NATCHEZ — Beth Foster thought her daughter was being defiant when the 4-year-old wouldn’t listen. Then Gracie failed a doctor’s hearing test.

Her tonsils and adenoids were causing drainage problems in her ears.

“She couldn’t hear low and medium-pitches,” Beth said. “She was only able to hear pitches in the higher range.”

When The Dart found the Foster family at home on Auburn Avenue, they were committed to a lockdown, keeping Gracie indoors until she has recovered from having tubes put in her ear to help with the drainage issue and having her tonsils and adenoids removed last Monday.

“It is hard to keep her out of the pool,” Beth said. “She is like a little fish, so she’ll jump in even if she has good clothes on.”

But the water isn’t good for her recovering ears.

“The tubes will eventually work themselves out,” Foster said. “But we want to keep them in as long as possible and that means we’ll probably call it quits on swimming for the year.”

And the family is looking forward to life after surgery for more than the swim time.

Gracie’s sister, Paige Foster, said the 4-year-old’s snoring could be heard from down the hall before her surgery.

“She snored like a grown man,” the 11-year-old said.

Beth said the snoring was a warning sign, but when Gracie had two ear infections and swimmer’s ear in a time span of two months, the Fosters knew something was wrong.

“We went to see a specialist in McComb and she failed every hearing test she took,” Foster said.

The Fosters were able to pack in three events involving water in the weeks before the surgery, going to the beach, lake, and throwing Gracie a birthday party in their backyard pool.

Gracie said her birthday cake had a picture of Ariel on it because the little mermaid is her favorite Disney princess.

“She got a swimming suit for her birthday,” Paige said. “She had a crying fit yesterday because she wanted to put it on and swim. I think she understands that she can’t go in, but she still wants to.”

Paige said it was a challenge to keep her sister occupied, but she would want Gracie to do it for her so she is happy being a good big sister.

“I help her color and play card games with her — like old maid and crazy-eights,” she said. “We finally found a Wii game she could play without moving too much, Nancy Drew.”

Beth said it would probably be five to seven days before Gracie’s pain calms down.

“They say the third night is the worst,” she said. “And I hope that is not true because (Tuesday) night was pretty bad.”