27 months 13 days

Day 836. Last night I was so tired I fell into bed just after 11 pm. Tammy came at the same time, so no room for me to sleep comfortable. At some point Emmy came as well, and so I had a baby on either side of me. At around 1:30 am Emmy woke up and was asking for food; that's unusual as they only drink milk at night, and it's sitting right there to give them. But he insisted on food, and so he cried and cried, as I wasn't moving. He cried a long time before he fell back asleep. And then they were up some time after 6 already. It was after 6:30, when I got up, we opened the door, and they were excited to see the cat waiting there. I gave the cat some wet food, and they were watching her eat. The other cat doesn't let anyone touch her, and she was too scared to eat as well. The nice cat is also scared of our kids and tends to hit them in self-defense.

I made their breakfast, while Randy was giving them new diapers. Today they all had diarrhea to different degrees; I'm just hoping they'll get over it, rather than having diarreah for weeks like last year. I made omelet again, as they had some last night, and the girl ate some of it. Emmy didn't want to eat anything at all. After breakfast I cleaned them up and dressed them, and then we went to the living room to open the advent calendars. They love listening to the Christmas songs in the one and have opened most doors already, when I wasn't looking. It's all German/Austrian songs. Then we opened the Playmobil nativity one, and then the one with little books. Then we read two Bible stories - Emmy being absent, busy with other stuff. Then I left them with Randy to go to the back to do office work.

However, they seem more interested in being with me and seem to spend more time with me than with Randy in the living room. So you can imagine how hard it is to get work done. Sometimes I let them watch stuff on my phone, which never lasts for more than a few minutes anyway, and then they want to sit on my lap, while I'm working, which doesn't last long either.

Margit came at 10:30, which helped a little, even though she spends much time letting them watch stuff on her phone. At least that kept them busy once I started cooking at 11:15. Sammy wants to be held all the time right now, and when he's set down, he just cries. I was glad, when he finally stopped, when Margit was spending time with him, which hadn't really been the case so far.

Just before noon we sat down to eat, and Margit left to eat with the Malian kids. Last year our helper ate with us, but she likes to eat the Malian food. Tammy ate well today, Emmy less. Tammy also ate more than one yoghurt, when she ate Emmy's half that he hadn't finished. Then I cleaned them up and dressed them, and it was nap time.

I was surprised at how quickly Emmy fell asleep, after I had laid down with him. Tammy was still  pretty active and ended up on Randy's chest, where she fell asleep. I moved her to her bed, as Randy had fallen asleep as well. Even though I was tired, I was working. As 2 pm was approaching, Emmy rose up, and so I lay down with him and he fell asleep again. However, 5 minutes later the girl woke up, and then Sammy, and then Emmy, and so they were already up just after 2 pm. They wanted milk, and so we all had to get up and go to the kitchen.

We found Randy asleep in the living room, until three kids got to him. I gave them milk and some snacks, and returned to the back to work. With limited success, as they keep coming. Emmy is rather cranky and wants to be on my lap. They have already watched videos for a few minutes, and done some drawing. Amadou brought a baby sheep over that they petted. Emmy is still too scared of it. I can tell that they are bored and don't have enough to do. Sonja would always do all kinds of activities with them. And they don't have all those toys here that they have in Austria. No swing, no guitar, no play kitchen. And so they explore the house and get into things they shouldn't get into. Today they moved all the cat food into the cat water container.

Once Margit came over, I had a little more time without kids to work. At some point I sat down on the mattress in the living room because Sammy was crying and then stayed with him, playing with him and spending quality time with him. I ended up talking with Margit, telling her some of the recent history of Mali.

At 5:30 she left, I turned the slow-running water in the bathtub on, and then went to the kitchen to start getting dinner ready. Paul found some salami at the store today, but it's quite different than what they're used to. Emmy liked it, but Tammy didn't. It wasn't 6 pm yet, when we sat down to eat. Besides the Austrian bread they don't care for with salami, there was pineapple, watermelon and banana. Then I gave Tammy some yoghurt, while Emmy wanted more salami.

It was time to go into the bathtub, where they were having fun. Emmy was pretty cranky, though, and so he came out first, immediately followed by the other two. We got them ready for bed, and then we all sat down on our bed to read a Bible story. I prayed for them, and then it was bedtime.

They already have their spots, where they fall asleep. Emmy who I was sitting with fell asleep first, and Randy was with Tammy. She wanted to be picked up and held, but I simply could not figure out that she was saying "rock the baby". First of all, she doesn't speak English with me but German, and then I didn't know shed'refer to herself as baby. Randy told me it's a term he uses with her, and it was him after all who picked her up to sit in the chair with her. After a while she asked to be put back to bed, but it still took a while before she actually fell asleep.

Sammy usually falls asleep quickly and easily, but not tonight. He's had red cheeks for two days , and this afternoon Randy told me that he can see another tooth coming. With all the medications I packed for the kids, I did not bring the stuff to apply, when they're teething. And so he was crying in bed tonight, while the others were already asleep. I finally got him out and held him for a while, and then he was fine, when I put him back.

I finished eating and then went back to work. Once again I was so tired that I was falling asleep really early already. I'm most definitely ready for bed.