Does Eddybody Hab a Tissue?

I knew it would happen some day. It had to. But I was beginning to believe we were invincible. Without so much as a runny nose since Lola and Locke were born, I really thought we were going to somehow escape the inevitable. As long as we never uttered the words, "I can't believe the babies have never been sick," we'd be safe. Well, we didn't. And we're not.

We were struck, two by two, with colds this past week. First, Locke and Kelly started sniffling and coughing. Now Lola and I are coughing and sneezing. Oh sure, it could be much worse. But there's a whole lot of whining going on in this home.

Colds are colds. They're not life or death situations, but they provide a fair amount of misery. First there's the head, bursting with unsavory goop until it feels like it might explode. Then the nose, which runs uncontrollably until the skin between it and your lips becomes so sensitive you can barely touch the softest tissue to it. The ears take turns clogging just enough to affect your equilibrium. The back of your throat is scratchy which, during the day, is bearable. But as soon as you lay down, the swallowing begins. You swallow almost involuntarily to alleviate the scratchiness which, in turn, causes even more scratchiness. And, finally, your lungs are so itchy that coughs blurt themselves out -- often and with no warning.

Locke and Lola have probably been experiencing all the classic symptoms. (Judging by the moods this week, I feel certain they are.) And they each had the added bonus of a full night of fever at the beginning of their respective sicknesses. I'm not sure why they had fever when neither Kelly nor I did. I guess their little bodies were fighting harder than they'd ever fought, so their body temperatures were raised in the battle.

So now we're in varying stages of misery. Kelly is recovering nicely, although he's not yet officially well. Locke is in the final (hopefully) stage of coughing but his runny nose shows no signs of surrender. Lola and I are in full-blown sneezing, coughing, stuffy head, cranky mode. I'm sure we'll all be back to normal in another week. But right now Locke and Lola are both in need of a whole lot of Mommy time and, although Mommy would like more than anything to crawl into bed for a week, it's somehow comforting to me to be the primary comfort to them. I only wish I had two more arms and an extra lap. And more tissue.