28 months 21 days

Day 873. Last night I headed to bed at 1 am. The kids had all been sleeping peacefully in their beds up to that point. Before I could fall asleep, the girl came asking for milk. I gave her milk, and I was surprised to see her go back to her bed. A few minutes later she came back and joined us in bed. She then had a rough night. Her body was really hot from the fever. She tossed and turned and frequently asked for milk or to be covered. Thankfully her brother stayed in his bed.

It was 6:30, when Emmy came and lay down on my other side. I was hoping he was not ready to get up yet, and thank God, he fell back asleep. It was 8:15, before he woke up and got up, and Tammy followed him. She was pretty cranky.

I got Sammy out of bed and went to the kitchen to make some of their cereal. We sat down at the table, but Tammy and Emmy barely touched the cereal. They wanted squeezies again. Sammy is the only one who ate the banana.

After breakfast I cleaned them up and dressed them, and then we went downstairs. Even though their best Bibles are in our suitcases that haven't arrived yet, I had a few others and got one out. We sat down on the floor and started reading it. Sammy crawled away to play, but Tammy and Emmy stayed with me and listened carefully. When Randy came with his breakfast, I left them and went upstairs. I did some cleaning up and then turned my computer on to work. I could tell we had gotten up late, as time was short. At 11:15 I went to the kitchen to start cooking.

The kids have been free to move all the way to the stairs downstairs instead of Randy putting the barrier back up they used to have, but the gate on the bottom of the stairs is still broken, and so they are able to come upstairs, which they did around 11:40. By that time the food was actually close to being done. I got the bendable sticks they received on the airplane back out to occupy them. At 11:50 we sat down at the table to eat. Emmy ate really well, Tammy didn't eat much. She didn't feel that hot any more, though. They all had some yogurt after the main dish. Then I cleaned them up and dressed them again. Just after 12:30 they all went to bed - at the same time. I sat down with them. They seemed tired, even though they were talking and not sleeping. I, however, suddenly got so tired. Then Emmy asked for Daddy to sit down in the chair instead of me, and so I gave him the chair and lay down. I was about to fall asleep, when I heard all that noise from the kids' room. They were still awake and talking, and so was Sammy. I took the chair again to get them to sleep, and a few minutes later they fell asleep, around 1 pm.

I could have gone back to sleep myself, but started working instead to do some much-needed stuff.

At 2:45 pm Emmy suddenly came into the room but continued right on to his Daddy, who then took him downstairs. Nearly an hour later, at 3:40, Randy and Emmy returned. It was time for the other two to wake up, and so we talked without holding back. I probably shouldn't have let the other two sleep that long, but I'm still letting them catch up from our trip. Tammy got up and came to me, and then I got up myself to pick up Sammy, who was not responding to my calls. We then all walked downstairs - with a few squeezies in hand. I took my computer downstairs to my office as well to try to work there, where they can have access to me, like I did in Mali. I just can't do any work that requires concentration, but that way I can work AND be with the children. Tammy and Emmy seemed to be with me more than with Randy and more than in their play area. Emmy was a little cranky, and so we tried to call Grandma and Sonja, but neither one was available. When we made those calls, Sammy crawled all across the room to get to us to be a part of the call.

Sammy had a really good day today. He seems much happier here than in Mali, playing all by himself, while in Mali he was crying constantly and needed Randy to hold him constantly. I think he prefers it just being the five of us, and the quiet, while there was always action in Mali, and always people in and out and noise and animals. As for Tammy and Emmy, they asked about everyone in Mali all day long, and I had to keep telling them that Paul is in Mali, and Amadou is in Mali, etc. They also asked a lot about Sonja and Grandma that they are eager to see.

About the last two weeks we were in Mali the kids started a game that they really enjoyed. They'd shout out the living room window, saying "hello Mommy", and I'd shout back out the window, where I was working, "hello Emmy" or "hello Tammy", which they thought was hilarious, and we'd just keep going back and forth like that for a while. Today they did that in the apartment as well a little, though it's obviously not quite the same.

They love photobooks and wanted to look at the November one that had just arrived, but didn't stick with it for long. And I put doll diapers on 3 of Tammy's dolls. For some reason they always take the dolls' clothes off, but Tammy appreciated the diapers and never tried to take them off. She put her dolls into the shopping cart and walked them around the room.

And the swing was highly popular again. I'd have to give them a push to go really high, then sit back down at the computer, just for them to call me right back for another push. They were laughing, that's how much they were enjoying it.

I thought about doing dinner later than we have been, so they'd fall asleep faster, but Emmy was already asking for food just after 5 pm, even with all the squeezies they'd had. And so I stopped working at 5:40 pm to go upstairs to get their food ready. A few minutes later they all followed me upstairs, even though Randy has now fixed the gate on the bottom of the stairs so they can't go upstairs unless we let them.

Within minutes of them coming they were able to sit down at the table to eat, but they didn't eat that much. They did drink quite a bit of the leftover breakfast cereal, but then they just started playing instead of eating. By the way, I don't understand why and how, but Emmy' diarrhea is gone now, just from being back here.

Then they went into the bathtub, where they were having fun for a while. Then we got them out to put their pj's on. The air is now really cold, when they come out. Tammy was crying. Thankfully her fever left over the course of the day, even with her nose still being runny. She went to bed first instead of last today. It wasn't even 7 pm yet, when they were all in bed. At first I thought they'd go to sleep fast again, but that was not the case at all. We were back to going through our typical fight to get them to sleep. Randy and I took turns a couple of times. When Sammy has slept over two hours in the afternoon, it's about impossible to get him to sleep at night. He was just playing around. And then Tammy was asking for food. I hadn't taken the food to the bathtub, like we did before Mali, and I'd rather not start doing that again. But now they were all hungry, and Randy had already thrown away their food. All I could offer them was solettis, and they ate a lot of them.

Sitting in that chair, waiting for them to fall asleep, I got very tired myself, and I was also cold. Whenever Randy took the chair, I'd lie down in our bed, cover up, and close my eyes. I returned to the chair, when the kids were crying for me and was there, when they all finally fell asleep. Then I went back to bed myself to warm up and close my eyes. I was wondering what I should eat, as some items had not been delivered, like bread, but I was not ready to get up yet. I actually fell asleep a few times, and then woke up frustrated that I was in bed instead of working. About 10:30 I finally did get up and got something to eat. I went downstairs to my office to get back to work, so I could get it done and then go to bed at a better time than yesterday. Randy already went to bed around 11 pm.