Day 741. What a long, tough day! I'm so tired I'm not sure I'll make it through the update tonight. Last night we both went to bed at 1 am, but just half an hour later the girl wanted her Daddy, and Emmy was up too, wanting Mommy, and both of us sat by their beds at some point. And then both of them were standing by our beds, and it was pretty clear we were not getting any sleep tonight if we didn't let them crawl into be with us, and so we did. Our bed is too small for that, and then they both want to lie on Mommy and the one who can't cries, and so you don't get much sleep. Before 6 they were up for good, and just after 6 I got up to make their breakfast.
After breakfast I went downstairs with them as usual, and left them with Randy once he came with his breakfast. I went upstairs and continued packing. I still had so much to do! I ignored the tiredness and powered on. I had to go downstairs a few times, which made them cry and want to be with me, and cry even more when I'd leave. By 10 am or so I was ready with everything. It's unreal how much you need to take with three little kids! Randy was concerned we would not be able to get everything into the car. Good thing they had given us an upgrade. We did leave the travel cots and only took the mattresses to put on the floor for them to sleep on. And in the end Randy was even able to fit the single stroller into the car.
When Randy started taking stuff to the car, I took the kids upstairs with me and started dressing them for the trip. The kids were so eager to go to the car and whining to go there. Especially Emmy kept saying "Auto, Auto", but Daddy would leave without them to take more stuff to the car. But then I decided it was time to take them to the car. There was nothing left for me to do in the apartment.
They were so excited, when we left. Randy had moved the car closer to our building, just outside the door. I let them climb into the car and climb around, even though it got a little too much, when they were climbing to the front and pushing buttons. They turned the emergency lights on. We were waiting for a while for Randy to come with the last load of stuff from the apartment. Then we put them into their seats, I climbed into the middle, and before we could leave, Randy still had to do his Covid test, which he did in the car. And so it was 11:40 before we left, and we had planned to leave at 11 am.
We drove towards the interstate, but stopped at a gas station to turn in our test kits first. It was a one-hour drive to our friends in St. Pölten. And it was taking us the north route, now that we live in the north-east of Vienna instead of the south-west, so it was a new way to go.
At first the kids were happy to finally be in the car, but it didn't take long before they wanted out. They were tired, and Sammy fell asleep first, followed by Emmy, after he had made his displeasure known. Tammy was also throwing a fit, and then finally fell asleep as well, not that long before we arrived. At 12:40 we parked our car near our friends' place. The boys woke up right away. Randy had Sammy thrown over his shoulder, and Emmy walking at his hand, while I had Tammy sleeping on my shoulder. We were drawing a lot of attention walking to our friends' house like this for some reason, and people were either commenting to us or about us behind our backs. My arms were hurting from carrying the heavy girl. Inside the building we had to take the elevator to the top floor. It's an old, tricky elevator, and dealing with it woke the girl up. And so she was up once we walked into our friends' apartment.
Our friends had made lunch for us, and so we had a great time eating and talking. The kids had a great time chasing the cat and were running around a lot. They did make some messes, giving our friends stuff to clean up. Randy was very tired, and so was I, and since he was the one driving he lay down for a few minutes. At 3 pm we got ready to continue on our way. My friend Beate walked with us to the car. Emmy's pants were too big and they kept slipping down. At 3:30 we said our good-byes and continued our journey.
Now we had a 2-hour drive ahead of us. In fact it was 2 hours and 45 minutes before we actually arrived. And it was a very tough trip! All of them were tired and cranky. Sammy fell asleep at one point. Both Tammy and Emmy had meltdowns and managed to slip out from under the seatbelt. They both just wanted me to hold them because they were so tired and frantic when I wouldn't. I put Emmy back into his seat against his will. He finally calmed down and fell asleep. Tammy's meltdown was much worse. She also came out of the chair, but also screamed and screamed at the top of her lungs. She had only slept very little at lunch time, and now it was already after 4:30 in the afternoon. She's much stronger than Emmy and I could not get her back into her seat. She was trying to get to Randy in the front, since her Mommy was so mean not to hold her. We had just reached Linz and were downtown, so I suggested we'd stop at a playground, which we did a few minutes later. She immediately calmed down once we stopped and she got out and Randy held her. We were on the top of a mountain and had a great view of the city of Linz. We went to the playground but it was really made for older kids, so we only played around for a few minutes and then continued on our way. It was 5:30 by then. There was a cat that had chosen to sleep right under our car, so we moved out slowly. Tammy was fine being back in the car now. I turned Veggie Tales on on my phone, and they both watched with interest and at times I turned it around for Sammy. Both boys fell asleep again after a while. Tammy wanted to get to me again, but calmed down and also fell asleep, but rather late again.
At 6:15 we pulled up by our new friend's house in the countryside. She was very excited to see us. We went inside where dinner was ready for us. I was carrying a sleeping Tammy and put her down on the couch. I then decided to wake her up to eat, and I still wanted her to sleep at night. We sat down at the dinner table, and Emmy had some food but Tammy did not. Not that long ago they had wanted food and had some snacks in the car. Our host had a whole box of toys, and Tammy and Emmy started exploring them right away. After we had all eaten, we decided to go down to the neighbors' house as we had seen his chickens driving by. And they were really excited to see those chickens close up. Tammy tried to feed them, giving them grass, and Emmy became more courageous, daring to go to the ground and get closer to them. After a while we decided to go back to the house as it was getting late. Our host still had some cake for us, but Tammy still didn't want anything, Emmy had one bite, and Sammy had more. They did drink some milk. As it was getting really late, our host showed us our room, and then Randy went to get our stuff out of the car, while I was in there with the three.
Sammy was very tired, cranky, and crying, while the other two were hyperactive. A whole new room to explore! I had to start removing things right away, trying to keep them from tearing everything apart. It was tiring, and Randy needed a lot of time to bring everything in. Finally everything was here and I could get their pj's and toothbrushes out so we could put them to bed. Randy was changing their diapers, while I gathered everything together, and then we walked downstairs to the only bathroom. We washed their faces and hands and brushed their teeth, and then went back upstairs, where we put their pj's on. We had a double bed in the room, as well as a sofa they could sleep on, but we still put the three mattresses on the floor for them. I had brought their pillows as well as sheets along. That way they could not fall off a bed, and they were getting used to sleeping on those mattresses that they'd sleep on everywhere during this trip. I'll have to take a picture tomorrow.
It was 8:30 pm before we put them to bed. Sammy fell asleep really fast. Emmy and Tammy were getting up, so I sat down between their mattresses with my computer. What I like about mattresses is that I can lie down with them. I was close to Emmy for a while, and then turned around to Tammy who was still up. I got her to lie down, and by 9 pm she was asleep as well. Really late! I downloaded the pictures of the day and then started to write my update, while a very tired Randy went to bed as well. I'm glad I made it to the end of my update, though I've beeen struggling to keep my eyes open. I'll have to work on the pictures tomorrow.
