25 months 28 days

Day 790. Last night I went to bed at 1 am. Thankfully we had a few hours without children, as Emmy only came at 5 am. I let him climb into bed. Tammy came not long after, and so the four of us were squeezed into our little bed again. We got up at 7:30 again, our typical time. After breakfast, we had to give them their medicine. Emmy now drinks it voluntarily, while we have to fight and forcefeed it to Tammy, and a lot still gets spilled. If anyone has a suggestion how to give toddlers medicine, I'm all ears. It takes a while before three kids have had three medications each. Then I took them all downstairs.

I turned worship music on and got a few kids Bibles out. Tammy and Sammy sat on my legs listening intently, as I read a story to them. Emmy wanted to do something else, but I told him we'd read the Bible first. When Randy came with his breakfast, I went upstairs to clean up and then work. It's sure nice to have my computer back! Even though I have some catching up to do now. And in spite of that, I decided to have a nice, hot bath, which I hadn't had in weeks, maybe months. I thought the hot water feel good, when you're physically miserable. This cough is just terrible. I greatly enjoyed it, but got very tired, as the night had been short. When I came out, I went to work, and at 11:15 I stopped to start cooking.

Sonja agreed to come for a few hours, and so she already arrived at 9:30 today, and stayed until 1 pm. That allowed Randy to run some errands, while I was working. While I was working in the kitchen, I could hear how much fun they were having downstairs.

At 12 pm I called them all upstairs to eat. Unfortunately it was another day of little to no food being eaten. Instead Tammy was asking for the fruit/cereal drinks again. They weren't really dirty enough to require a shower, but I let them play with the water anyway, and fed Sammy his pudding. Then it was medicine time again, which was extremely tough with Tammy again. As for Emmy, he gets 5c for taking his medicine voluntarily, and he's really happy about it. So far it's only been Tammy getting money for tidying up, as Emmy does not help to tidy up.

We dressed them and put the boys to bed. Tammy was crying, when Sonja walked out the door to leave. Randy took her downstairs. The boys fell asleep relatively fast. It was already after 1 am. At 1:30 Randy came upstairs to put Tammy to bed. I stayed for a while, and then he took my place sitting by her bed. Unfortunately it was a disaster again today. She woke Sammy up, and the two were having fun through the bars, which kept Tammy from falling asleep. And then Emmy woke up as well, way too early, and was crying for Mommy. I picked him up and lay down with him. I was shocked that his body was really hot, that he had a fever again. What a resistent virus! Emmy and I fell asleep, and we were both coughing, and both feeling miserable. Randy took Sammy downstairs, and then Tammy fell asleep.

I don't think Emmy slept very long. I was able to get up once without him waking up and took a snack downstairs to Sammy. I felt really terrible at that time. Sometimes I cough so very hard. After I returned it wasn't long before he woke up, and I finally took him downstairs to the other boys - against his will. He wanted to stay with Mommy. At 4 pm I woke up Tammy and took her downstairs as well.

However, Randy needed to run to the grocery store and so I stayed downstairs with them, and stayed until 5:30, which is when I start making dinner. I had felt like I had not spent enough time with Tammy and Sammy, with Emmy always taking possession of me, and so I really enjoyed the time with them, even though I did not feel well. We were all having fun.

It was Emmy who cried for me, when I left to start making dinner, but Randy was able to calm him down. At 6 pm I called them upstairs to eat. I'm already making less food than I used to, but they still didn't want to eat. Tammy wanted a cereal/fruit drink again. Once in the bathtub, they also ate just a little more, including Sammy. Then it was medicine time again. A lot of what we try to squeeze into Tammy's mouth gets spilled; we're doing better with Sammy. By about 7:10 they were all in bed.

I sat down by their beds, and the boys fell asleep really quickly. Not so the girl. I stayed a while, until she got too obnoxious, and then it works better for Randy to sit there, which he did. Soon she was asleep. I haven't had much of an appetite, but I got myself something to eat, ate, and then went back to work. Now I still have all the cleanup to do. Another week has passed. Time is just flying right now! Before we know it we'll be getting onto that plane to Mali. Emmy talks about Mali every day.