28 months 5 days

Day 857. Last night I went to bed just before 10 pm. I successfully moved Emmy to their bed and left Tammy, where she was. Emmy only came back to our bed hours later. And so I had a half-decent night's sleep. Tammy got up early this morning, just after 6 am, after she had heard the sheep right outside our window. She got up and went to the window, where she stayed. Her brother woke up a little later, and before it was 6:30, I was up with them.

We fed the cats in the kitchen, and then I made breakfast. Paul soon stopped by to get some money for his errands. Then we all sat down to eat, but nobody is eating much these days. I cleaned them up and dressed them, and we went to the living room, where we got the nice Bible out and read a Bible story together.  Then I went to the back to work.

Emmy soon came and already yawned many hours before it was nap time. He was pretty cranky this morning. He kept asking for Margit who usually comes around 10 am. We tried to reach some friends on WhatsApp and reached one. So we enjoyed talking with her. Randy had dropped Sammy on me too, so he was a part as well. When Margit came, they immediately went outside to go see the sheep.

In the meantime Paul had returned, and we were talking business. Then I was able to return to the computer and keep working, with the kids coming and going. At 11:30 I went to the kitchen to start making some food. We had beef and sweet potatoes, and leftover rice with vegetables, but while I was cooking, they were eating bananas, and so they hardly touched any food at lunch time, and just had a little yoghurt.

The doctor had prescribed them another medicine to help with the aching bellies that they took for the first time. Then I took them to the bathtub to clean them up, and we dressed them again to put them to bed.

It was about 12:45, when they went to bed. Sammy was tired and fell asleep fast, but Tammy and Emmy were very active. They simply would not lie down.It was 1:30 before Tammy finally fell asleep, and nearly 2 pm before Emmy did. I was wondering whether he'd sleep at all today! Then I returned to doing office work.

At 3:30 pm Tammy woke up and would not go back to sleep. Sammy woke up in the process, and he had slept nearly 3 hours. I took them to the living room, but then Emmy was up as well, and so all three got up at the same time. Margit was just returning to our house and started playing with them. I was trying to work, with them coming and going, and Randy once again working on his project, which means Sammy gets cranky being with neither one of us pretty quickly. I took him and had him for a while. Fanta came over after 4 pm to do the dishes and help with the housework, and Paul and I had a serious conversation with her, trying to deal with some stuff.

It wasn't 6 pm yet, when we sat down to eat. Amadou had bought some white bread for us that they seem to like, and Emmy likes his cheese on it. Tammy was extremely cranky and threw a fit, when I told her that we do not have any watermelon right now, and she was determined to eat some. She hardly ate anything at all, but they all drink a lot of milk right now.

Once they were done for good, I took them to the bathtub. Tammy and Emmy went in, with the water still running. The water in the tub wasn't warm enough and so I turned the faucet to hot to make it warm faster and told them it was hot and not to touch it. I had to go to the bathroom and leave them for a minute. I hadn't even reached it yet, when I heard Tammy starting to cry hard. She hadn't listened and touched the water. I picked her up, and we went to the kitchen, where I gave her an icecube, then we returned to the bathtub, and she was alright going back in and playing. She hates getting water poured over her head, but I do it anyway most nights to wash her hair.

They came out of the water into the now fresh air (even though it's still 31 degrees C in our bedroom at that time), and we got them ready for bed. By 7 pm they were in bed. Sammy fell asleep relatively quickly, even though he had slept so long at nap time. Tammy and Emmy were still very active and needed until after 7:30 to fall asleep. Then I got up and got myself something to eat.

After eating I returnedt to work. Suddenly I heard a loud noise and then crying. This time it was Tammy who had fallen off the bed. I picked her up and comforted her and she calmed down. She still wanted to return to our bed and not theirs. Thank God for guardian angels!

And now I'm very tired and ready to go to bed myself. Tomorrow is gonna be a long night, and I don't even know how to stay up this long any more.