Tough Week

It's been a tough week around here. Alex and Ari developed a terrible cough ("the croup") and fever, starting with Ari on Monday afternoon and following with Alex on Tuesday. Luckily, the kids have had very few illnesses in their 16-month history: a few colds, a few fevers, but that's been about it. This one has knocked the wind out of all of us.

The weekend was actually the calm before the storm, with Daddy taking Alex and Ari to the pool at "the club" while Mommy held a meeting for her parents of multiples club. Alex and Ari had a great time playing in the pool, and Mommy met up with everyone else after her meeting for a nice dinner (thanks to Miri for the pictures!):
Monday morning we had four other sets of twin friends over for a playdate. Ari was acting clingy, but nothing else tipped Mommy off to the fact that she was starting to show signs of what was to come. She woke up from her nap that afternoon feeling feverish, and by late afternoon she was coughing, hoarse, and definitely not her smiling self. Dr. Miri came over to check her and Alex out, and told Mommy to brace for a difficult evening (with Ari), as she was likely coming down with a respiratory virus.

Well, Ari slept through the night (somehow) but Alex devleoped the same symptoms and was up, off and on, for most of the night. Since then, it's been a week full of tears, coughs, fevers, little sleep (at least during naptime, somehow they seem to sleep better at night) and the kids have just been sad sacks in general. Mommy and Daddy feel so helpless and Ari and Alex clearly don't understand what's going on to make them feel so crummy.

We are hoping to turn a corner soon but it looks like we're in this for the long haul. Hopefully we'll return to our regularly scheduled program by next week.