Return of the Truck

When the twins were about a month or two old, Kathy and I started seeing some of our friends for the first time after having the babies. Typically, after the initial cooing over the babies, they would look at us with a surprised expression and say something like "You look well!" or "You look rested!" or "You guys actually look like you're surviving okay!"

This reaction was always amusing to Kathy and me. It was as if people were expecting that we would look like we got run over by a truck with, like, tire tread marks on our bodies and black and swollen eyes and little cartoon birds chirping and flying in circles over our heads.

But now I remember back to that first month and I think -- jeez, most of the time, I actually did feel like I got run over by a truck. And I look back at pictures of me and Kathy from those first few weeks, and I think -- yep, we actually did kinda look like we got run over by a truck. Minus the cartoon birds and the tire marks, but still.

The reason I mention this is that at about 8:00 pm this past Sunday night, Kathy and I sat exhausted on our couch, experiencing once again that feeling of having been hit by a truck. This weekend, Riley had a cold and Leah had the remnants of a cold plus a painful bout of constipation. All of our old dependable tricks for comforting Leah and Riley were no match for these illnesses, and so we pretty much had to watch helplessly while our babies, particularly Leah, cried out in pain and frustration. Over and over. It was a weekend full of desperate looks from our daughters that basically said "Mommy and daddy, why are you letting this happen to us?"

Or maybe I'm reading too much into it.

When Leah and Riley finally went to sleep on Sunday night, for awhile, Kathy and I sat there exhausted on the couch, blankly staring at nothing -- too tired to talk, too tired to think, too tired to even walk over to the bed and collapse on to it. It was probably the first time Kathy and I have been glad that a weekend was over and that we would be going back to work the next day. We were not a pretty picture.

Fortunately, unlike real truck collisions, the Leah and Riley truck doesn't cause much lasting damage. The next morning, Leah and Riley were their normal happy selves, and Kathy and I were fully recovered and back driving the Leah and Riley truck instead of getting run over by it. Okay, I'd better end this post -- I've officially stretched this truck metaphor as far as it will go.

Here's where I would normally post some pictures, but my DSL is down. Once again, I say - -Damn you, Earthlink!