Tis the Season...

...for sickness. I had been doing a mental happy dance because the twins were 100%, completely over the previous illness, and it hadn't been so bad. They had gooky noses and a few days of low-grade fevers, but no cough - and it is the coughs (the chesty, hacky coughs) that send me into a downward spiral of fear and worry. The illness was behind us, we never needed a trip to the doctor, and surely we were guaranteed to be healthy throughout the rest of this year...right?

Then we had a terrible night where the twins refused to sleep - with no signs of illness. Lucas and I were so confused (and tired...sooooo tired). The next day Ryan had a clear runny nose. It didn't surprise me since he had been screaming most of the night. By bedtime they both had greenish goo flowing from the nose and low-grade fevers. It has morphed into a hacky cough (which means that even if they are sleeping, I am not because I am imagining all of the terrible things the cough could mean, and listening to see if I can figure out on Baby Center which cough it is, and how worried I should be), gooky noses, terrible congestion, and (last night) real fevers (low-grade never scares me, but when those 100 numbers start registering I get nervous).

Watching Daddy put up Christmas lights.

That said, the twins are still in good spirits - joyful and energetic when they are awake. They are sleeping much better than that first night (last night they both managed to get a 5 1/2 hour chunk in - granted they staggered their waking up so Mama didn't get that, but I was still relieved that they did), and I have hope that we've hit the worst and can get through this without the cough getting worse and/or a trip to the doctor. I am well-armed with humidifiers (ours actually creates a beautiful, misty fog in their room - Allie's curls are always tighter in the morning!), Vix, pans of steaming water during the day, saline nose drops, boogie wipes, 5 bottles of Tylenol, Benadryl if they really need sleep, and a Vix plug in (which I don't like to use because of the stupid night light that lights up the room, but will if they get any more congested during the night). Mama is ready for battle!
And, in more fun news, I remembered some more funny things they say:

Ryan loves "ummmmmmm." I think I must say it a lot because whenever you ask him a question he'll say "ummmmmmmmmm," before he answers! He likes to draw it out, like he's thinking really hard. I can't get enough of it and ask him as many questions as possible just to hear it!

Allie, as Nana mentioned in her comment, loves to say "Was dis?" or "Was dat?" But the last couple of days it has exploded and she walks around all day asking "Was dis? Was dis? Was dat?" I've seriously answered that question a couple hundred times in the last 2 days! I'm confident by the end of next week she will know the word for everything that exists in the known universe!

My hope is that we get all the sickness out now so that everyone is healthy for all the Christmas fun we have planned!