Aftermath

You can tell corn is ripe if it bursts and explodes when you put your nail in a kernel. You can tell you need an oil change based on the mileage and/or date from the last one. And you can tell a toddler has had a pretty rough night when she's sniffling like this in her sleep (enjoy our sound machine set to "ocean" in the background):

Liesel woke up at 4AM hysterically crying and tugging on her left ear. I had lots of ear infections as a kid and Brent tells me when he was young he was the poster child for them. Brent, Liesel and I have blue eyes which I guess is somehow related to the shape of your Eustachian tube and makes you more susceptible to them. So in the early morning hours we found ourselves sympathetically trying to remedy this pain while our little girl cried streams of tears and looked at us pleading for relief.

We immediately gave her a dose of Motrin and called the Dr to determine if we should head over Children's Hospital. Because it was just the ear, (no diarrhea or vomiting), he advised us to put her in a steamy shower for 5-10 minutes to open everything up. She was definitely better, but wide awake and still a little upset. It took her a while to go back to sleep but finally around 6:30 AM she did, sniffling away the vestiges of her troubled night.

Brent has left for work and so I'm here at home waiting for her to wake up so we can start our day. For now, I think I'll just let her sleep.