28 months

Day 853. Last night I went to bed at 1 am. I moved the girl to their bed so that I could have at least a short time without kids. It wasn't long before both Tammy and Emmy climbed into bed with us and stayed there until the morning. It wasn't a long night for me. At 7 am Emmy woke up vomiting. He cried and I let him lie down on my chest to comfort him. We got up, went to the kitchen, fed the cats, and I started making breakfast. Emmy wanted to sit on my lap and wasn't really interested in eating. He had hardly anything. Then I cleaned them up and dressed them for church. We were gonna go to the Christmas service at an international church. We were all pretty much ready to go, even though there was still a little time. Emmy had just had some milk to drink. He was in my arm, when he started vomiting again. Randy didn't think we should go to church because of that. What a shame. Emmy has been saying that his belly is hurting ever since.

Tammy has also been somewhat cranky, probably tired. We had already done quite a bit of cleanup yesterday. This morning the kids came to get the extra chairs that were still in our house, and then Bakary cleaned the floor where everybody had been gathered yesterday. Then we put the furniture back into place and the mattress on the floor. And then a few kids came over to play with ours, but most of them didn't stay long.

As for me I still had hundreds of pictures from yesterday to go through, choose from and edit. I was working on that, with Emmy and Tammy coming and going as usual. At one point they were both sitting on my lap watching "Barbapapa" on the computer, while I was working and typing at the same time, with both their heads leaning against my arm.

With noon approaching I put the soup on the stove to heat up, and I heated up some plain plasta for Emmy. Tammy ate most of her soup, and Emmy had 2-3 pieces of pasta, which is probably just the right amount to see whether he'll keep that down.  He wanted out of the chair, and I took him into my arms, where he rested his head on my shoulder. I started doing everything with him there, giving the other two yoghurt, for example. Randy then told me that his eyes were closed. He had fallen asleep. It was late, when they went to bed last night, and they got up at their usual time this morning. I put him to bed, and he simply continued sleeping.

Then I finished with the other two, cleaned them up and dressed them, and it was bedtime for them. As expected it was a challenge to put Sammy into a bed where his brother was sleeping. He immediately started crawling towards him. We had to stop him and move him back to his spot at the other end of the bed. But he thinks it's a game, laughs out loud, and starts crawling again. At one point Randy picked him up and sat down with him, and put him back to bed after a while, and then he was able to get him to fall asleep and not move any more.

As for Tammy, she must have had one of her worst fits ever. She was also very tired, which was the reason for her fit being so bad. She wanted to also lie in their own bed, where the boys were, but that was out of the question. I tried to hold her, and she tried to scratch me. Randy then held her, but it was the same story. After a few minutes I took her again, lying down in our bed with her, holding her tight against her will, singing over her. When I loosened my grip, she started to relax, certainly exhausted from all that effort, and fell asleep in my arms. By 12:45 she was asleep, Sammy by 1 pm.

I was able to get up and get back to work, going through yesterday's pictures. Emmy woke up first at 2:30. He wanted to be with Daddy, so I put him on Daddy's sleeping chest. Sammy woke up in the process, but fell back asleep. At 3 pm he woke up for good, and I took him to the living room as well. The girl kept sleeping, even when Emmy came back to join me and talked loudly. At 3:15 I told him that he could wake his sister up. H climbed up on the bed and enjoyed waking her up. For her waking up was not that much fun. But she did get up and follow her brother, when somebody had arrived at our house, and they needed to go see them.

Margit came over first, and later a few kids came for a short time as well. Tammy and Emmy had fun, as always, riding on their dogs or riding on the back of the Malian kids. They also kept coming to me, sitting on my lap, and watching stuff. Tammy ended up watching a lot of short viveo clips of the three of them, right after they were born. Emmy watched a few, but he does not have the ability to sit down for longer.

At one point they all left the house together to go the sheep for a few minutes. Emmy got hurt a lot today, falling a lot, and crying a lot. Thank God he never vomited again, but he was clearly tired from last night.

I also had Sammy for a while, who was also very cranky today. When he was with me, I was able to keep him happy and entertained. The amazing thing is that I was able to keep working, even with the kids being with me most of the time, as I only needed one hand most of the time to edit pictures.

At 5:30 I went to the kitchen to start making their dinner, and we already sat down to eat 15 minutes later. Tammy threw a fit again until she sat in my lap, where she calmly started eating. Emmy did not have much of an appetite yet and only nibbled a little on the different foods. Sammy has become the one who eats a lot now, and we need to weigh him again soon.

After dinner I took them to the bathtub, where they were having fun, but not for very long. When Emmy wants out of the water, you know that he is tired. He soon wanted out, and so he came out first. The other two followed shortly thereafter. We got them all ready for bed and had them in bed by 6:45. Emmy fell asleep first and fast. Sammy needed help, and so Randy helped him, while I helped the girl fall asleep. I was surprised that Tammy was as sleepy as she was. Just after 7 pm she was already in sleeping position. But every time I tried to leave, she raised up again and made me stay. After half an hour I'd had enough. I left and Randy took my place, and soon she was asleep for good. I got myself something to eat and then went back to work.

Now it's only just after 10 pm, and I've really been struggling writing, as I keep falling asleep. I need to go to bed early tonight.