26 months 25 days

Day 817. Last night I went to bed at 12:20 pm. It was Tammy who came rather early to sleep in my arm. Emmy came later, and at 6 am Emmy was up for good, and soon his sister joined him. Just after 7 am I got up to make breakfast for them.

After breakfast I took them downstairs, where I got their Bibles out, and we read a few more stories, but not for as long as usual today. They walk by all our open suitcases that we are packing to get to their play area and they usually see some toy or stuffed animal they are interested in and take it with them. So they were a bit distracted with those.

When Randy came with his breakfast, I went upstairs, finished cleaning up, and had just sat down to start doing office work, when I heard someone hammering on our door. It was my Mom who didn't want to ring the doorbell, just in case someone was sleeping. It was 8:45 am. She had told me that she'd come to drop a few things off and leave right away, because of the record high Corona numbers, and so I was pleasantly surprised, when she took her shoes off and went downstairs to where the kids were. She stayed for nearly two hours, with her mask on, having fun with them. They hadn't seen her in a month and enjoyed spending time with her.

Grandma had brought a book with her, and especially Tammy loves books. Emmy and Tammy sat down with Grandma who started reading the book with them, while I was holding Sammy at first. Then they wanted to look at photobooks, and so they did that for a little while. Emmy wanted to go into the swing, and Grandma pushed him. Tammy was also in the swing and made movements to make it move herself, which was impressive.

Emmy had seen a picture in the book of when they had had the blanket on top of the slide and crawled under like in a cave, and so he wanted to do that again. I put the slide down and the blanket over it and he crawled under it, playing peek-a-boo. Then his sister joined him. She went under, and Emmy hugged his sister from the outside, which was really cute. Sammy also crawled over to them and lifted the blanket to expose his brother under it.

At 10:45 Grandma had to leave, and I saw her off. I finally got to sit down to do office work, and at 11:30 I went to the kitchen to cook. At noon I called them upstairs to eat, and then the doorbell rang and Sonja arrived.

I had made spagetti with meat and tomato sauce, and we all sat down at the table to eat the same food. Tammy was very cranky and just wanted to sit in my lap, but not eat at all. Emmy finally sat down but only ate a few spoonfuls. He did put his spoon into Sonja's plate to get some food out, even though it was the same. Tammy wanted squeezy drinks instead, and had some, so did Emmy. Since they hadn't eaten, there was no pudding, and there was also no reason to go into the bathtub, as they were not dirty. It wasn't even 12:30 yet, so a little early, and Emmy started crying, when Tammy was going downstairs with Sonja. Given how early it was, I took him downstairs as well, which made him really happy. They both go to do some drawing with Sonja.

I put Sammy to bed, and at 12:45 Randy went to get Emmy to put him to bed. He was not happy, but I finally got him to sleep. At 1:15 it was Tammy's turn, and Randy stayed with her, until she was asleep, which didn't take too long. All three were asleep.

I was doing office work. Just after 2 pm Sammy woke up, and I took him downstairs to Sonja. Emmy woke up next, and he immediately asked to go downstairs to Sonja. At 3 pm we took some snacks downstairs to them. Tammy only woke up at 3:30, with a little help from me, and I took her downstairs as well. It takes her a while to wake up. She clung to me, and so I sat down on the couch with her, just holding her. She was not gonna let me go, even though they all know the German word for "to work" and understand that that means that Mommy is not with them. Tammy refused to let me go, and did not accept Daddy as an alternative either. So I stayed a while, until she slowly started being interested in stuff, and then I left. I left a crying Tammy behind. She cried so hard that I returned after a few minutes and held her some more before going upstairs to work. It was already after 4 pm by then.

Time to work was short, less than an hour. Just before 5 I went to the kitchen to start making their dinner, and half an hour later I went downstairs. I told them it was time to tidy up, but I ended up being the only one tidying up, with a little help from Sonja. Just before 6 pm we went upstairs to eat.

Thankfully both Tammy and Emmy ate their soup, and they would have eaten more if there had been more. Tammy wanted no other food, while Emmy ate all his pineapple, and also took it off his sister's plate. Then he wanted to go into the bathtub as well. I put the rest of their food onto a plate, and Sonja fed them in the water. Once Sammy joined them, I was the one holding Sammy upright so he could play with the faucet and feeding him at the same time. Nobody finished their plate. Sammy came out first, and then the other two. They were in bed quite a bit before 7 pm. I stayed with them for a while, talking with them, answering their questions, and mainly talking about Mali. "Emmy?" "Yes, Emmy is going to Mali." "Sammy?" "Yes, Sammy is going to Mali." etc. And Emmy keeps talking about the sheep we have there running around our house, as well as our two cats inside the house.

When they were getting more tired, and Randy's food was ready, he took my place with his food, while I went to get my own food ready. I ate and then went back to work. I don't know where the time has gone! Now I still have to do the cleanup.