Soul Sisters

Claire and Eliza have been friends from the beginning.  BFFs and soul sisters.  They have been through more than any one of us or you that are reading this blog.  And they are only 9 and 10 months old.  Claire was due December 22nd and Eliza (and her brother and sister) was due December 27th.  Eliza was born about a month before Claire and was waiting for Claire in the ICN when Claire arrived. 

Although they didn't start out in the same room, shortly after Claire was born, we were moved to Eliza's room and their isolettes were next to each other.  And that's the beginning of their friendship. 

While at Duke, it was hard to get pictures of them together.  One, they both had to pretty much stay attached to all of the monitors 24/7.  One night, I unhooked Claire and ran over to Eliza's space and took a picture of them together.  Claire and Eliza were finally back together again and you never knew from day to day when the babies would be moved again.  This was when they were both in TCN - several months after they were born (after Christmas).  We also broke them away to get pictures one day with bows in their hair. The next time we got pictures of them together was the day Claire left Duke.

Today Claire and Eliza were reunited again!  The first time since Claire left Duke in January.  It was so great!  It started out crazy when Heather texted me and said they had a flat tire on I-40 on the way.  But they got the tire fixed and met us for lunch at a pizza place in Clayton.  The girls did wonderfully at the restaurant.  We caught up on everything that was going on with Claire and Eliza and enjoyed some great food. 

We all then went to Julie and James' house to get some good pictures of the girls and enjoy some YUMMY chocolate chip cookies that Heather fixed.  Of course, none of the pictures that I took turned out because I was just too excited about it all.  So the pictures in this post are courtesy of Eliza's dad.  I took some pictures of Claire with Julie, James, and Amanda but don't have my camera cord to upload them.  So I will do that soon in another post. 

Check out how much they have changed:

Then here they are today:

can you tell I am just a LITTLE excited?!?!

Eliza brought Claire a special gift - Baby Legs.  They are some too cute baby leggings/leg warmers.  Eliza has a collection of them and just knew Claire would love them too.  She was right!  And they matched perfectly with Claire's outfit today.  Great minds think alike!

Then Claire and Eliza decided to play with the cardboard wrapping to the Baby Legs.  I took it away and gave Claire the bow because I thought it would make cuter pictures.  Well, I was the mean momma then and upset both babies!  :(

I will say that neither baby had adequate naps today, so maybe it wasn't ALL my fault for the meltdown.....  Just sayin'.  ;)

We had a great time and hope we can do it again soon.  These girls are more than special.  They will always have a bond that we may never understand.  I swore they would whisper to each other at night in the NICU.  I really think they did.  I am so proud of both Claire and Eliza and so glad that God gave them each other.  I can't wait to watch them grow up together.  As hard as it is to plan something and get together, I hope that we can make it possible for their sakes (well, and maybe our sakes too to be able to share the joys, concerns, etc. with someone who knows where you are coming from). 

Claire says "I love you Eliza!!"

Love,
The Scott Family