Day 723. Last night Emmy came to me several times, and I took him back to his bed. At 5:45 I gave up and let him crawl into bed with us. But by 6 he was already up, waking his siblings up. So it was just another early morning.
After breakfast we went downstairs, turned worship music on, got the instruments out, and were worshipping God. Then I got the Bibles out, and we looked at them. When Randy came with his breakfast, I went upstairs to clean up. But instead of working, I lay down to get more sleep. I was just too tired.
It was a rough awakening, when my alarm woke me up just before 10:30 so I could go cook lunch for everyone. Sonja arrived a few minutes later. It was after 11 before it was all ready and we sat down to eat. Once again Tammy didn't eat anything. She threw some food on the floor and on the chair, but her plate was still full. We simply could not get her to eat, even when we told her she'd only get icecream if she did. Emmy on the other hand ate really well, and had his icecream. Then I cleaned them up and dressed them and put the boys to bed, while Sonja went downstairs with Tammy.
Normally Sammy is the first one asleep, but today he just would not fall asleep. Emmy fell asleep after a while, but not Sammy. It was already after 12:30, and so I went to get Tammy anyway, even though I figured that would mean party time. And I was right. All I could hear was Sammy laughing, thanks to his sister. There was no sleeping. And then Emmy woke up after less than an hour. He immediately asked for Sonja, and so I took him downstairs to her. That upset Tammy who started crying and throwing a fit. At first she asked for Emmy. The past few days they've been saying "Ami" when they mean Emmy, but today Tammy actually said it correctly. It wasn't long before she was asking for her Daddy. But Randy had gone to the grocery store and wasn't home, which is what I told her. I had to block the entrance to her bed, tried to comfort her, but to no avail. She wanted "Papa". Sammy fell asleep in the midst of all this drama. All I could do was sit down there so she'd stay in bed and hope for Randy to return quickly. When he finally did, she was still sitting in bed sobbing and asking for Papa. But as soon as she heard him come home, she lay down and fell asleep. I was very surprised she did not want him to hold her. But by then she had cried so long she was exhausted.
So these two were finally asleep, while Emmy was having fun with Sonja downstairs. Sammy woke up after about 90 minutes and also went downstairs. Now we were waiting for Tammy to wake up, while I was getting everything ready, and the boys had some food downstairs. At about 3:30 I decided it was late enough and called the boys upstairs, which was enough for Tammy to wake up. We dressed them all and left just before 4 pm.
Sammy was sitting in the single stroller, and Emmy was standing on the attached board, while Tammy was sitting on the tricycle. We walked the 15 minutes to the playground, which was not as full as usual. Today was the first cool day after intense heat, but it was still warm in the sun. They hadn't been at a playground in a while, with all the dance and swim classes, and so they had lots of fun. Swing, slide, and climbing. I was impressed how sovereignly Emmy was climbing up the ladder to the slide, and Tammy did just the same. I had to help them both a little on the rope ladder and the climbing wall.
When they were all three on the big, round swing, there was a little girl who was 3.5 years old who pushed the swing for them, and climbed around on it while they were inside. Our three were watching her the whole time.
Another time a little girl - maybe just a little younger than them - came up to Tammy, obviously being interested in her doll, and kissed Tammy's doll.
Tammy likes the swing, and spent quite some time in the baby swing. Sammy got to swing in there as well. And Randy took him to the zipline and went up and down with him for a few minutes. Emmy got to do that too. Just before we left Emmy and Tammy got on the regular swing for a little bit.
Sonja had to leave us while we were there. After over an hour, at 5:15, we also decided to leave and walked back home. We got home at about 5:40, and I went straight to work in the kitchen to get their dinner ready. They immediately went to get a chair from the dining room that they pushed into the kitchen, so they could climb up on it and see everything I was doing on the counter, as well as to be able to grab stuff. They were hungry. It was a little tight for two on one chair, so I put another one next to the first one, so they each had a chair to stand on. Their plates were right in front of them, and I put food in constantly that they then ate.
Then the doorbell rang. It was an Amazon delivery, and they love packages and watched the delivery guy curiously. Randy then opened the package and let them participate. It was for them anyway.
Once I had all the food ready, we sat down at the dining room table. They ate a little more, and had eaten better than usual. The rest I took to the bathroom with us, but they did not eat it all. Sammy did eat everything on his plate tonight. Even at the table Randy pointed out how he was eating everything he gave him, which is not the norm.
They had fun in the water, then we got them ready for bed and put them to bed. Emmy was pretty tired, but he was still awake for quite a long time, and he would not let me leave. Tammy was awake for really long tonight, and so it was late before I could walk away for good. I made and ate my food, and went to work. Now it's after midnight and everything is done.
