23 months 12 days

Day 712. Last night I headed to bed at 12:45 am. This was the first night Tammy had an opening in her bed. Well, she beat her brother in coming to me. It was 5:15, when she came and climbed into bed with us. Contrary to her brother, she never laid still. I don't know what time it was, when Emmy joined us. They were having fun with each other, and then left together. When I got up and went into their room, they were both in Sammy's bed. I was stunned when I discovered that they had taken Sammy's night braces and socks off of him. They wanted out of his bed once they saw me, and then I moved Sammy from his bed to ours. At this point Emmy was saying "Essen" (food) over and over, insisting more and more, so it was time for me to go to the kitchen. I gave them some milk each, then banana, and made their cereal that these two don't want any more. Once Randy had given them a fresh diaper and put them in their chairs, I gave them their cereal that they didn't even touch, and today I put some butter and salami on bread and gave them each a piece. Instead of eating it, they took the salami off and ate just the salami, then asking for more.

After breakfast we went downstairs, worshipped God with instruments, then I got the Bibles out. They were looking at them for a while, then moved on to other things. When Randy came, I went upstairs to clean up and then work. It was 8 am. I was very tired and could barely keep my eyes open. At 8:15 Sonja came, and at 8:30 Randy left with Sammy to go to his physiotherapy session at the university hospital. Today they did it in the swimming pool. The last few times in the pool were a disaster, but today she let Randy come into the water, and that made all the difference. It finally worked out well.

Tammy and Emmy were having lots of fun with Sonja. They always draw together, and Emmy always wants to look at photobooks of themselves. As for me, I was working at first but got so tired I could not go on and so I closed my eyes and set a timer. At 10:30 I got up to make lunch. The boys already returned just before 11 am, and just after 11 I called the others upstairs to eat. Tammy refused to eat anything again and threw a fit, when put into the chair. I had to get her out, and she lay on my chest for a while. I guess she was tired. I finally got her to eat a little bit. Enough for her to get icecream. She even went into her chair for that, and then wanted a pudding. I have to say that I'm not very happy with their eating habits becoming more and more unhealthy.

I cleaned them up and dressed them and put the boys to bed, while Sonja went downstairs with Tammy. It took me a while to get Emmy to sleep, and then I put Tammy to bed. Instead of going to sleep, she went into Emmy's bed, and I could get her out before she could wake him up, thank God. There was a good chance she was gonna come out again after I left, so I asked Randy to sit in the chair by their beds. He was taking a break anyway. It wasn't long before Tammy as well as her Daddy were asleep.

Sonja went home, and I went to work, even though I was very tired. I just struggled on, but I still feel like I've hardly gotten anything done today. At some point Emmy woke up and crawled onto Daddy's chest, and then Sammy woke up too. Both boys had only slept about an hour, too little. Emmy wanted Sonja, of course, and did not go back to sleep on his Daddy. Randy went downstairs with them both. At least Tammy got some more sleep. When she woke up, I sat in the chair with her for a few minutes, and then called the boys upstairs for their afternoon snack. It was about 2:45 pm.

I opened the balcony doors, got their cereal with fruit jars, the peanut butter, and fresh fruit. Randy put Sammy into his high chair that he had moved right to the balcony door. I also got Grandma's bubbles out that are nearly empty now. I gave Emmy the empty bottle and got this hilarious picture of his disappointment that nothing is in it. Tammy and Emmy were running around, getting food from me, from Daddy, jumping on the trampolin or climbing from bed to bed. We also did a chase. There was lots of activity. And of course they greeted everyone who was walking by again, and many people greeted back.

After it was obvious that they were done eating, I took them downstairs and stayed with them. Emmy wanted to look at a picture book, and I got one out that was over a year old. That meant that they did not recognize themselves in the pictures, so it was not as much fun for them. They did recognize Grandma in the pictures, and mention her quite often now. So I decided to try to videocall her, but she was not available. They were really disappointed. I tried again later, and again no answer. So I called my brother next that they hardly ever see. They didn't even seem to know who he was on the picture. He didn't take my call either. So I thought about who else I could call and called their sister in America, and she picked up. They had fun seeing their sister and niece and were waving at them most of the time.

And then it was already 4:15 pm, and Randy came downstairs to take my place. I was hoping to finally make good progress with the urgent office work, but it was not to be. It wasn't long before I heard Emmy crying really hard and just had to go check on him. He ran into my arms and I comforted him, and then Tammy wanted Mommy too. So I sat down with them. Well, now there was no more getting away. Every time I tried, they just cried like it was the end of the world. So I thought I'd try to bring my computer down and work near them, but didn't get far either as they were too interested in the computer. I finally gave up. When it was time to go upstairs to make their dinner, I knew they had to come as well, and so we all went upstairs.

Tammy immediately got a chair and moved it to the kitchen, got up on and it and started watching me make food and immediately asking for it. She was eating the bread with cream cheese as soon as I put it into her plate. Emmy was on the balcony with the other boys, but also came by for some food at times. Once I was done, we all sat down at the dining room table. Tammy did not even touch her food and wanted out of the chair. We then went into the bathtub, where all three ate most of their food while having fun. Then they went to bed. Emmy had seemed very tired, but still needed a while. Tammy needed even longer, and again went into her brother's bed. I had to sit down by their beds and come and go quite a few times. I was glad when I was finally able to stay away and get my food ready and eat. Then I returned to office work.

But time just goes by too fast. And so it's time now to clean up and then go to bed.