25 months 27 days

Day 789. Last night I went to bed just after midnight, after a peaceful evening with Emmy not waking up, and lying in bed feeling miserable. It wasn't too long before Emmy came running to me crying, wanting to join us in bed, and I let him in. Tammy also came later, and so once again, it was very tight as the four of us lay in our queen-size bed (or is it a double?). I had Tammy on my left arm, and Emmy on my right. I could not get up to go to the bathroom without waking everybody up, and I could not even grab my bottle of water. I had to drink water all night long. I noticed that Tammy had quite a high fever, after days without one, and as a result she felt pretty miserable. Thankfully Emmy was content on my right arm and not complaining, when she snuggled up to me more. This morning we got up really late for the five of us, just after 8 am.

I got up to make breakfast, cereal with milk and fruit, and they wanted salami, and had banana. But they don't eat much of that cereal any more. After breakfast, it was time for their three medications - antibiotics, cough sirup and nose drops. Yesterday, Tammy had joyfully taken them, and Emmy refused to and had to be forced. Today it was the reverse. Really strange. It was impossible to get Tammy to swallow it. Later in the day Randy bought a syringe to squeeze it into the back of her mouth, which worked better, but not all of it was swallowed.

Somehow we stayed upstairs for a while today, instead of going downstairs right away. Tammy felt pretty miserable and actually lay down in her bed, where she stayed for a while, which is highly unusual. By the time I took all three downstairs, Randy was also ready to go. I still read a new book with them, and then left to go upstairs.

I was glad that I could stomach putting a chicken into the oven today, which is what I did in the morning. Then I got my old computer out to write yesterday's report. I also did some housework, since I could not work on my computer. At 11:30 I went to the kitchen to start cooking. I could hear Emmy cry for me really hard downstairs and decided to let him come upstairs and join me in the kitchen. He got himself a chair that he put next to me and watched me cut and cook. He was getting hungry and snabbed a few pieces of chicken, when I was cutting it up.

Sonja arrived at noon - after not having had her come for days, as she's been sick as well - and I called everyone up to eat. Emmy was really happy to see her. Everyone sat down at the table, and I was glad to see that Tammy and Emmy were eating their rice with vegetables. For some reason the chicken was not popular, even though they used to love it. It was the first time Tammy had eaten a meal again, and her fever was gone and she seemed fine again. Praise God! It was Sammy who was not interested in his food, even though chicken is normally his favorite food. His throat must really be hurting. He did eat his special high-calorie pudding. As the other two had eaten, they both got their puddings as dessert.

Then they went into the bathtub to play and had fun standing under the shower head with the water coming down. It was also time for their next dosis of meds, and it was once again a great struggle - except with Emmy. Then the boys went to bed, and Tammy went downstairs with Sonja. I had been so busy all morning, I felt terrible, and was couhing terribly, and was not up to trying to get Emmy to sleep. And so Randy took my place, while I went to bed. Thankfully Emmy fell asleep before I went to get Tammy at 1:30 and put her to bed. Randy stayed in the seat, and after a while she was sleeping too.

We needed to take advantage of Sonja being here, as errands had been put on hold, and so Randy left to stop at the pharmacy, pick up a package, and get a few items at the grocery store. Sammy woke up first, which is usually the case, and I took him downstairs to Sonja. It was about 2:30, so two hours was a nice length for a nap. Emmy woke up about 15 minutes later, and I tried to lie down with him, but he kept asking for Sonja, and so I took him downstairs. However, once we got to Sonja, he wanted to stay with Mommy. I left him there, but after a few minutes of him crying his heart out, I went downstairs to get him and bring him up. He sat down in bed with me and asked to watch animal videos, which he enjoys. He was having a great time. When Randy returned, I tried to take him downstairs again, but he still didn't want to stay with Sonja but with Mommy. Sigh.

All the while I was waiting to hear from my doctor and the computer repair shop. I had planned to be at the doctor's at 2 pm, when they open, and knew they started working at noon. I was hoping to get a response, whether I could come, as you are not allowed to show up without an appointment. Also the computer repair shop said they'd contact me in the afternoon. I told Randy I could take Emmy with me, as he's so attached to me right now. I tried to call my doctor, but couldn't get through at all. Then I called the computer repair shop, and they said it was fixed and ready for pickup within the half hour. What great news! And so we got dressed and ready to leave, which we did at 4 pm. But first I had taken Tammy downstairs to Sonja.

Emmy and I took two subways and then had a relatively long walk. He had barely eaten anything in the afternoon, and did get a few snacks out of the box. After 40 minutes we got to the shops. This time only the assistant was there, not the boss, nor the guy who actually repaired it. I was really impressed, when I looked at my computer and how they had fixed it. I should have taken a before-picture! The guy said that it was really loud when the repair guy hammered on the metal to bend it back. I paid just over $100 (90€) and left happy. I later wrote them a glowing review.

We were heading back to the subway stop, which was right by a park (Resselpark/Karlsplatz). Even though it was late, I wanted Emmy to at least have a few minutes on the playground to be able to move, after sitting in the stroller for so long. It was a really nice playground. He went down the slide a few times, and got on the swing. I had the stroller in my view the whole time, as I was a little nervous having the computer in there so far away. We literally left the playground after only ten minutes, as it was getting late, and we needed to get home for dinner. Emmy was not happy that we were already leaving.

It was 5:45 before we were back home, so already 15 minutes into dinner-making time. Emmy had already asked for food on the subway, and so I let him stay upstairs, while I was making food. He got himself a chair again to stand on, but he surprised me, when he did not even eat one piece of bread. All he wanted was salami. When the others came upstairs to eat at 6 pm, he did not want to go into his chair. Tammy sat in it and was eating very little. In the end Emmy sat in it too, but he was not eating either. So they went into the bathtub and had some more food there. Sammy had not eaten at the table either, but ate all his food in the bathtub. I was holding him up, while he was playing with the faucet, and putting food into his mouth.

Then it was medicine time again. This time we had syringes, which worked pretty well with Sammy, but Tammy is sure strong, especially when she does not want something to happen. We were not able to get her to swallow everything but it was much better than our tries without the syringe. She was not at all happy.

Today it was already 7:10, when they all went to bed. Sonja brought up what they had made together before she left. Tammy had glued paper balls onto a heart together with Sammy. I think it's the cutest picture, where she's showing off her art!

They went back to bed, but did not want to stay there. I felt pretty miserable, and when they got up again, wanting to get out, and to me and to do who knows what, I just was not up for it. I asked Randy to take my place and lay down in bed. I was freezing and needed to warm up. They went to sleep much faster with Randy sitting in that chair than they do with me. As for me, I was lying in the dark trying to get warm, hungry but not wanting to eat, wanting to turn the computer, but not wanting to at the same time. I finally did get up and got myself some food and did turn the computer on. But time had passed, and so it's already going on 1 am, as I'm finishing my report, and I'm still not feeling well at all.

Today I was getting concerned for the first time that Emmy gets so much more one-on-one Mommy time than his siblings. Right now he just constantly wants to be with me, but I don't want the others to think that I love him more than them and want to have equal quality time with them. I think Emmy is getting too spoiled always getting his will.