Day 811. Last night I went to bed just before midnight. Randy had to take the girl back to bed a few times, but then we had peace for a couple of hours. In the early morning hours they both climbed into bed with us, pretty much at the same time. They were up for good at 6:30 again, and we got up at about 7:10.
After breakfast, I took them downstairs, where we got the new Bibles out and started reading them. Once Randy came, I left them to go upstairs, finished cleaning, and then sat down to do office work. Just before 11:30 I went downstairs, and Randy went to the kitchen to make omelets for him and me. I had leftovers for the kids. And so the kids and I had half an hour of fun together. First we sat down to draw, and they did a great job. Then I put Sammy into the swing and got the slide down so they could "fly". They would go up the slide and then I'd take them by their hands and make them fly, which was pretty physical and tiring for me, but lots of fun.
At noon we went upstairs for lunch. I quickly warmed up their chicken and rice, and we sat down to eat. Randy hadn't quite finished making the omelets. Once it was in front of me, Emmy started with eating the bacon and then the omelet, and Tammy also had some bacon. They both had eaten well today, and so I got their puddings out. Then they went to the bathtub to enjoy the water, and I fed Sammy his special pudding.
We got them out, dressed them, and put the boys to bed. Randy sat down with them. I dressed the girl and went downstairs with her. She wanted to watch "Barbapapa" again. At 1 pm we tried to go upstairs, but we could still hear Emmy being awake, so we turned around. Ten minutes later we did go upstairs. Emmy was still not asleep. I put the girl to bed and took Emmy, lying down with him to get him to sleep. But it wasn't working, and so I put him back to bed. The girl was already asleep, but Emmy would still not sleep. He was crying, but at some point Randy got him to sleep after all.
But Sammy had already woken up. Once he'd had enough of being in bed, I got him out, and a few minutes later Randy went downstairs with him. At 3 pm I took some snacks downstairs to them. About half an hour later I turned the ocean sound off, and then it wasn't long that Emmy woke up, and Tammy at the same time, and I carried them both downstairs at the same time.
I returned to the kitchen and continued getting their dinner-to-go ready. Then I went back downstairs, and the kids would not let me go without them coming with me, and so we all went upstairs. I picked out their clothes and dressed them, and we left a little earlier than planned at 4:15 pm.
It was too late to make the 4:20 train, and so we got on the subway, which takes nearly twice as long, but we were in no rush. We don't usually go to church two days in a row, as it's just too exhausting, but we have to this weekend, as people are giving us stuff to take to Mali. So we compromised by going to church later. We got there just after 5 pm and went straight to the baby room, where we got their food out. They sat down at the table and started eating.
There was another baby in the room for a while, and they had some fun together. Then I turned my camera around so they could see themselves on the screen, and that's how the series of funny pictures of them were taken. They really enjoy seeing themselves on the screen.
They played some more until we could see on the screen that the service was drawing to a close. So we packed up and went to the sanctuary, where we stayed in the back. Tammy was talking loudly a few times. I had Sammy, and Randy ended up holding both Tammy and Emmy and one point. When the service ended, people started coming up to us to give us stuff for Mali. One lady took Sammy to help out, and he stayed with her for a while, taking her mask off, and Emmy also had fun with her. He also had fun with a teenage girl who always enjoys playing with them. Once we had everything together, it was time to leave. I talked to a friend on the way out, and by 6:40 we left to go back home. We took the subway and just about made it to the train station in time. I was glad we had not missed the 7 pm train. By 7:15 pm we were back home.
We undressed them, brushed their teeth, put their pj's on and put them to bed. They were still quite awake and gave us a challenge getting us to get them to sleep. Randy stayed with them, while I got myself something to eat, ate, and then went to work. It took a while, but often he falls asleep himself and therefore stays longer than necessary.
Now it's midnight. Just some more cleaning up, and I'll be the last one going to bed.
