22 months 9 days

Day 679. Last night I went to bed at 12:30 am, so tired I could not do anything. Thankfully I'm not that tired tonight. While I can always hear the kids pretty early already, we try not to get up before 8 am. This morning it was Sammy I heard the most, and his crying got incorporated into a dream, or rather a nightmare. It was 8:30 already, when I woke up and went into their room, getting Sammy out first. Then I suddenly realized that Emmy was not in his own bed, but in Tammy's bed together with her! Their beds were touching, and he had simply climbed into her bed!

I made their breakfast, fed them, cleaned them up and dressed them, and we went downstairs. I turned on the worship music, and we danced and prayed and worshipped. I held different ones at different times, going up and down and praying for them. Once Randy came, I grabbed my computer and left, waving good-bye at Emmy, who always waves at me.

I cleaned up upstairs and sat down to do office work. Since we got up so late, I only had one hour to work before having to cook. It was after 12:30 before I called them upstairs to eat. Tammy and Emmy ate all the pasta with meat and tomato sauce on their plates, and then they had vanilla icecream for the third day in a row, which finished it off. They sure enjoyed it! They were not interested in having any plain yoghurt after that!

Then I cleaned them up, dressed them, and Randy went downstairs with Tammy and Emmy, while I did the same with Sammy and put him to bed for his nap. I started cleaning up - there was lots of pasta on the floor - and then went to get Emmy to put him to bed. He needed a little encouragement to fall asleep. Then I put Tammy to bed, who needed a really long time again today. I thought her brothers would again wake up before she'd fall asleep, but by 1:30 she was finally sleeping.

And the most amazing thing happened. I was working and kept waiting to hear the boys cry, as usual, and time went by, and nothing was happening. It was eerie and unusual. And then it was the girl I heard at 2:50, two hours after going to bed, and 2.5 hours after Sammy went to bed. Sammy, who always wakes up after an hour. I don't know what happened for them sleep that long; it was the day after church. When I walked in there, all three were awake.

And so it was time for the afternoon meal. I opened the balcony door, and Tammy and Emmy went straight for the trampolin. I got their jar and was feeding them out there. Tammy got a hold of the spoon one time, and gave Emmy something to eat. And Emmy especially enjoyed his peanut butter, getting some from me and from Randy, and also grabbing the spoon and walking around with it.

Emmy likes saying hello to everyone walking by, and on the balcony you have a great view of the path that many people use to get to the subway. Most people don't react, some wave, and sometimes we talk more, which seems to be happening more now. Today it was a Mom with three kids, two of them twins that were 3 years old, so we had some things in common. They live in the neighborhood, so we'll surely see them again.

I cleaned them up, changed their diapers, dressed them, and took them downstairs, where I stayed with them until Randy and Sammy came. Then I went back upstairs to work a little more. I had one hour once again, and used it well. You appreciate your time more, when you have so little of it.

Just before 5 pm I went downstairs to give Randy a break and spend some quality time with the little ones. Emmy went straight to the door, pointing at it, and so I opened it and let them go outside. They ended up in the sandbox that Tammy asked me to open up, and had fun playing with the sand. Tammy filled up two buckets with sand, being very concentrated doing so. Sammy put sand into his mouth, which was not so good. And Emmy started running down the tarp to the end, and throwing sand there. Then Tammy joined in, and running on the sand is really not that easy.

Time went by fast. At 5:30 Randy came so I could go upstairs to get their food ready, and he always takes them back inside. At 6 pm they came upstairs to eat, then they went into the bathtub, and today they all finished their food in there. Actually, this was the most fun they've had in the bathtub in a long time, all three of them. They were pouring water out of buckets and laughing. No crying today. After the food, Randy brings a drink. Usually it's the leftover from breakfast (cereal with milk), but when there is none, we also have liquid drinks that he pours into a cup, like tonight. They liked it so much, it was gone fast, and they wanted more, and so Randy brought another one. Now we had two cups, Tammy had one, and Emmy the other one. I asked them who would give some to Sammy. I waited a little while, and then Emmy gave his cup to Sammy. And then Tammy gave her cup to Emmy, and Sammy's cup ended up with Tammy. Musical chairs with cups!

We got them out, put their pj's on, and I put them to bed. Sammy had some trouble and was crying, but the second time I came I think Emmy had taken his pacifier away from him, so I gave him one. I asked them to lie down, and they did. So tonight I did not spend much time sitting with them.

I made my food and ate, and went back to work. I was working on getting all the documents together for Randy's permit to stay in Austria to be extended. Please pray for that. And we also got our weekly Covid test done that is valid for 3 days and is needed to enter certain facilities right now. Now it's after 1 am, and I need to head to bed - after doing the dishes.