Somehow older

Morning. Breakfast. Mom and daughter sit at the dining room table.
Baby is in her high chair. Dad is puttering around the apartment.

Mom (noticing that her older daughter looks especially grown-up):
Stella, you look different to me. It is like I hardly recognize you.

Stella: That is because you are used to me sick and I'm not sick anymore.

Thankfully, the flu that felled Stella for the second week of winter break
has been destroyed. It was brutal. High fevers, bad headaches, a cough,
some nausea and zero appetite.