When is an ear infection *art*?

When it is a performance, not an actual malady. Yes, Emerson qualified for diva status. Yes, a 5 month-old can (apparently) be manipulative. After months of sleeping nearly through the night, getting up once or twice to eat, she decided to catch up on missed opportunities last night. She went down--after a full day of playing, being her typical happy self--at 9 pm and was up at 10:40, 11:40, 3:45, 4:30, and 6am. Each of these times, she wasn't just fussing. She was *screaming* at the top of her tiny lungs. For the most part, each time you could pick her up and she would go right back to sleep.

Since we've been fighting an ear infection with her, we assumed this was classic ear infection behavior and maybe we should go get things checked out. Turns out, it was a fraud. A sham. An early audition for the Thespian Society. Now, of course, she is still sitting in her car seat, snoring softly.

She has picked up another behavior, too--wheezing loudly, like a stereotypical hillbilly laughing. She demonstrated this for the pediatrician, who decided it was designed to garner her attention. Emerson finds the whole thing very funny.