Natalie’s been a little bit fussy the past few days, but nothing too extreme, so I just chalked it up to teething. Yesterday I decided to bring her to the chiropractor, since she hadn’t been there in a little over a month, and I thought it might help her out a little bit with her teething pain. The chiropractor took one look in her ear and said, “Oh, sweetie, that doesn’t look so good.” Yep, she has a raging ear infection in her right ear. And the left one looks “dusky” which apparently means it’s healing from a recent infection. She’s never been treated for a left ear infection.

I feel terrible for not realizing, but she is so good-natured and happy, apparently even when she doesn’t feel very well. I hope she picks up on sign language quickly, so she can let me know when something hurts! I’m not used to this. Sammy has always been very vocal and not shy at all about voicing his wants and needs.

This was all evident right from the beginning. The first time I heard Sammy’s voice in the delivery room, it was an indignant cry at being removed from his familiar, comfortable surroundings. When Natalie was born, there was a lot of nervousness in the delivery room. She’d gotten stuck on the way out and they were a little concerned about that, and the fact that they couldn’t get her to cry. Nothing was wrong; she just didn’t feel any need to cry. When she finally did, it was just a tiny mewling. I remember saying to Ron, Sammy’s cries were always along the lines of, “I want FOOD! Feed me NOW!” but Natalie’s cries were more like, “if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like a little milk, please – when it’s convenient, of course”.