25 months 23 days

Day 785. Last night I headed to bed at 11:30 pm. And it was the third rough night in a row. Emmy still had a fever and was very restless. He basically spent the whole night in bed with us, and woke up a lot. Tammy also joined us, and when she'd lie down on my chest, he'd be awake right away and rise up in jealousy. Tammy is so gracious to move aside and let him lie on me. This happens quite a bit. Emmy does NOT want to share Mommy.

We got up at 7:45 this morning. After breakfast I took them downstairs, where I turned worship music on and got their Bibles out. Once Randy came, I went upstairs to finish cleaning up and do office work. I got pretty tired while working, but powered on. At 10:30 Sonja came. She also had a cold, just like the five of us. At 11:30 I stopped working to get lunch ready, and at noon I called everyone upstairs to eat.

And nobody ate anything. So much for that. One result of being sick. And that meant no need for the bathtub. Emmy and Sammy still had elevated body temperature, while Tammy only had a runny nose and was hoarse. Emmy looked the worse. We dressed them and put the boys to bed, while Sonja went downstairs with Tammy. The boys fell asleep rather quickly.

I continued working, and Randy left for the grocery store. At 1:30 Tammy went to bed, and thankfully she fell asleep after a while, without waking anybody up. However, Emmy woke up and ended up in bed with me. He slept a little. At some point he got up and was ready to go downstairs to Sonja, where I took him. However, when you're sick, only Mommy will do, not even Sonja. After a while Sonja came upstairs with Emmy, which is highly unusual, saying that he wanted Mommy. And so I took him. He sat next to me on the bed, while I was trying to work, and soon he was asking for "Barbapapa" and then to watch sheep videos, and I let him watch both. When you're sick, the rules are different. I was able to somewhat work like that. I asked him from time to time, whether he wanted to go downstairs to Sonja, and he always said no. He sais yes and no very clearly now, when you ask him something.

When Randy returned from the grocery store, Tammy woke up and was up on her feet as well. Both of them went to the door to greet him, and were then interested in what was in the shopping bags. After a few minutes I took them both downstairs to Sonja, together with snacks. Emmy still didn't want to eat, but had some milk. I wasn't back upstairs for long, when I heard him cry really hard again, went downstairs, and found him crying for Mommy. And so he came back upstairs with me. After a while I got a little weary of trying to work with him next to me. I again took him downstairs, and stayed downstairs with them for a little while. Sammy had slept 3 hours, which is rare, and he was by far not as cranky as his brother, even though he was also sick. Randy put him into his standing appartus, and the picture shows him blowing the whistle, which he enjoys, while Emmy put the tambourine on his head like a hat.

Randy ran to the pharmacy to get some cough sirup, since they are all coughing (including me), and at 4 pm Sonja had to leave. When Randy returned, he took my place with the kids downstairs. Once again Emmy was crying, when I walked away, but thankfully he calmed down after a while.

I was finally on my own at the computer. I was gonna stop at 5:30 to make their food, but already stopped 10 minutes earlier, as they were unhappy and crying. Instead of tidiying up, they came upstairs after 15 minutes, when the bread and soup was ready, and I cut up some fruit while they were already at the table. At first they didn't want to eat anything, but then I got them to eat a little. Then they went into the bathtub, where it wasn't much more that they ate. Except for Sammy, who didn't eat everything, but a good bit. Emmy was so tired and visibly sick, that I thought we'd get him out first, but Sammy came out first. I put a rub on each of them, and gave them a round of cough sirup for the second time. Tammy drank it happily and voluntarily, while Emmy did not want it and had to be forced. Sammy was somewhere in the middle, but we got it into all of them. It was only about 6:40 pm, when they went to bed. The boys fell asleep quickly, even though they both woke up again later. The girl was wide awake in her bed, and wanted me to hold her. I picked her up, and while she was lying on my, she raised her head and looked at me, and started telling me stories. From the words she used I could somewhat figure out what she was talking about - it was about our visit to the petting zoo on Saturday. It was a precious time.

But then Emmy woke up and wanted Mommy, and Tammy did not want back into her bed. It was a dilemma. I put her into bed against her will and sat down with Emmy. Every time I wanted to put him to bed, he wouldn't let me. I was worn out and just wanted to get away. Finally Randy took my place and stayed until they were asleep, which wasn't too long. I got myself something to eat and went back to work. Later Emmy woke up again and wanted milk. I gave it to him and sat down by his bed until he was asleep again. Tonight again my eyey were falling shut while writing my update. Now I still have to clean up before I can go to bed.