25 months 14 days

Day 776. Last night I went to bed at 12:45 am. It was a typical night of Emmy coming to us and being put back to bed, and Tammy as well, but somehow she returned and ended up sleeping with us, which discovered some time later. I believe she is able to climb into our bed without help now. Emmy came in the early morning hours, around 6 am, and before it was 7 they were both up and busy doing stuff. It was 7:10, when we got up as well to keep them from messing up anything else.

After breakfast we went downstairs, where I turned worship music on. They immediately asked for their Bibles, and so we sat down and read Bible stories together. When Randy arrived with his breakfast, I left them to finish cleaning up and then work. Sonja arrived just before 11 am, just as I was starting to cook. At 11:30 I called them all upstairs to eat.

Tammy and Emmy ate a little, but not much, then they got up to go to the bathtub and have fun with the water. I gave them their puddings while in the bathtub, and Sammy joined them there as well, once he was done, and ate his special prescription high-calorie pudding. Then we got them out, and I put the boys to bed, while Sonja went downstairs with Tammy.

And that's when a terribly frustrating one hour of trying to get Emmy to sleep started. It was draining, and I was ready to give up several times. Besides not being able to do anything else for a whoel hour. By 1:15 he finally fell asleep. A few minutes later I put Tammy to bed, and by then she was tired enough to fall asleep quickly. Randy returned from the grocery store just at that time.

I was exhausted, tired, and just wanted to sleep. I decided to lie down. And then Emmy woke up and came running to me, and so I picked him up and lay down together with him. He fell asleep on me and slept for a little while. He and Sammy woke up at the same time. When I got up to go get Sammy so that he would not wake his sister up, I found Tammy already awake, but she was still tired. I sat down with Tammy on my chest, while Randy got Emmy and took him downstairs to Sonja. Tammy wanted her Daddy, and so I took Sammy downstairs, together with their afternoon snack, while Randy took Tammy. By that time it was already after 3:30 pm.

I went back to work, and Randy also worked upstairs, while Sonja was downstairs with the kids by herself. She had brought some chesnuts with her that she had drilled holes into. While the boys were in bed, she got them out to do crafts with Tammy and told me how impressed she was with how skilled Tammy was to put the toothpicks and feathers into the holes. They always have fun with Sonja, and I could hear a lot of laughter coming from downstairs.

At 5 pm I stopped to start making their food, which took me half an hour. At 5:30 I went downstairs to tidy up with them. I never could get Emmy to lift a finger. He just wants to take his clothes off and eat. At least Tammy helped a little bit. Then we all went upstairs to eat. Tammy was excited to get a small coin to put into her piggy bank, while I encouraged Emmy to help next time so he'd also get a coin.

They ate some food at the table, and then ran to the bathtub to get. They take their diapers off themselves, and while Emmy was standing by the bathtub, he started peeing on the floor. Then they all went in and were having fun with the faucet. Sammy ate all his food while playing with the water. We got them all out and got them ready for bed. Just after 6:30 they were all in bed, and once again I got frustrated, trying for over an hour to get them to sleep. Surely there must be a way!

I was exhausted, grabbed something to eat, and went back to work. Now it's time to clean up. By the way, the first picture of Emmy I took to use for his new passport. All three need new passports.