28 months 7 days

Day 859. It was 2 am the last time I looked at the clock. They were finally falling asleep. There was hope they would sleep longer than usual, but Tammy was up at 7 am, and then the other two were up as well. So I had no choice but to get up. We fed the cats, and then I made their breakfast. Randy was slowly getting up and changed their diapers. We still had leftover drinks sitting in the living room from last night, and they kept picking them up and setting them on the table, then on the floor, then somewhere else.

We sat down to eat, then I cleaned them up and dressed them, and they wanted to read their Bible story, which we did. Then I went to the back to work. I was pretty tired, but still turned the computer on to catch up on work. The kids were coming and going and were also rather cranky/tired. And Margit understandably came a little later than usual, and received with enthusiasm. Emmy had been asking for her for quite a while. Randy was working on his project some more, and so I took Sammy to be with me for a while, since he was so cranky. The stool was lying sideways on the floor, and I put him by it. He put his left hand on top, but he does not have the same range of movement with his right arm, so I helped him put it on top as well. Then he was able to pull himself into a kneeling position. Then he tried to pull himself into a standing position, but the height of the chair wasn't ideal for that so I helped him out a little. Then the stool was a little bit like a walker, with the heights a little off.

With them being so cranky and tired, we sat down to eat at 11:45 already. Emmy hardly ate anything, Tammy ate more, and she had a lot more yoghurt than her brother. Then I took them to the bathtub to clean them up, we dressed them, and it was nap time. It was just after 12:30. Sammy fell asleep quickly, but not so the others, which was unexpected, as tired as they had seemed to be. It was a battle, and a battle that woke Sammy up after half an hour of sleep. It was impossible to get him to fall asleep again, and so Randy finally took him to the living room with him, where Randy took a nap, while Sammy played by himself. The girl finally fell asleep next to me around 1:10 pm, but Emmy was still not there yet and needed about another 10 minutes. I was so very tired I had intended to take a good nap with them, but around 2 pm I got up to get back to work. I was ready to lie back down with them, if needed, so they'd continue sleeping.

It was after 3 pm, when they started stirring. I finally did lie down with them, but Tammy got up first and a few minutes later Emmy. It was nearly 3:30 pm. They went to the living room to be with Daddy, while Randy dropped Sammy into his bed, after he had put him with him crying for a long time. Sammy had simply not slept long enough. I pulled out every trick in the hat to get him to fall asleep, and by 4 pm he was finally sleeping.

But at 4:40 pm Randy came into the room with the other two, ending his nap. From then on Sammy cried pretty much non-stop. He didn't even stop, when I held him, only Randy was able to get him to stop temporarily. And Randy wanted to sort through toys and stuffed animals to have two equal amounts of them. Every time he put Sammy down or had someone else hold him, he'd just scream his head off. The other two were also pretty cranky this afternoon. We sat down to have dinner at 5:45 pm, and at times all three were crying at the same time. I made a video clip to show that part of life too, but they stopped crying or at least reduced the intensity for the video. And Sammy would stop crying, when his siblings were crying hard, taking a break, I guess. What a concert! We just continued doing what we were doing, no matter what they were doing.

Once they were done at the table, I took them to the bathtub, where they had a short crying break, actually enjoying the water for a few minutes, though not for long. Emmy just wanted out, so he went out first, and then the other two followed right away. We got them ready for bed, and Sammy went to bed first. He fell asleep fast. Not so the other two. Bed time was at 6:30 pm tonight, and it was 8 pm before they were finally asleep, and I was able to get up. What a fight every day!

I got myself something to eat, and then went back to work. Randy continued sorting through stuffed animals and toys; he hadn't been able to do much earlier. He ended up with two equal heaps of 400 toys each, and we handed two boxes to Amadou so they can go to the village tomorrow. 1000 children in Dara will receive them and the 600 pairs of shoes.

I went back to work after eating, and am planing on going to bed at a decent time tonight.