bit of chocolate Nesquick, but he's now drinking it cold and almost up to the full amount of milk he should have per day.  I haven't figured out how to get the milk to stop rising out of the straw, even as it sits upright on the table...it has something to do with the pressure inside, but this is not my area of expertise.  I'm just thrilled that the battle is over, and that I actually won...well, this time at least.