{the one and only ever you}

It was a LONG weekend. A weekend filled with vomit & diarrhea … countless diapers and wipes… saltines, pedialyte and chicken soup. I lost track of the number of loads of laundry, the number of baths or Clorox wipes. There was lots of whining and there were many tears. The girls were struck by a stomach virus ... which Randall then also caught on Sunday (and to top it all off Tobi pooped in the house twice as the steroid the vet put him on is not agreeing with his stomach) ... and it was not fun.

While this was certainly not how I had hoped to spend our long weekend, and I absolutely hate when the girls are sick, there were some beautiful moments contained within this hot mess of a weekend. In addition to the brutal moments, there were lots of snuggles and those priceless moments of vulnerability where the only thing that would comfort our sick babies was "mommy" or "daddy's" arms. There were sweet moments of concern between sick sisters. There were even lots of giggles as sick stir-crazy siblings resorted to comic relief. And oh how we needed that.





We spent lots of time snuggling in our bed reading, and discovered a new favorite book, "On the Night You Were Born." The girls like it because it has lots of pictures of the moon. I like it because the line "You are the one and only ever you" made me really think about the fact that even though our girls were born on the same night, only 2 minutes apart, how very different they are.





Even their reactions to being sick couldn't be more opposite. Kenzie is happy go lucky even when she is feeling terrible. On Sunday morning, she ate some strawberries for breakfast, which she promptly threw up, and as she was getting sick she spotted the rest of the strawberries out of the corner of her eye and was ready to eat more. She's our "puke and rally" girl :) Within five minutes, she would go from being a totally lethargic heap of sickness melting into my chest, to a giggling clown trying to make us laugh with her antics. Lexi on the other hand does not like being sick and she especially does not like throwing up (we realized that this was actually the very first time that she has thrown up in her life and I think the gag reflex really scared her). She milks it for all its worth and would snuggle with you all day - which I was happy to do. Lexi likes to have her back rubbed and wants mommy, daddy AND sissy to be close by when she isn’t feeling well.



While I could certainly think of hundreds of ways that I would rather have spent the last 3 days, I am glad that the girls were sick over the long weekend so that I could be there to hold them and comfort them. Thankfully, by Monday evening both the girls and Randall seem to be on the mend. They are starting to be able to keep things down and more importantly their typical energy and spirit is coming back!