26 months

Day 792. Last night I headed to bed at 12:30, being totally exhausted. It was a typical night of Emmy coming and finally climbing into bed with us, as well as his sister. What was unusual is that they were sleeping late. Sammy is the one who was crying and got us to get up, and it was already just after 8 am, which is really late for us. I made breakfast, but they barely touched it. Tammy just wanted cereal with fruit squeezy drinks; what I make is also cereal with milk and fruit. They didn't want the banana either; some days they can't get enough. And they didn't want any salami today.

Emmy drank his medicine willingly and got 5c for it. Sammy takes it with the syringe, and the girl has to be held down and forced to get the medicine into her, and even without our measures, she's able to spit out some. And she's exhausted from all the struggling at the end. I cleaned her up and dressed her, and then we all went downstairs.

I turned the worship music on and got their kids Bibles out, and once again it was Tammy who really wanted to read the stories. Once Randy came with his breakfast, we stopped, and I left to go upstairs to finish cleaning up and do office work. Today it was already 10 am before I got started, so pretty late. I worked until 11:30 and then went to the kitchen to make lunch. I had not heard from Sonja yet and was wondering, when she'd come. She arrived at noon, just when I had called everyone upstairs to eat, so perfect timing. When Emmy saw her, he said "hallo Sonja" (hello Sonja"). I was shocked, as it was the first time I had heard him say those two words together. So far they've only just said "hello".

I was glad that both Tammy and Emmy were eating today, but Tammy stopped after a spoonful or two. Only Emmy ate well. I got the puddings out for him, as well as the medicine that he drank voluntarily. Tammy wanted puddings too, but drank squeezy drinks, when she couldn't have them. And then I decided to try to put her medicine into one of the little puddings. Of course that meant giving her puddings, when she had not eaten and I had said she would not get any as a result. However, I was just glad that she ate her medicine without even knowing, so no fight at lunch time!

They did go into the bathtub to stand under the shower, enjoying the hot water coming down, and Sammy also joined them, lying on the bathub floor. After a while they all came out - the boys to go to bed, and Tammy to go downstairs with Sonja. Of course Emmy wanted to be with Sonja as well. He lay down on my chest, where I held him for a while. Randy then sat down by his bed, and a few minutes later he was asleep. At 1:30 Tammy came up, and she's now pushed her bedtime to 2 pm really. She was up and on her feet inside her bed, and before I knew it, Sammy was awake. Great! I was hoping Emmy would continue sleeping, but then he woke up too. Both boys had slept under an hour, way too little. I was annoyed. Randy took Sammy downstairs, and I ended up taking Emmy downstairs as well, as he wanted Sonja. Then I sat down with Tammy who was asleep rather quickly, at 2:15 pm, so late.

Randy went to the grocery store, and I returned to office work. At 3 pm I took some snacks downstairs to the boys. At 3:45 Tammy woke up by herself, and we went downstairs as well. I was in the middle of office work, but Emmy wanted me to stay with him so bad. As Randy was not home and Sonja had to leave at 4, I returned upstairs to find a good place to pauce my office work, and a few minutes later I was back downstairs with them. Sammy was already in the swing, which is when this picture was taken. It was one of the best purchases for them ever. Emmy wanted into the swing as well, and he spent some time in it, with his guitar. And then they asked to watch "monkey" videos, and so I turned my phone on. Next they wanted to watch babies, but then Daddy already returned. I left them with him and took my phone with me to go do some more office work.

At 5:30 I stopped to start making their dinner, which takes me half an hour. At 6 pm I went downstairs to tidy up with them. Even Emmy helped just a tiny little bit, and Tammy not much more. Then we all went upstairs to eat. I'm already making so much less food than I used to, but I was glad to see Emmy heartily eating his bread with cream cheese. He ate most of it. Other than that he only wanted strawberries. Randy had just bought some today. Emmy's interest in them peaked Tammy's interest who suddenly also wanted to eat them, and so they kept asking for more until what Randy had bought today was gone. It's the only thing Tammy ate.

She was also the first one up and on the way to the bathtub. Nothing but strawberries were eaten there. Even Sammy did not want to eat much of his food. After they had played for a while, it was time for Sammy to come out. We gave him his medicine and put his pj's on, as well as his night braces, and put him to bed. Then I gave Emmy his medicine to drink, and he drank it thanks to the 5c reward dangling in front of his nose. He was still in the bathtub, and Tammy was watching him. I got another 5c coin and her piggy bank, and once again asked her if she wanted to drink it as well and get the money. She was hesitating again, like she had done before, and suddenly she actually drank it! Wow! I had not expected that. But there was still the second medicine that was liquid. I poured it into the cup, and lo and behold, she drank it too! I told her how proud I was and gave her the coin that she proudly put into her piggy bank. Let's hope she'll continue like that tomorrow!

And so we only had the nose drops left to do on the changing table, and that was not too bad. It was again after 7 pm before they were all in bed. And again I could not get them to lie down and sleep. I finally called Randy to take my place in the chair and went to the kitchen to clean up and then make myself something to eat. I ate, and went back to office work. Randy also ate and then went downstairs to keep boxing up stuff for Mali. It wasn't long before Emmy woke up crying and came to me for comfort. I picked him, and as he did not want to go back into his bed, I sat down in the chair with him. For the next 45 hours I tried to put him back to bed, but without success. I finally called Randy, and he had more luck. That allowed me to get on with work, and start writing this update. I kept falling asleep while writing until I got up and started writing standing up. Now I have to do the dishes and then I'm going to bed.