Many days I would bring Addison and Brennan with me when I went to visit Lauren. We were quite a sight coming in to the NICU, and I'm sure that we gave more than one of the nurses a scare.
Over the years I had learned to not worry about the little things. One of the little things that I gradually quit worrying about was what my kids chose to wear.
Brennan spent most of that year wearing bright yellow rain boots, regardless of what type of weather we were having.
And Addison often needed to wear a tiara for our outings to the hospital.
Before entering the NICU, everyone needed to wash their hands for a full three minutes. Addison was deemed old enough to wash her own hands, but I needed to wash Brennan's hands for him. After their hands were clean, I then washed mine. That left a full three minutes on the hand washing count-down clock when both kids had clean hands, but I was stuck at the sink. As the seconds ticked down, they started inching their way towards Lauren's crib.
As I finished drying my hands and walked down the hallway, they rushed ahead -- one princess floating down the hallway and one little man cub clomping along in his rain boots.
They both knew not to touch any of the medical equipment, but they also loved to drag a stool right beside the crib so that they could climb up and peek in. I trusted that they wouldn't do anything to hurt Lauren, but more than one nurse panicked when she saw the kids leaning over the edge of the bassinet to get a closer look.
Some days just call for rain boots and tiaras -- whether you're heading out in a storm, dressing up for the Royal Ball, or just visiting a sick little sister in the NICU.
I'm sharing a "years ago" story corresponding to each letter of the alphabet for the Blogging through the Alphabet challenge hosted by Marcy at Ben and Me. I often tell my children stories of things that have happened in our past, and now I'm taking the time to write down those treasured stories.
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