26 months 29 days

Day 821.  Last night I went to bed at 12:30 am. Tammy joined us in bed again at some point; somehow she sneaks in, when we're the most asleep, so we let her join us instead of taking her back to her bed. Emmy came a little later. It was about 6:45 today, when Emmy was up for good and soon got his sister to get up together with him. At 7:20 I got up myself to make their breakfast.

After breakfast we went downstairs, where I got their Bibles out and we started reading them together. Once Randy came, I went upstairs to work, which they didn't really appreciate.

I was making good progress working. At 11 am Sonja arrived. Emmy had already been calling her name for 5 minutes, as I had shouted down to Randy for something and mentioned Sonja coming, so he heard her name. He kept calling her until she went downstairs, and he was so very excited to see her. Randy came upstairs and started making omelets for the adults at 11:20. I still had leftovers for the kids. At noon I helped Sonja get them all upstairs to eat.

At first Emmy started eating his chicken and rice, but as soon as I sat down with my omelet, that's what he wanted. I was sitting with Sammy, feeding him, as Randy hadn't finished all the omelets yet. Emmy left his seat and especially wanted the bacon, and then Tammy came as well. The bacon was gone in no time, and of course Sammy wanted some too. Randy gave up his bacon, so the kids could have more. Emmy also wanted the omelet, and I let him have as much as he wanted. The same was true for Sammy. As for Tammy, she has not been eating meals for some reason, and today was just the same. Emmy had eaten enough to get his puddings that he ate in the bathtub. As for the uneaten chicken with rice, it ended up being my dinner.

They were all having fun in the bathtub, including Sammy, who got to eat one of his special high-calorie puddings. Tammy wanted out after a while, and then we got the other ones out as well. She went downstairs with Sonja. Emmy was crying because he also wanted to go downstairs with her, but it was already 12:40 and time to lie down. And he was tired. Sammy fell asleep fast, and Randy sat down by their beds until they were both asleep, and then fell asleep himself. Just after 1 pm I went downstairs to get Tammy to put her to bed. She didn't want to leave Sonja and was crying, but she was tired. Once upstairs she ran to her sleeping Daddy who picked her up and let her fall asleep on his chest.

I went back to work, even though I was very tired myself. All afternoon I could tell the kids were still tired from two days of services and then the big check-up/test at the hospital yesterday. Randy and I were still pretty tired as well, and Randy stayed with the kids sleeping in the chair for a while, even though he needed to go to the grocery store. He left rather late. As for the kids, it was Tammy who was the first one getting up and running to find me. I had just picked her up, when Emmy came running, and so I took them both downstairs to Sonja. It was before 2:30. When I came back upstairs - leaving them without them crying - Sammy was also waking up, and so I picked him up and took him downstairs as well. But this time they were not gonna let me leave. Tammy sat on my lap putting her head down and did not want me to leave. She was her usual just-having-woken-up Tammy. I stayed for a while, when I suddenly heard the doorbell. We were expecting packages, so I thought that's what it was. Tammy wasn't gonna stay behind, so I carried her, and Emmy followed us.

We stood at the open door waiting, when it was my friend Renate who came towards us. I've known her a long-time, and she's the Austrian secretary for the ministry, and yet she had never come to our new apartment so far. It was time before our departure, and I was glad to see her. I gave her a tour of the apartment, and we ended it in the living room, which is also their play area. She and Sonja are friends, so they immediately had stuff to talk about. We all had a wonderful time talking with each other, and she interacted with Sammy most. Tammy and Emmy were still cranky for a while, but spent a lot of time in the swing. Sonja ended up putting them both into the swing - with their backs to the front, with their legs folded underneath them. But they seemed to enjoy themselves that way.

We had talked for a long time, when she had to say her goodbyes. She left some time after 4 pm, which was my opportunity to go upstairs and stay there. I didn't have enough time to delve into office work and soon started making their dinner. They were finally having fun downstairs, as I could tell from what I was hearing. After I was done, I went downstairs. It was about 5:30.

There was a lot of tidying up to do, and it was time to get started. Emmy decided to pull out the toy plates I had just put on the shelf, and he was not gonna get away with it. I did not let him leave until he picked them up and put them back. Sonja was able to motivate Tammy to put stuff away, and in the end even Emmy put a few things on shelves. It was enough for them both to get some money for their piggy banks, though Tammy more than Emmy. As soon as everything was pretty much put away, we left to go upstairs to eat.

Tammy was rather cranky, and did not finish her soup today, but Emmy ate some of hers. They did not eat much else at the table, and did not eat that much in the bathtub tonight. The same was true for Sammy. He came out of the water first, and then the other two. It was still quite a bit before 7 pm, when they were already all in bed. And I was glad that Randy sat down with them, as I was not feeling so great, mainly being tired. Randy got another nap in, sitting by their beds. As for me, I contined doing office work, which I had not been able to do in the afternoon, and then got myself something to eat, before continuing working.

Now it's still rather early, but I'm very tired, and so I hope to make it to bed early tonight. Just 5 more days and we'll be leaving for Mali.