2 years 8 days

Day 739. Last night I headed to bed at 1 am. During the night it was Emmy who came first today, in the early morning hours, and Tammy then later. And they wanted to drink and have the cookies they knew we had there. And then we got up around 6:30 am again. I was really tired, as I can't sleep well, when they join us in bed and am constantly waking up, trying to meet whatever need/want they have.

When we went to the kitchen to empty the dishwasher, they saw the car seat Randy had picked up last night. Tammy sat down in it first, and Emmy was unhappy as he wanted to sit in it too. I asked Tammy to let him sit as well, and after a while she got up and let her brothers sit there. Emmy would not do the same for his sister. And Tammy even gave him the seat a second time. I finally removed the seat altogether so they didn't have anything to fight about. Neither one of them helped me unload the dishwasher today.

After breakfast we went downstairs, where I turned the worship music on and got their Bibles down. When Randy came with his breakfast, I left but stayed in the office at first. We're traveling on Saturday, and there's still so much to do. I got my CD printer out, but then left as my presence made the kids want to be with me. I went upstairs, finished cleaning up, turned the computer on and started working. As time went on I was getting so very tired that by 10 am I simply could not go on and had to close my eyes. After half an hour my alarm woke me, and then Sonja was already ringing the door bell. I was not awake yet, as I opened the door. Then I went to work in the kitchen, making lentil soup. It took a little longer than expected, and so it was 11:30 before they came upstairs to eat.

After eating their soup and icecream, I cleaned them all up in the shower, dressed them, and Sonja went downstairs with Tammy, while I put the boys to bed. By 12:20 they were asleep, and just after 12:30 I went to get Tammy. She looked tired too and did not need that long to fall asleep.

I continued working and started getting a little stressed in the light of everything that still needed to be done before our trip. Randy left for the grocery store. I went downstairs to start printing CDs, but could never make the CD printer work, which was pretty annoying, and I simply could not figure out why and how to solve the problem. Then I heard Sammy and went upstairs to bring him down. He's usually the first one up. I held him for a while as he was not ready to be passed on to Sonja yet.

Just as Randy returned, Emmy woke up not long after his brother, and he joined us downstairs. Working in my office became harder again. And then Tammy joined us as well. I finally grabbed my computer and went back upstairs to work. But everyone else came upstairs as well for their afternoon snack. After having eaten, everyone went back downstairs, and I took shoes for them with me to go outside. Sonja took them outside, while Randy and I had a phone call with a pastor. While on the call I could hear them come back inside and Emmy was once again calling me over and over again. Thankfully he stopped before the call was over.

I went back to work, but only for about half an hour, until 4:30, as again Emmy was crying for me. So I went downstairs to be with them. The next few hours were very tough. All three were cranky and giving us a hard time. They did smile at themselves, when they saw themselves on my phone screen and I took those pictures.

They have so many toys, but we could not get them interested in them. They just wanted Mommy. And Sammy wasn't happy about anything. And they were asking for food. First for cheese, so I gave them cheese. Then for salami, and I gave them salami. That's when I left again, leaving the salami with Sonja, and they ate nearly the whole pack.

At 5:30 I started making their food. Half-way through the process they came upstairs as they were just cranky downstairs. That way they could stand on their chairs and start eating in the kitchen, while I was making the food. Once they sat down, they ate a little more, but were still giving us a hard time. Then we took them to the bathtub, where things were not getting any better. At one point all three were crying. We got Emmy out first, then I let Sammy play with the faucet for a while to make him happy, and then he choked when I pulled him away, as he had forgotten to swallow while having fun. Tammy hates it, when I wash her hair, and she came out last. They were still giving us a hard time while getting them ready for bed.

They were already in bed by 18:30, and I thought they'd be falling asleep fast, as tired as they were, but that was not the case of course. As time went on, and they continued getting up, fussing and not sleeping, I was getting pretty frustrated that they would not go to sleep. I was already stressed out because of the upcoming trip, and their behavior the last few hours had been grueling. I was glad when they FINALLY fell asleep, first Sammy, then Emmy, and then Tammy.

Randy had left to pick up the second car seat for our trip. Sammy will still be using the baby car seat. I got myself something to eat, and then continued working. I'd like to go to bed earlier tonight, as I'll have to get a lot of things done tomorrow.