25 months 12 days

Day 774. Last night I went to bed at midnight. Twenty minutes later Emmy was up crying, and I comforted him and encouraged him to stay in his bed, but he wouldn't. I went back to bed, and he stood next to me, putting his head on my arm and holding my hand. From time to time I asked him to go back to bed, and he finally did. But he hit something on the way and started crying. In the end Randy sat down next to his bed, and once he was asleep again, he returned to bed.

Just over 90 minutes later, at 2 am, the girl crawled into bed with us. When I saw the time, I took her back to bed, and she simply continued sleeping there. In the early morning hours both of them joined us in bed again. As you can see, we get little uninterrupted sleep, which is why we are so tired. Today we got up just after 7 am - always a while after they have left, when we wonder what all they are tearing down or apart.

After breakfast we went downstairs, where I turned worship music on and got the Bibles out. I was walking up and down worshipping God, when Emmy stretched his arms out to me, as if to say, pick me up and pray for me. I picked him, he lay his head on my shoulder, and I walked up and down with him, praying for him. Then I did the same with Sammy. And then Tammy raised her arms up to me, making sure I knew that she wanted her turn too. Then we sat down to read the Bible. When Randy came with his breakfast, I left to finish cleaning up and then work.

It was another one of those mornings, when my eyes would fall shut and I'd fall asleep while working, but again and again I'd force myself to keep going. One of these days I need to just sleep, but there's just so much to do. At 10:45 I stopped to cook, and at 11:30 I called everyone upstairs to eat.

Thankfully it was another day where they actually ate. It was cremed spinach, and so they were green everywhere. Before I knew it Tammy jumped up to run to the bathtub. I couldn't even make sure she didn't touch anything. And Emmy of course followed her right away. They both had dirty diapers I took off, and then I put them into the bathtub and turned the water on. Surprisingly they had not even asked for their puddings! And so I decided to bring the puddings to them. After all they're already used to eating in the bathtub. The water from the showerhead went into their cups, but they didn't mind. Once Sammy was done, he joined them, and I fed him his special prescription pudding that adds much-needed calories to his diet. I think this is a great picture of all three having fun in the water. When I uploaded the first version, FB banned it as nudity, so I covered more of their bodies in this picture and hope it will stay up.

They're always upset, when I get them out of the water to dress them. I put the boys to bed, while Randy went downstairs with Tammy. Sammy fell asleep rather quickly, but Emmy was giving me a hard time. It was 12:45, when he finally fell asleep. At 1:15 Randy came upstairs with Tammy, and I put her to bed. Unfortunately she wasn't quite ready to sleep and soon Sammy was woken up, his bed being right next to hers. And then they started having fun with each other through the bars, which made her even less likely to sleep. Unfortunately Randy had run to the store to hand in our Corona test kits, and so he could not take Sammy away, which would have allowed her to fall asleep. Once Randy returned and came over to where we were, Emmy was suddenly awake as well, which was a big dilemma. I could not stay with Tammy to help her fall asleep and could not leave Emmy to play on his own. Randy had to leave at 2 pm to take Sammy to his physiotherapy session at the new center. And so I went downstairs with both Emmy and Tammy. Given that she had not slept, she was in great shape and was the rest of the day. I had not expected that.

So there we were, the three of us, playing downstairs. Emmy wanted the guitars down and enjoyed playing with them. The batteries in the one are weak so it would only work at time. He went into the swing and took the guitar there with him. Tammy was building a tower on top of a car and was doing a great job. We were also reading some books togther. And we had fun with them in their house and tunnel, with me chasing them. All that even though I was tired.

Randy and Sammy returned before 4 pm, but it was after 4 pm before I was able to leave them and go upstairs to work. At 5 pm I stopped working to make their dinner, and at 5:30 I went downstairs, telling them it was time to tidy up. As always Emmy climbed over the barrier to go upstairs, but Randy brought him back downstairs. Emmy would not lift a finger to tidy up. Tammy helped me. Once everything was looking good, we all went upstairs for dinner.

They ate some of their food, mainly corn and soup, at the table, and then left to go into the bathtub. I combined their food and took the plates there, and they did well eating in the bathtub. Sammy even ate everything. And they were having fun. Again the were upset, when it was time to get them out. They were already in bed by 6:30. Sammy fell asleep fast tonight. Tammy was clearly more tired than usual but still needed a little time to fall asleep. Emmy needed the longest, and needed being held, but it wasn't long after 7 pm, when I was able to walk away and start making my food and then eat. Then I went back to work. Now everything is done, and I hope to make it to bed soon.