Day 737. Last night it was close to 1 am, when I was heading to bed. And it was another night with a lot of activity, and that included all three. Tammy came to us at 2 am, and ended up spending the night with us, which was not ideal, especially with our bed being so narrow. And then Emmy joined us as well somwhere around 4 or so, so I had a child on each side of me. And then Emmy started asking for drink and food again, but I was prepared and gave him both. Still, it was still very early, when he was not satisfied with that any more, and I had to get up to make breakfast. After spending some time with Sammy being in our bed as well.
After breakfast, I went downstairs with them. I turned the worship music on and got their Bibles out. When Randy arrived with his breakfast, I went upstairs to clean up and work.
And work I did. But then I heard Tammy calling my name a lot, which always pulls at my heartstrings. I finally decided to go downstairs, against my better judgment. I held her and comforted her, when Sonja suddenly showed up at our downstairs door. I guess we had not heard the doorbell while downstairs. I let her in, and then both Randy and I ended up leaving. I went upstairs to make lunch, and at about 11:15 I called them upstairs to eat.
Tammy and Emmy did eat some food. Tammy loved the pork and sauerkraut. When they saw Daddy's corn on the cob, they wanted some of his (again), and so he cut off some corn to give to them. In the end he gave Tammy a whole cob that still had some corn on it, and I was surprised to see that she could handle it just fine.
After their icecream, I cleaned them up and dressed them and was excited to show them their "new" beds. I had finally had everything together - three pillows, three comforters and covers - and put them into their beds in the morning. Emmy had construction machines all over his, Tammy rabbits, and Sammy teddy bears. Emmy was pretty excited, and it kept him from sleeping. As for Sammy, I had to remove it, as he was playing with it instead of sleeping, and he's still in greater danger from it. Finally Emmy lay down to sleep, after having visited the bathtub, but without the pillow. They are not used to it after all. He did love being covered up with the big comforter. Sammy also fell asleep eventually, after his brother, and it was already after 12:30. Then it was Tammy's turn to see her bedding for the first time, and she liked. When she fell asleep rather quickly, she lay next to the pillow and the comforter.
After about 90 minutes Sammy woke up first. His crying woke up Emmy, whose crying woke up Tammy, who hadn't slept long enough yet. Emmy immediately insisted on Sonja, so I took him downstairs to her, but then suddenly he held on to me and didn't want to leave me. And Sammy wanted me too, so I was sitting there holding them both and waiting, After a while they were okay to let go off me and I left, with Emmy crying for me. I picked up Tammy and sat in the chair wit her. I could still hear Emmy, so I just asked them all to come up to eat. I got some jars out, and Sonja and Randy started feeding them, while I got their clothes and everything else ready for us to leave.
At 3 pm we left the house. They had long pants and jackets on as it was a rainy and cold day. However, the sun had come out and it was not that cold. Because of the weather we had planned to go to an indoor playground. However, we missed the bus and it only runs every 30 minutes. Then Randy suggested we'd go to the zoo, considering the weather was decent, and it's free since we paid for a one-year ticket, and so we got on the subway. It's a long one-hour trip to go there. Emmy and Tammy enjoy looking at the subway magazine when it's there, and they each had one to look at.
After two subways it's still quite a walk to the entrance of the zoo. It was 4 pm, when we got there. We showed them our negative Covid tests and went inside. We first went into a building with aquariums and terrariums and saw all kind of animals, from fish to turtles to butterflies. The coolest part was the hallway where the water was above and next to us and a huge fish swam over our heads. There was also a huge window to the outside, and flamingoes were right by the window.
After leaving the building, we saw the giraffe outside right away. Then we walked the opposite direction we usually go, saw the kangaroos and panda bears, and then the hippos. We were able to see one close up after it had come on land and all the way to the fence. We walked on and saw the lions for the very first time. Mama, papa and baby were all sitting on the platform and looking at us.
We finally arrived at the playground, which was the goal. However, it was all stone and more art than playground. Except for the cool excavators. You had to put money in and then you could move the arm, pick up gravel and dump it elsewhere. It was Tammy who was the most excited about it. She even went to the controls while another kid was there and tried to move it herself. She stayed there watching for a long time and was fascinated seeing an excavator more close up than ever before. The boys were interested too, but not quite as much.
As the playground wasn't really suitable, with fun climbing stuff for older kids, we went to the closed petting zoo next to it. You could still see the animals, and we looked at pigs and goats. One goat came to the fence and Tammy could actually touch it.
Dark clouds were approaching, and it was getting cooler and late so we decided to make our way back to the entrance/exit. We walked by the tiger again, and then it suddenly came out to the fence and walked up and down for quite some time. We really got to see it close up! We continued on to the exit and left at 5:45. They were getting tired and cranky, and the trip home was rather tough, with them never sitting still for a moment, wanting out of the stroller, to be with Sonja, then Mommy, then Sonja again, whining... Sonja left us before we changed subways, and we continued home without her. By 6:40 we were home, so rather late.
I immediately started making some food for them, though they'd had quite a few snacks, and they stood on their chairs next to me. Then we sat down at the table, and I encouraged them to eat, as there was no eating in the bathtub tonight. Instead I took one baby after another into the shower with me, and they all enjoyed showering, which is much easier and faster than bathing. But no eating possible. We got them ready for bed and put them to bed. They were rather tired. Emmy lay perfectly on his new pillow with the comforter over his body. Tammy lay down on the pillow tonight, but without the comforter, and for safety reasons Sammy is still sleeping without it.
I got myself something to eat, and then started working on the pictures, and then writing my daily update. However, my eyes were falling shut while writing, and when I'd open them again, I'd see all those typos and try to make sense of what I had written. I simply could not go on. But I hadn't even done the cleanup yet! Randy was so kind to clean the dining room for me, so I only had to load the dishwasher, and then I headed to bed just before midnight.
