23 months 19 days

Day 719. Last night I headed to bed just before 1 am. It was another busy night with little ones coming to me, and me walking them back to their beds. I don't even know what time it was when I let Emmy climb into our bed. The previous time, when I walked him to bed, it was 4:30. Once Emmy was up for good, he stayed with us for a while, but then he wanted up and leave. Randy closed the door so he would not wake his siblings up, but it wasn't long before we heard them, and Emmy started asking for food. Around 7 am we sat down for breakfast. Today I put the salami and cheese on bread again, but they ate them off and left the bread. At least Tammy took a few sips of the cereal.

Then we went downstairs, I turned the worship music on, gave them the instruments, and we were worshipping God together. When I ask them where Jesus is, they point to heaven. When I ask them where Holy Spirit is, they point to their hearts. Then I got the Bibles out. Tammy was really listening today, as I told story after story that they have already heard a hundred times. When Randy came with his breakfast, I left to go clean up and work.

And I made good progress and powered on, even when I was getting really tired. At 10:30 I went to the kitchen to start cooking, and at 11 they came upstairs to eat. Tammy refused to eat anything. I thought she had eaten the chicken at least, but she had hidden it behind her back. Emmy ate the chicken, but didn't want the potatoes. I told him he had to eat a few potatoes to get his icecream, and at first he simply refused to. In the end he did eat them, and got his icecream. Tammy never had any food and didn't seem to mind. I cleaned the boys up, dressed them, and put them to bed. Randy took Tammy downstairs. It didn't take Emmy too long to fall asleep. Randy brought Tammy up before I could call them, because she was tired, but it still took her a long time to fall asleep, and I had to keep checking to make sure she wasn't leaving her bed and waking anybody up.

Emmy already woke up after about an hour, and refused to sleep on either me or Randy, so Randy took him downstairs. Sammy ended up sleeping two and a half hours which is highly unusual and very rare. I was finally so tired that I was sleeping a little as well. When Sammy woke up, Tammy did too. It was about 2:15. Even though it was a little early, I called the others upstairs, and we went on the balcony for the afternoon snack. They didn't eat too much, but had fun. When it was clear they would not eat any more, I took them downstairs and stayed with them for over an hour until 4:15 pm.

Emmy wanted to look at a photobook right away, and so we did. They looked at a lot of pictures but stayed on the page from when we went to the zoo. Sammy was on the couch and standing leaning against the back of it, and then crawled to the side, where he could pull himself up to a standing position, though he didn't do it. Emmy wanted to do some drawing next, so we put up the table and chairs and got the paper and crayons out. They all did a great job drawing. Sammy likes grabbing the paper and pulling it away, which the others do not appreciate.

Then I put Sammy into the swing, which he really enjoyed, the wilder the better, and then Emmy went in. Then Randy came downstairs with Sammy's shoes. He told me that Sammy had done three rounds of the living room walking this morning, without his shoes, with the Winnie the Pooh walker. I wanted to see that for myself. I figured it'd be easier for him with his shoes, even though they are made for standing, not walking. And I was really impressed (videos uploaded). He did great! He was leaning over the walker, moving his legs. Randy made sure he was there to catch him so he would not fall. He really did great, and we're confident he's gonna walk one day, even though the doctors said he wouldn't. Every night when I pray for him before going to bed, I prophesy over him that he would run.

I went upstairs to do some more office work, and at 5:30 I started making their dinner. Before I was done and could call them, Emmy and Tammy came up the stairs. I guess they had escaped downstairs. They were pretty cranky and tired, and it made finishing the food preparation hard. We put them into their chairs, but Tammy was throwing a fit, so there was no eating for her. Once I was done with everything, I sat down and got her out of the chair and just held her. After a while they went into the bathtub, where they were playing, and Tammy was herself again and ate what I put into her mouth, even though they didn't eat it all. Emmy was really tired, which made him very cranky. He stayed close to me and was crying a lot in the end. We got them out, got them ready for bed, and I put them to bed. The boys fell asleep quickly. Tammy did her usual tossing and turning, and I stayed and left a few times, before she finally fell asleep. I made my food, ate, and went back to work.