Day 846. Last night I headed to bed at 11:15. We had succesfully moved them all to their bed. It wasn't long before one came and then the other. Randy turned around, so we'd all have more room to sleep. First I had Tammy on my left and Emmy on my right, but I'm always conscious of protecting him from falling off the bed. Once I moved him to the middle, next to his sister, I had more peace of mind to sleep. Of course that meant, when one woke up it effected the other, and they woke up at times, so I still had plenty of interruptions, and we had to fill the milk back up a few times.
In the morning the power went out at 6 am. Suddenly the fans stop swirling above us, and it gets all quiet. It came back after a few minutes and was gone one more time for a few minutes. The kids woke up in the process. You could hear the roosters crow really well, as well as the sheep bleat as they were running around outside our house. By 6:30 they were getting up for good, and so did I. I opened the door, and the cats ran in. Emmy carried their food to the kitchen, where we gave it to them. Then I started making their breakfast.
Tammy did not want to go into her chair for some reason, so she sat on my lap, but she did not want to eat anything. She did eat a little bit of my oatmeal with milk, probably because of the milk. After breakfast we cleaned them up and dressed them, and then it was time for a Bible story and the advent calendars. Then I went to the back to work, and closed my door.
I could barely keep my eyes open I was so tired and decided it was more profitable for me to lie down and take a nap. It was only 8:15. I was an extremely rude awakening at 9 am, when Randy banged on the door. I was needed. I got up and did what they needed from me, but it was really hard. Then I lay back down for a few minutes, just to get the point of being able to function, before getting up and actually starting to work.
As always the kids kept coming and going. At one point Randy, Margit and the kids went outside to walk around and look at the sheep and chickens, but that was not for long. Then they were back, and they seem to want to be in the back, where I'm working, more than in the front, where the toys are. At one point Tammy did some drawing, and she did a great job, using many different colors. I told her the name of the color each time, and she always repeated it.
At 11:15 I went to the kitchen to start cooking. They always still ask for snacks at that time, but I don't let them have any this close to lunch time. I asked Margit to let them watch some videos, and that works very well to distract them.
As noon was approaching, we put them into the chairs. The potatoes were ready, but I had been unaware of how big and thick the fish was. Paul had bought a typical Malian fish that is a speciality that people eat at the restaurant, when they come to Mali. It's really good, but it was not ready. I finally got a small piece ready, but the kids didn't eat much of it anyway, and Randy didn't even want one bite of it. I thought it was delicious. So the kids only ate potatoes and salami and then had a yoghurt.
I took them to the bathtub to clean them up, then we dressed them and put them to bed. Today it was already close to 1 pm. Sammy fell asleep fast, as usual, and it was a different story for the other two as usual. I lay down on the bed between them, hoping I could get them to sleep, but it was a fight. Tammy finally fell asleep just before 1:30, and Emmy at 1:30. I got up to continue working on the computer.
Just before 3 pm Emmy sat up, and then Tammy as well. I quickly hopped into bed and lay down between them, and they both put their heads on me and continued sleeping. I didn't think there was any chance I could get back up without them waking up, but a few minutes later I surprisingly succeeded. At 3:37 pm I decided it was time to wake all three up so that they'll still fall asleep at night. We all went to the living room and since they were still sleepy, I stayed with them for a while.
At around 5 pm a good number of our children came over to play with our kids. I wished they had time to do that more often. Suddenly our house was filled with life and activity everywhere. They started looking at our photobooks that go all the way back to when I first came to Mali, and they were having lots of fun seeing themselves, when they were much younger.
They were also pulling our kids and Amaga around in circles through the living room, and had so much fun doing so. Tammy was also smiling and laughing, and so was Emmy - until he fell off the dog, which is what ended my video I was taking. He soon continued playing with the kids.
Sammy was also having fun, sitting by himself, and then Daddy put him on the dog as well and moved him around for a little bit. This morning I had put Sammy on the floor, and he grabbed the dog's leash and started crawling with it, pulling it. Tammy saw it and lay down to do the same with the other dog. It was so cute!
I was getting their dinner ready, and at 6 pm we said good-bye to everybody and put our kids into their chairs to eat. I think they ate more of their food tonight than ever. Then they went into the bathtub, where they were having fun. Tonight Sammy was playing with the faucet the way he used to do in Austria, and he was doing a lot of laughing, with his siblings putting their hands under the faucet, making the water go every which direction.
We got them out and ready for bed. I prayed for them, and we put them down to sleep. However, they were still pretty hyper. It took a whole hour and lots of nerves to get them to sleep. Then I got my food and went back to work. Tonight they have not woken up, only Sammy started crying a few times. When Randy went to bed, we moved Emmy and Tammy to their bed, but I know it won't be long until they return to our bed.
