This post should come as no surprise since practically every blog I read as of late has gruesome tales of days on end of sickness. Also because, well, when we walk into the doctor’s office with our daughter they say, “Hi Belén” without referencing her chart or looking her name up in the computer.

I recently wondered out loud in front of a friend if perhaps we are those parents who take their kid to the doctor way more than necessary and she kindly replied, “No I think all of your visits have been warranted.” (Thanks Laura!) And actually even though I am a bit self conscious how much our daughter has been to the doctor, I cannot recall a single time where they looked at us and said, “Uh, there’s nothing wrong with her.” Although they would probably say it in some prescriptive doctor lingo like, “Despite her mucus output and change in behavior, your child is safe to resume all of her normal activities without the need for prescriptive intervention.” Nope, they have never told us that. It’s usually like, “Uh, weren’t not sure, but…” or “It’s not normally like this in kids her age, but we think she has…”

Anyway, I know you don’t want to read gory details about our nearly 21-month-old peetree dish’s latest science projects so I will keep it brief…or as brief as my sometimes prolix tendencies will allow.

A couple of weeks ago, actually the day before Andy came home from China, Belén’s behavior started to really suck and she was pulling on her ear and had a fever so with the help of my mom, I took her to the doctor. It was a Saturday, so we went to one of the Urgent Care places open on Saturdays. The PA quickly determined Belén did indeed have an ear infection and prescribed some antibiotics and we were on our way.

After two sessions, we figured we had created enough blocks for the drool box so we decided to sneak out early. I don’t know that I would call the event a success for our little one, although she did find a different way to explore the blocks than most of the other kids. We look forward to participating in the event next year when presumably, putting the blocks in her mouth won’t be of paramount interest.

Belén’s tongue is working overtime to figure out what to do with the sprouting tooth in her mouth. Andy took this video on his Droid phone this morning as I worked on getting her to giggle.

The changes we are witnessing around this place are pretty astounding. There is honestly nothing I could do as an adult to change my life as dramatically as the changes that Belén is going through right now. Okay, so there are probably a few things but I would have to really fly off the handle and do something nuts.

While she was at the doctor, we had her get her second flu shot and H1N1 vaccine. The doctor also pointed out that she is teething (we had figured that out) and predicted she would have her bottom teeth poking through within the week.

You would think with two flu shots and teething, it would be the perfect storm in terms of her mood. Here is a video of her from last night.