22 months 24 days

Day 694. Last night I went to bed at 1:30 am, being totally exhausted. This morning Emmy came to me around 6 am once again, and that late he does not go back to sleep. First he lies on me, then next to me, then he sits up, and finally he leaves, messing around, and waking his siblings up. We ended up sitting down for breakfast at 7 am.

After breakfast I was downstairs with them, while Randy ran to the store to turn in our Covid tests. I was so very tired that I lay on the ground - to their amusement. What an opportunity to climb on top of Mommy! When Randy returned I went upstairs to clean up and then work. I could barely even keep my eyes open and really just wanted to sleep. But it was only 8 am, and the Mobile Support lady was coming at 9 am and I had to be awake to open the door for her. And so I continued cleaning up and doing housework with my eyes half-open half-closed. I opened the door for her and then sat down to work. I did a few things and was suddenly not as tired any more and so I continued on. Until I could no longer and had to close my eyes, setting my timer first. It was a brutal awakening, when it went off at 10:40, so I could turn the warmer on. I lay back down, setting a 15-minute timer, which was brutal again. I warmed up leftover chicken fingers and put everything on plates. At 11 am we sat down for lunch.

After their icecream, I cleaned them up and dressed them and put the boys to bed, while Randy went downstairs with Tammy. They were pretty tired, and by noon Emmy was asleep as well. Then I put Tammy to bed. The girl simply does not sleep before 1 pm. I tried everything I knew to try to get her to sleep, but most of all my job sitting by her bed was to keep her from waking her brothers up, and I even failed at that. Suddenly Emmy was awake, after not even an hour. And he was not going back to sleep, even lying on me, and so Randy went downstairs with him. Only minutes later Sammy was awake as well and I took him downstairs. Only then Tammy fell asleep, at 1:20, and after 40 minutes I already had to wake her up, which is by far not enough sleep for her.

Randy came back upstairs with the boys once our departure time was approaching, and I got up Tammy as late as possible and dressed her, which she did not appreciate having just been woken up. We left on time just after 2 pm. Tammy refused to go into the stroller, so she was walking - until we picked her up and carried her so we'd not miss our train.

This time we took a subway and then a train, and made it to the pool early. Our friend Sonja we hadn't seen in over a week (except for at church last night) was already there. And while last week we were 5 minutes late and everyone was already inside, today the teacher was 10 minutes late, so we waited a long time. Emmy was already saying "Wasser" (water) the whole time.

We finally went in, changed, and went into the pool. I had Tammy, Sonja Emmy, and Randy Sammy. It's only a 25-minute class, and it's really not very structured, but more free. At first Emmy was clinging to Sonja for dear life again, and after a short time, we switched kids, and I was able to get Emmy a little away from me. As time progressed he was having more and more fun, enjoying himself more, and becoming more courageous. By the end he was even jumping off the side of the pool into the water, without me holding him. He was still a little fearful, but not all the time. Tammy was also a little cautious when it came to jumping, but doing great. Sammy had the greatest time, laughing all the time.

Time went by fast, and we already had to get out and went to the showers. Now at home Emmy is scared of the shower head, so I was surprised to see him go into the shower with no fear but enjoying it. Then we changed them and ourselves and left.

Walking back to the train station, we came by a trampolin on the ground that we had seen earlier, and so we tried it out. It wasn't as jumpy as ours at home, so it wasn't really that much fun, and we continued on to where the water comes out of the ground. Now THAT was fun!

Once again they were running around, touching the water, which would change where it come out of and how high all the time. Randy had Sammy who enjoyed himself a lot, laughing all the time, while the others kept running around after the water, touching it. It didn't take long before they were completely soaked! Good thing it was another hot day.

When we decided to leave, Sammy started crying so very hard, like I have not heard him scream when he has to stop something he enjoys. Tammy refused to go into the stroller again and walked at my hand. We walked to the train station and got on a train that took us to the subway that took us home. As always now, they were sitting on the seats with me. She would still not go into the stroller, when we got off at home and walked to our apartment.

We got home at 5:15 pm, so it was nearly time to make their dinner. I took their wet clothes off and gave them dry ones and took them downstairs. Emmy went into the swing right away; he likes it when he's tired.

I went upstairs to do my job, and at 6 pm they came upstairs to eat. We had bought strawberries on the way and they had already had quite a few. Tammy hardly ate anything at the table. Once in the bathtub, they were all eating, while having fun. That is until Emmy pooped into the water. It was all over then, as he started crying, and Tammy did not appreciate it either. He hadn't done that in a long time. We got them all out and got them ready for bed. I thought that they were so tired they'd go to sleep quickly again, but that was not the case. Tammy and Emmy were having fun, while Sammy was pretty tired and just watching until he fell asleep. The other two were getting more obnoxious, and so I finally left. And then Emmy's game started again - leaving his bed until getting caught and being walked back to his bed. He must have done it 30 to 40 times. By then he was getting tired and sitting down by his bed worked. He soon fell asleep, and his sister as well.

I got myself something to eat and then started working on the pictures. At 11 pm Emmy walked into the room where I was, and I walked him back to his bed. I've now beeing typing by his bed, as he cries and gets up, when I'm not there. Hopefully he goes back to sleep soon. It's time for me to do the cleanup and make it to bed earlier tonight.