Our first ear infection

We kept trying to figure out what was the problem with Little Miss.

First, she wasn't her usual happy girl self. LOTS of crying, easily upset, suddenly fussy and angry and rough.

Then she wasn't consoled by lots of mommy and daddy hugs and cuddles. She was more than normally clingy but the change in snuggling she received didn't do its usual work of producing shy smiles and merry giggles.

Monday night was the nadir. She didn't sleep beyond an hour at a stretch, waking fretful and weeping, thrashing in her sleep. Even a rare envelopment in the Family Bed wasn't helpful. At one point she was actually frightening, spasming and flailing frantically oblivious to parental caresses. I think that was when we realized that this was more than a cold, or a nightmare. The next day Mojo took her to the pediatrician and found out what it is:

It's an ear infection.

We were lucky with the Peeper; he never had one. So this caught us by surprise, and now we are better informed, as well as armed with antibiotics and a sloping pillow for little girls to sleep comfortably. She slept most of the night last night, and seems happier and more her usual self today.

But the saddest realization is that, as she was frightening us with her behavior in the dark, we both feared that there was something deeply "wrong" with her; that this was some sort of delayed symptom of neurological problems like autisim or god-knows-what sort of awful brain damage. So now we know and are sadder for the knowledge that although little Baoxin is asleep back in her orphanage in Liangjiang the damage we took from our time with her during our journey to China is with us still.