23 months 26 days

Day 726. Last night I headed to bed at 1 am. And it was a rough night. Emmy came to me about 12 times or so, and every time I put him back into his bed. At about 5:30 he came together with his sister, and I let them both climb into bed with us. Unfortunately they didn't come to sleep. After a while they got up and started playing, or tearing things apart. I could tell they were in the corner where Alexa is plugged in, even though we try to block access to it. Randy got up and moved Emmy's bed there as an additional barrier. That worked well the other day. Today he didn't realize the opening to the bed was on the accessible side. And so they went in and started tearing all the clothes off the shelf. It was a disaster zone! Clothes everywhere! That's why I never put the bed close to the shelf. Later, when Tammy saw me picking up clothes and putting them back, she started helping me. It was so sweet! That's when I took this picture of her.

At 6:30 I got up to make breakfast, as they were asking for food.

After breakfast I took them downstairs, turned the worship music, and we were praising God with instruments. Emmy loves his drum. Sammy grabbed a rattle. Then I got their Bibles out, and we looked at those. I feel like I've told those same stories hundreds of times already. And they know who is who now, when I ask, where is Adam and Eve, for example.

When Randy came with his breakfast, I left them, went upstairs, finished cleaning up, and then lay down to get more sleep. It seems to become my normal routine now, instead of working. While it helps me be less tired, I feel the absence of those 2.5 hours of work time. My alarm woke me just before 10:30, and I had a very hard time getting up. I wonder how long I would sleep without an alarm. I went to the kitchen and started cooking, and then Sonja arrived. She came today instead of tomorrow. As soon as the doorbell rang, I could hear Emmy downstairs say with joy, "Sonja!". He already knew it was her.

At 11 am I called everyone upstairs to eat. We had chicken with rice and vegetables, a favorite. They still didn't eat that much really. Except for Sammy. Randy calls him "chicken wing" because he likes chicken so much. They all had icecream, and then I cleaned them up and dressed them, and the boys went to bed for their nap. I had to stay for Emmy's sake for a little bit, before he fell asleep. Randy ran to the store again, once again handing in Covid test kits and buying a few items. At 12:30 I put Tammy to bed. She was tired, but always spends some time playing before falling asleep. As for me, I was getting ready to leave at 1 pm.

Randy returned just before that time, and I left on time to go to the hairdresser. It was way overdue, but right now we're short on money, especially with the kids' birthday coming up. It was still necessary, especially with our upcoming trip. It was really weird to be on public transportation all by myself, no strollers, no kids. I never leave the house alone any more. It was also weird to use escalators again instead of elevators. One tram had a problem, and so I arrived 15 minutes late, at 2 pm. I chatted with the lady, while she was working on me, and it was all about kids, as her child is about the same age as ours. I left there before 4 pm, finally looking good again. Instead of heading straight home, I went to the nearby shopping street, as I knew a great party shop there, with lots of cake stuff, hoping to find some more decorations for their birthday party. I was disappointed when I discovered that the store had been dissolved. So I got on the subway and started my long trek home.

I arrived home at 4:35. A few minutes later I went downstairs, just before I was ready, because Emmy had just been hurt and was crying hard. They sure get hurt a lot. Emmy has quite a bruise on his chin right now, and this morning Tammy got hurt and now has a big blue right by her eye. I took their shoes with me, so they could go outside for a bit, and then we had fun outside together. Tammy likes riding her car and playing in the sand pit. Emmy likes playing ball, and so does Sammy. It was either me or Sonja who helped Sammy play, and they had great fun.

One time - while I was filming - Sonja fell while holding Sammy. Sammy did not get hurt, but Sonja did. Even her pants had a hole. She limped to a seat and sat down. Tammy was very concerned about Sonja's well-being. So I put her hand on Sonja's leg, and we prayed for all the pain to go. Later Sonja let me know that she has no pain as a result from the fall. Praise God!

We continued playing soccer and having fun. It was really funny, when they called up to our balcony, calling for me. I kept saying that I was right here! Maybe they thought I was just a copy of Mommy, since my hair was wrong/different.

In the end we even called Grandma, when they kept asking about her. It's been over a month since they have seen her, and they seem to miss her. They had fun on the video call with her, talking for a few minutes. Then it was time for me to leave them to make their food, and Randy took my place. They stayed outside until dinner time at 6 pm.

They ate a little at the dinner table, Emmy more than Tammy. Tammy didn't even really want to eat in the bathtub today. Sammy went straight for the faucet and ate, what I put into his mouth. But the fun didn't last long. I put the shower head into the water, and Tammy did not like that at all and started crying. She was tired. Then Emmy started crying too, and then Sammy, especially when I moved him away from the faucet. It was a disaster. We got them to calm down, but Tammy left the water for a while, while the others continued playing. We still never made it to the end, as they started crying again, and so they all came out before they had really eaten enough. We got them ready for bed and put them to bed. They all seemed pretty tired. I stayed with them, and so Emmy fell asleep after a while, while Tammy was also less active than usual and fell asleep faster than usual. I left her before she was all the way asleep to go get myself something to eat.

After I was done eating, I started working on the computer again. Suddenly the screen started turning all gray and then white. I had a completely white screen! I could tell it was just the screen, that the computer was still doing its job, and working on the backup that's been running since last night. I was shocked. It's only a month old and the screen was aready dead! What was I gonna do? I'm very much dependent on the computer after all. We have an old TV stored up and got it out so I could use it as an external monitor. Unfortunately it was too old to have an HDMI port, and so I could not use it. I was wondering what to do, and planning a shopping trip for a monitor in the morning, so I could use the computer until a replacement arrived. Then I looked over at my computer and the screen was black, off. When I touched a key, the normal screen returned! Thank God! Now I'm not sure whether the screen is still dying, or what that was, but I'll research it. For now I'm glad to have a working computer again.

And now it's nearly midnight and I still have to do all the cleanup, and wrap some presents. We have a busy weekend ahead.