23 months 2 days

Day 702. Last night it was nearly 1 am, when I went to bed. This morning Emmy came to me just after 6 am, at his usual time, and before it was 7, we sat down to feed them breakfast.

After breakfast I went downstairs with them, and they wanted the instruments again to worship God. I also got the Bibles out, and we had the typical fight of them not wanting to share one with a sibling.

When Randy came with his breakfast, I went upstairs to clean up, and then tidy up, as the cleaning lady was coming today. And I was waiting for Randy to be done, as he needed to go hand in our Covid tests, and so I was going back downstairs to be with them while he was away. We were having fun, as always. Unfortunately I did not have my phone with me, so no pictures.

When Randy returned, I finally got to go upstairs to do office work. At 10:30 I stopped to go cook, and Sonja arrived as well. At 11 am we sat down to eat. Then I cleaned them up, dressed them, and Emmy and Tammy went downstairs with Sonja, while I put Sammy to bed. Just before noon I put Emmy to bed, and once he was asleep Tammy. Yesterday Emmy said "Sammy" and "Tammy" for the very first time, and he's been saying it a lot today. Tammy is not saying any of her siblings' names yet. And Emmy cannot say his own name yet.

Sammy was the first to wake up as usual and went downstairs to be with Sonja. Randy had gone to the grocery store at that time, and the cleaning lady had already arrived. As for me, there was nothing usual about the afternoon. I've just received a new computer, as my old one was getting old and starting to have old-age issues, but moving everything to a new computer is always a hassle and can be frustrating. It took up all my time from then on today and had restricted what I can do, or rather kept me from doing anything but that, and it will still transfer all night long. Good thing I don't have any pictures today.

Emmy woke up when Randy was just coming back. For some reason he did not want to sit in the chair with me. If Randy could have sat down with him, he'd probably have gone back to sleep - together with Randy. So I went downstairs for him to stay with Sonja, but he was clinging to me and I could not get him off my neck. So I took him back upstairs with me, and he willingly moved from me to Randy, who was then able to take him downstairs.

Tammy woke up early today, after just under 2 hours, at 2:15 pm. I sat down in the chair with her for a while. Then I called the others to come upstairs for the afternoon meal. I opened the balcony door, and Sonja, Tammy and Emmy went outside, while Randy and Sammy stayed on the inside of the balcony door. They were feeding them, while I was cutting up some fruit for them. It all takes a while, before they are done and go back downstairs.

Just after 4 pm I took my new computer downstairs as we had a scheduled video call with two of Randy's daughters in Mississippi who were both at Randy's Mom's house. We all had great fun talking to each other, and I still hope to get a screenshot from that call. Our three did a lot of waving at their American family. Tammy and Emmy would come and go and wave, whenever they'd come. It was lots of fun.

And they wanted to go outside, even before the video call was over, and so Sonja went outside with them, where they had fun. The video call ended at 5 pm, and I went upstairs to work for another half hour before starting to make their food. I could hear quite a bit of crying, so I called them upstairs before I was done getting everything ready. They did well eating at the table, and continued eating in the bathtub. They once again had fun turning the water off and on constantly. For some reason Tammy stayed back for much of the time. Sammy was determined to be right there by the faucet moving the lever and got upset whenever I moved him a little bit away, because I was pretty uncomfortable holding him in that position. Emmy was doing most of the turning off and on, and often pushed Sammy aside to do so. He also just takes the toy Sammy plays with, when he wants it. We try to tell them not to, but I'm not sure I see them listening.

I'd finally had enough and turned the shower head on. Unfortunately most of the water landed right on Tammy's head, who started crying. Emmy was just upset, and so was Sammy. That was the cue to get them all out of the water. Before 7 pm they were all in bed, but all three were still awake for quite some time before finally falling asleep. I had to leave and return quite a few times. Then I got my food, ate, and continued the computer transfer and solving some issues in the process. It will take all night, and I hope it won't get interrupted again. Now it's time to do the cleanup, and hopefully go to bed at a decent time. This was my first update written on the new computer, and the first work I've done on it.