What?!

One of my recent pet peeves is when Sweet Pea says, "What?" when she doesn't hear me. This has seemingly come out of nowhere in the last 6 weeks, and it's driving me nuts. I feel like I'm constantly telling her, "Say 'excuse me,' not 'what?'"

It's gotten so bad that last week, in sheer exasperation, I said to MJ, "Honestly, I almost want to get her hearing checked!"

Then, over the weekend, Sweet Pea complained that her ears hurt. She's had a cold that's dragged on for over a month now, so I thought to myself, "Oh, she probably has an ear infection."

And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. 

She's had an ear infection for ages now and she can't hear!!

I scheduled an appointment at the pediatrician, and told Sweet Pea I was taking her to the doctor.

"What?" she said.
"You have to go to the doctor," I said.
"What?!"
"The doctor. You have a doctor's appointment."
"Church?"
"No, THE DOCTOR."
"What?!"

It's amazing that it took me a month to figure this out. I am clearly the world's biggest idiot.

The doctor walked into the exam room and said, "Hi sweetie, what's your name?"
"Crackers," said Sweet Pea, holding up her snack.
"Can you tell me what your favorite color is?"
"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," said Sweet Pea.

Seriously. I'm not making this up.

An hour later and amoxicillin in hand, we left the pediatrician with a diagnosis of raging double ear infections. It could take up to a month for all the fluid to clear out of her ear canals, so we'll be dealing with this hearing loss for quite a while now. But at least we're on the road to recovery.