she had rather an adventure earlier this week. [Note: for those of you who can't tolerate discussions about vomit or poopy diapers, stop reading now.] Sunday night Trinity had her first ever "sleep-over" at a hospital. Well, strictly speaking, it wasn't a hospital. Dr. Real, our local pediatrician, has a lovely hospital room in his offices. His house is upstairs, so he is conveniently located when he has overnight patients. Apparently he has one a week, at least.

Basically, what happened is that Trinity had a really bad intestinal infection. She had had diarrhea for several days, but sometimes that happens and it just works itself out. She started eating less and less solid food, so I began to suspect she wasn't feeling well, and decided to take her to the doctor on Monday morning. On Sunday, she started to vomit. After three incidents, we called the doctor and went for a visit. He gave her an injection that was supposed to stop her vomiting within the hour, and gave us prescriptions for antibiotics, pedialite, and an anti-vomit med. Unfortunately, she kept on vomiting. The poor dear would drop off to sleep, and wake up half an hour later and vomit. We had to be on duty right next to her with a bowl and towels the whole time. After a couple of hours, we called Dr. Real again, and he said she needed an IV.

We packed as if we were going on a 2-day trip, mainly because we had no idea how long we'd be at the doctor's office. I even included a couple of Trinity's favorite books, Teddy, my laptop with her favorite movies (Harry Potter), and an icebox with snacks for me and Andy. We got there and saw the brightly painted hospital room, complete with extremely uncomfortable hospital bed (if you weigh more than 30 pounds/13 kilos), colorful teddy-bear covered blinds, ceiling fan, air-conditioning and private bathroom. Except for the bed, it was kind of nicer than some of the hotels we've stayed at here.

Dr. Real was as friendly and efficient as ever.

He had already laid out a sheet, in which he informed us we would swaddle Trinity so that he could insert her IV. Andy carefully showed Trinity all of the medical instruments and tubing, and explained to her that after we put the IV in, she would be able to drink water through the tube without throwing up. I know she's only 2 years and 3 months, but she totally understood and was reasonably calm. She was not too excited about the idea of being swaddled, so we asked if we could skip that part, but Dr. Real said it was really necessary. We explained to Trinity that he is an expert, and that it must be done. She cried, but cooperated anyway.

Andy held her arm, I sang to her, and Dr. Real inserted the IV. Trinity cried and said "ow, ow, ow, ow, ow" but she didn't move, and remained really calm. Dr. Real said she was really brave, and one of the easiest kids he'd ever worked with. We were proud. At first Trinity was fascinated with the IV, and spent a fair amount of time looking at it and would have fiddled with it if we hadn't held her other hand back. Then after a while she said "Other hand, no," and pointed to the hand without the IV. We agreed with her that two IVs would not be fun.

We could tell almost immediately that Trinity was feeling better, but she was so exhausted that she mostly dozed on the bed to start off with. Sadly, she was still waking and vomiting, but there wasn't much left to throw up, and the intervals kept getting longer. When we arrived it was every half hour to hour. Then it was an hour and a half, then 2 and half hours, then 3 and a half hours. After that, 1:30 am on Monday morning, she didn't throw up again. But since we didn't know she wasn't going to throw up again, we were still alert every time she moved. She would wake up every now and then and look at her IV, then look at us and say "Eso, no; eso no," ("This no, this no) with her eyes filling with tears and her lower lip quivering. Then she started getting mad, and tried to rip out the IV and started kicking and crying. That's when we heaved a sigh of relief and knew she was totally on the mend. She actually had the energy to get mad and fight.

We all miraculously slept in until around 9:30 in the morning. I'm not sure how; Andy was on the camping pad and sleeping bag on the floor, and I was curled up next to Trinity on the extremely lumpy mattress. By 11:00 am or so, we gave Trinity a small cup of water. She did this amazing and entertaining puckering thing with her lips, which definitely indicated to us that she was really thirsty, in spite of being so hydrated by the IV that her diapers were literally overflowing. She eagerly drank half a cup of water, and we waited to see what happened. She didn't get sick after waiting for 40 minutes or so. Dr. Real said he would disconnect the IV and we could go home.

We got Trinity home, and aside from her being very wary for the first few days about eating solid food, and her failing to take her regularly scheduled naps, she's pretty much her normal self again. Well, she's her normal self that is being cooped up in the house and not allowed to go play with friends or attend play-school. We have to wait until her defenses are back up so she doesn't catch whatever everybody else has as soon as she sees them. We expect that'll be within another couple of days. In the meantime, Trinity's new favorite phrases are "not feeling very well" and "I sick". She's such a sweetie, and we're so glad she's feeling better!

Trinity started play-school last week. She's only 2 years and 3 months old, but she seems really ready to be around other kids, learn to share, and spend some time away from home. I feel nervous, guilty, excited, and sad about the whole thing, so she's only enrolled for Monday, Wednesday and Friday for this first month, 3 hours a day, and next month we'll bump it up to Monday through Friday.

There are many plus sides to sending her to play-school. Her friend Ginger is enrolled in the same class. Trinity definitely wants to play with other kids. Denis, the babysitter, is now also the housekeeper, so if Trinity is in school, Denis will have some time to clean house, at which it turns out she excels. In fact, Denis is a better housecleaner than babysitter. It's also good to have Trinity out of the house so I can have some quiet time to do some work. In spite of Denis being here baby-sitting Trinity, I was unable to get much work done, because I would either get interrupted by Trin or Denise, or I would walk into whatever drama was happening and get distracted and pulled in.

It's really weird to have Trinity out of the house for 3 hours. The house is suddenly empty. Quiet. Peaceful. Depressing. Obviously, I'm experiencing a number of different emotions.

How is Trinity faring? Last Monday, I attended the whole 3 hours with Trinity. It was more because I wanted to observe the teachers than be with Trinity. When we enrolled Trinity, the two teachers/babysitters in Trinity's class were on the diaper changing train - there's quite a few smaller children in Trin's class, and I thought they didn't appear particularly happy. Generally people go gaga over Trinity, especially here in Mexico where her bright blue eyes and white blond hair are unusual. These ladies didn't crack even a hint of a smile. So I wanted to sit in to make sure Trinity was going to be in a good situation. I think my first experience was just a bad day for the teachers, because the day I sat in the teachers were chipper, smiling, playing with the kids, and all seemed rather well to me.

On her first day, Trinity had her ups and downs.

When I snuck out so I could observe her without her seeing me, she almost immediately noticed my absence and lost it. I came back in and sat in the corner. Later, someone accidentally stepped on her toe, and she cried. Then she was playing on the baby climbing frame, and given that she's nearly 30 pounds (over 13 kilos) she managed to pull the whole thing down on top of her and slam her head into the wall. There were lots of tears her first day. But overall, she seemed to have fun, and was quickly bossing everyone around. (She is quickly growing into the nickname "Bossy Boots")

On Wednesday, she was to be on her own. We discussed it extensively, that I'd walk with her to play-school, she would play with Ginger, I would go home and work, and I'd pick her up at 1:00. After I gave her a kiss goodbye, she launched herself and climbed up my body and clung on like there was no tomorrow. The teacher and I had to peel her legs and arms away from me so I could get out. As I walked away, I heard her screaming and crying, and I saw her shoe fall off, which usually upsets her on the best of days. I can still hear the echos of the cries right now. I walked out of the school, and started crying myself. I had to call Andy on my walk home, because it's embarrassing to be crying while walking around if you don't at least appear to be having a conversation with someone. Then I got home, called Sabrina (Ginger's mom) and cried some more. It was a rough day. I kept wanting to call the school and see how Trinity was doing, but I knew that if she was still crying, it would only make me more upset, and it would be a bad idea for me to go back. Trinity needed to learn to be in school.

I was 8 minutes early to pick her up that afternoon. I walked in to find that Trinity was happy as a clam, had lots of fun, and didn't want to leave. The teachers all said that she cried for less than 10 minutes, and then sat with Ginger while they both ate their peanut butter sandwiches. She cried less than 10 minutes! I cried longer than that! I couldn't believe it! But I was so happy to hear that she had so much fun, and that she liked playing with the other kids. She even let one of the teachers do her hair.

When I dropped her off at play-school on Friday, Trinity ran into her classroom and immediately started playing. This is old hat to her. No problem. It also happened to be Día de La Revolución in Mexico, so there was a party and dancing and she came home with a festive apron filled with sweets. She might be under the impression that she'll always get to have a party and dance and eat treats at school, and that could be why she's so happy to be there, but at least she's happy, and at least I've finally stopped crying!