25 months 4 days

Day 766. Last night it was 12:45, when I headed to bed, but sleep was not meant to be. Emmy woke up and came to me, and I put him back to bed, but he came again, so it was the usual back and forth. He finally stayed in bed, but later in the night I just let him climb into bed with us, as I just wanted some sleep. But he was really restless in the morning hours as well, and I got little sleep. Of course Tammy joined us as well. When we got up at 7:30, Emmy was actually asleep in our bed. We were already all sitting at the dining room table to eat, when he woke up and joined us.

After breakfast and cleaning them up and dressing them, I realized that time was short if we were gonna leave on time at 8:30. Randy dressed Sammy, while I was getting everything ready. As Tammy and Emmy were still upstairs, they were crying, when I left with Sammy and they had to stay behind.

Randy recently exchanged the single stroller with another single stroller we have, and that's what I was using today. I don't like it as much. One of the several reasons is that Sammy is facing forward, and I cannot see him while pushing the stroller. We had three subways to take to get to the university hospital. There are two entrances, one for those with written proof of appointment, and another one for those without. I had the email that showed my appointment. At the door I showed the guy the email, and then he waved me through. He never even checked my Corona test result.

We made our way to the eye department and got there pretty much on time. After registering, we sat down in the waiting room. There were lots of people. I got Sammy out of the stroller. It wasn't long before we were called in. A nice lady did a few eye exams with Sammy, then put eye drops in his eyes and told us to come back 10 minutes later for more eye drops, which we did. Then we had to wait again to be called. There wasn't anything to play with, but Sammy enjoyed standing and holding on to the stroller, as well as playing with the subway paper. It wasn't that long until we were called back in.

This time it was a male doctor who received us. He looked at Sammy's eyes again. After he was done he said that he had no concerns, that Sammy's eyes were fine. His left eye is going a little outward at times, but that it was minimal and could still disappear. And his vision was perfect for his age as well. Praise God! He used to be cross-eyed a lot, but it gradually disappeared.

At 11 am we left the hospital to return home, and 40 minutes later we walked through the door. I had expected them to all be eating, but that was not the case. Randy had waited for us. So I immediately went to work putting the food (leftover soup) that Randy had warmed up on the table. Nobody wanted to eat. I finally gave Tammy and Emmy some bread with cream cheese and salami, and then I gave them some puddings. They couldn't wait to get into the bathtub, had even asked at breakfast time to go in. I let them play in the water that was coming down from the shower head. Once Sammy was done eating, he joined them there and was having just as much fun. But it had to end some time. Sonja went downstairs with Tammy, while I put the boys to bed. Today they were giving me a hard time. It was 1 pm before Emmy finally fell asleep, and Sammy needed a few more minutes. Then I went to get Tammy and put her to bed. The advantage of it being after 1 pm was that she was falling asleep more easily and faster.

I was very tired, but wanted to keep working, so I did. Emmy woke up first, and as it was still early, I tried everything to get him to fall back asleep. He did sleep a little on the bed with me, but not for long. Then he went downstairs to be with Sonja. I was amazed at Sammy sleeping about 3 hours, which is rare, and then I took him downstairs as well. That woke Tammy up, after 2.5 hours, and she went downstairs as well. Sonja gave them all their snacks downstairs, and spent a lot of time playing with them, looking at picture books and drawing. I went back upstairs to work, and Randy has started working on the 10 suitcases we can take to Mali in November.

At 5 pm I stopped working and started getting their food ready. At 5:30 I was done and went downstairs to tidy up with them, and then we all came upstairs to eat. Except for corn they did not eat much at the table. Thankfully they did eat in the bathtub. Sammy had a full plate, and ate it all while playing with the faucet. They were all having great fun in the water and did not like it, when we got them out. It wasn't even 7 pm yet, when they were all in bed. And of course they could not just go to sleep.

A long ordeal of trying to get them to stay in bed and sleep started. They had clearly slept too long in the afternoon. It was annoying and draining and testing our limits. But finally Tammy and Emmy were asleep, and Sammy was crying. I held him for a few minutes, and then he was fine, when I put him back down. It was high time for me to eat. After eating I went back to work, and as it's been the case every day, I've been falling asleep while writing my update. I finally got up and started typing standing up to keep that from happening. Now all I have left to do is turn the dishwasher on.

By the way, this only picture today is Sammy in the hospital waiting room.