2 years 9 days

Day 740. Last night I headed to bed at midnight. I thought it was gonna be earlier than that. And then it was another rough night with first Emmy, and then Tammy joining us in bed. It wasn't even 6 yet, when Emmy was up for good and started to get pretty active, including crying for food. And so it was only about 6:15, when we got up. I was very tired this morning.

After breakfast I was so tired we stuck around upstairs longer than usual, which wasn't really smart, as they pull stuff off shelves everywhere. I cleaned them up, dressed them and finally went downstairs with them, just before Randy came with his breakfast. I finished cleaning up, and then started packing, even though all I wanted to do was sleep. I also tried again to get my CD printer working, but to no avail. Right now Emmy is crying for me a lot, and that was the case again today.

Sonja arrived at 10:30, which is just what the kids needed. It was close to 11:30, I believe, when we sat down at the table for lunch, eating yesterday's leftovers, and today they surprised me, how well they ate. Lentil soup is simply better the second time around. Then they had icecream and pudding. I cleaned them up and dressed them, and Sonja went downstairs with Tammy, while I put the boys to bed. They fell asleep rather fast, around 12:15. A few minutes later I went to get Tammy and put her to bed. She needed a little while, but not as long as she used to.

We continued preparing for our trip. My alternative to the DVDs arrived - flash drives - and I started working on those. Sammy woke up first, as usual, and his crying woke up Emmy, so I took the boys downstairs to Sonja. Both of them wanted me to hold them for a while first. I was able to work on the computer with one boy, but not with both in my arms. After a while they were willing to go be with Sonja, but then Emmy ended up crying for Daddy and slept another hour on his chest. Just before 2:30 I had to wake Randy and tell him we were leaving in a few minutes. That woke up Emmy, who went to play with Sonja.

I thought we'd be leaving before the girl woke up, but suddenly she was standing next to me, while I got snacks ready for them. I figured it was better we were still here, when she woke up, and was surprised, when she didn't mind being passed on to Sonja right away. It was Emmy who wanted Daddy, and Sammy was cranky most of the day today, crying.

Just after 2:30 Randy and I left the house together, leaving Sonja alone with them. I was a little concerned as they cry for either one of us, when we're not there, but it wasn't bad today, during our 90 minutes away. We took the train straight to the main train station, which only takes about 15 minutes total. It was weird to be out and about with Randy and without the kids. We automatically went to the elevators, when we could have taken the escalators. I was in touch with Sonja, who assured me twice that everything was fine. We went to the rental agency, where the same (only) employee took care of us who's done it the past few years, which made the whole experience rather pleasant. There were no issues, and he said we received an upgrade. We left and stopped by a drug store to pick up some baby cookies and drinks for the road, as we were (nearly) out at home. Then we continued on to the car and left to drive home.

There was construction work and a little traffic, but it only took us 22 minutes to get home. We arrived at 4 pm, only found parking a little away, and walked to our apartment. The kids were happy to see us. We told them we had picked up the car. They had been excited about it all week, and so I suggested we'd all go look at it together. And so we did. They enjoyed sitting in there, as well as standing, and checking it all out. Then we returned to the apartment. They sat down on a bench in the hallway on the way.

They were asking for cheese, so we stayed upstairs and I started making dinner early. They had salami, camember and Swiss cheese, while I was making their bread with cream cheese, and they ate quite a bit. However, it was too early for dinner, so we went downstairs with them. And that's when a few really tough hours started once again. All three were cranky and hard to make happy. After half an hour I decided to just all go upstairs, where I could finish getting their dinner ready, and we'd just eat a little earlier than usual. But the crankiness stayed. It was impossible to keep them in their seats, and keep them away from the empty suitcases, and Emmy was once again crying for me to pick him up. All the while I was still cutting fruit, and getting toothbrushes etc ready, or trying to.

We finally put them into the bathtub, but that didn't improve anything. At times alll three were crying, even though Sammy had access to the faucet, which he loves playing with so much. Only Sammy ate a little bit, the others nothing. And they all had to come out quickly, and kept crying, while we were getting them ready for bed. And that's how they were in bed at 6:15 already, 45 minutes earlier than usual, and a nearly 2-hour ordeal started.

Even though they were tired, those two hours were completely draining, trying to get them to stay in bed and sleep, but they wanted to be held, and holding both at the same time doesn't work, then I'd hold one and the other be jealous, then I'd try to put them back to bed, but then they cried because they didn't want to..... From time to time I returned to my computer next door to put the next flash drive in to copy the videos on. Sometimes I closed my door, just to have Emmy banging on it, crying for Mommy. I went from "I don't care" to "My child needs me", and once again sitting down with primarily Emmy. Even after they finally fell asleep, Emmy has been up a few times, wanting Mommy. It's really hard to get anything done that way.

And now it's midnight, and we still have so much to do and pack before we leave in the morning. At least we don't need to leave before 11 am. But then, how are we both gonna get things ready, when one of us needs to watch the kids? And now I'm just too tired to do anything else. Please pray for our trip, specifically tomorrow. We're driving to St. Pölten, where we have lunch with friends, and then to the north of Upper Austria, where we'll spend the night.