Day 683. It's not even midnight, but I'm unable to keep my eyes open, so I won't be able to finish my report tonight. Last night I went to bed at 1:30. This morning it was 6 am, when the noise started. I heard all three and especially Emmy, who was obviously going from bed to bed, amusing his siblings in the process. I had given him an opening in his bed, but that was not interesting to him, the other beds were. Just before 6:30 his laughter changed into crying, and I immediately went in there, finding him on top of the railing with his leg caught between the bars of the bed. I freed him. But now there was no more going back to sleep. I actually tried and lay down with Tammy, who was resting on me for a while. Finally I got up and made their breakfast, and we sat down to feed them. It was early, and I was very tired. After breakfast I took Tammy and Emmy downstairs, and then Randy brought Sammy. First we were worshipping God, and then I got some kids Bibles out that we read. Once Randy came, I left them and went upstairs. I cleaned up, and then lay down instead of doing office work. I was so very tired I really did not have a choice.
I slept from 8:15 until 10:15. Then I made sure Sammy was lying down for a nap, and started cooking early, so that we could eat early, given the early morning. Thankfully Sonja also arrived earlier, at about 11 am, and went downstairs to be with the other two. At 11:15 I called them all upstairs, and we sat down to eat. Sammy had also woken up because of the noise.
After lunch, I cleaned them up and dressed them and put Emmy to bed, while Tammy went downstairs with Sonja. He wanted me to stay with him, and even though it was only noon, he was tired and fell asleep fast. And then I put Tammy to bed, and she also fell asleep surprisingly fast.
Sammy was having fun with Sonja downstairs, until Randy got him and left the house at 1 pm to take him to his physiotherapy session. Emmy woke up from the noise, but I was able to help him fall back asleep in his bed. He slept another hour before he woke up again, and I lay down with him for a few minutes, until he rose up and I took him downstairs. Tammy woke up not long after, and I sat down in the chair with her. She lay on my chest for quite a long time. Then we called Sonja and Emmy upstairs to eat. It was about 2:30. I opened the balcony door, and Sonja tried to feed them. I got some fruit and peanut butter out as well. Then we cleaned them up and dressed them.
We still had time until 3 pm, which is about when we were planning to leave, and I was wondering what to do. Instead of having them go downstairs, I decided we'd leave early and just have fun where we were meeting up with Randy and Sammy. We took two subways and were there, right on a big bridge looking down on water. We stayed by the subway to wait for the boys, which ended up being a lot longer than expected. After about half an hour of waiting, trying to keep them busy and keep them from being run over by bikes, they arrived, and we started walking towards the water playground on the Danube island. It was a really hot day.
It was our first time going there, and there were a LOT of people. We found a free spot for the strollers and got them out, putting sunscreen on them before letting them loose. Only Sammy still need his swim diapers. We walked over to the shallow water for little kids, and they joyfully walked into it. It was ice-cold. And then the fun started. They were walking around, running, picking up toys, and once Sonja took Sammy, he was having fun as well. I explored the other areas a little, but they weren't suitable for kids their age.
After a while we walked over to a separate area with a water installation for them to play with/in. Some other kids were busy there, and they didn't really appreciate the little ones interfering with their project. After a while they left, and then there were only our three for a while. It was fun being surrounded by water and sand.
Finally Randy suggested we'd get going. Before we made it to the showers, they saw another water installation that was great fun. A man was turning a wheel, making water flow through a metal, open pipe. The showers were not much fun because of the ice-cold water. We put them into the strollers and started walking back to the subway. It ended up being a long way, because we first had to go down and then up on a long looping ramp on the other side of the tracks to get to the subway going our direction. It was obvious that the kids were pretty tired. We once again took two subways to go back home. They always come out of the strollers in the subway now.
It was 5:40, when we got home, and they all went downstairs while I went straight to work getting their dinner ready. Half an hour later they came upstairs to eat. I had bought some bread on the way and was shocked, when both Emmy and Tammy had eaten ALL their bread on their plates at the dining room table! Tammy has not wanted any bread at all recently, only eating some when busy playing in the bathtub. That must have been good bread, though I couldn't tell, when I tasted it. Then they went into the bathtub, where they immediately started playing with the faucet, all three, while we were putting food into their mouths. Even Sammy ate everything that way. They were all having so much fun with the water!
Then they all came out, while Randy left to run to the grocrey store, so Sonja and I were on our own getting them ready for bed. I sat down by their beds, which has now become the rule rather than the exception again. They were pretty tired, so it did not take too long for them to fall asleep. I got myself some food, and started working. Then I stopped to do all the cleanup, then returned to the computer. Even though it wasn't even midnight yet, I could barely keep my eyes open and finally had to stop working and shut down the computer and go to bed. But first I moved the bed with Emmy out from between the other two, so he would not have a bed next to him that he could climb into in the morning. And he could easily get out of his bed through the opening. It was all I could come up with. I went to bed at 12:15 am, but it took me a while to fall asleep, even being so very tired.
