Day 897. Last night it was 12:45 am, when I went to bed, which was once again later than I would have liked. They both joined us in bed in the early morning hours. It was 7:10, when they got up, and half an hour later we all got up. I made breakfast, and we sat down to eat. Then I cleaned them up and dressed them. We had talked about doing something together this morning and decided this morning it was gonna be the indoor playground. Randy was eating breakfast, while I was finishing dressing them and getting everything ready for us to go.
We left the house at 9:25 and walked to the bus stop. We took the bus that only runs every half hour, but then made the mistake of getting off 3 stops to early. That was annoying. We had no choice but to walk for 20 minutes to get to the indoor playground. That cost us 15 minutes and we got there at 10:15. It was pretty cold.
We had to show that we've recently recovered from Covid and then paid; it was nice that Sammy got to go in free. We parked the strollers, took their coats and shoes off and took the elevator up one floor to the area for the 0 to 4 year-olds. It was our first time there. I was impressed with everything they had. The kids were excited and started going from item to item, not knowing where to look and what to do first. They enjoyed the ball pool, but didn't go the slide into it much. There was also another one with a big air castle and slide next to it, and Tammy was the only one going down as Emmy was too scared. Then they had a little maze that ended with a little slide. I decided to leave them there and look around to see if they had anything else outside that area that they could do. I could look down at the stuff for older kids as I walked on and then reached the trampolins. Perfect! I returned to where they were and together we went to the trampolins. They were all having fun. I was first jumping with them standing up, then lay down on the trampolin and took Sammy, jumping with him that way. He was having fun.
After a while we left there again and walked back and downstairs. We could see that they had round bumper boats in a pool which looked like a lot of fun. The past few days Emmy has been obsessed with being the captain of a boat, so it seemed that he would really enjoy that. We got into a boat, but Emmy was scared and crying. Once we were both in there and ready to go, we found out that you needed special coins that you can purchase at the entrance to run it, so we had to get back out. I talked to Randy and then we went to buy enough for two boat rides. I was only allowed to take one child in there with me at the time. I put Emmy into the boat, and he was once again scared and crying. Then I got in and had him between my legs so he could steer, which is what he wanted to do, and the tears turned to joy. He was having so much fun going around this little pool! It really wasn't that long until our time was up, and the guy had to pull us back in.
The whole time we were on the water, we could hear Tammy cry hard, while she was watching us. She didn't understand that I could not take them both at once and thought that only Emmy was gonna ride the boat. Emmy got out off the boat, and Tammy climbed in and took her brother's place. She was excited and was less wild steering the boat. Now it was Sammy we heard crying. We got out of the boat and started walking around downstairs. We came to a little carrousel with two horses and Tammy and Emmy went on one, and Sammy on the other, and they went around a few times. Then they had huge lego pieces a girl was building a house with. While Emmy didn't care, Tammy immediately started picking up blocks and stacking them. Then there was nother air-castle type slide. Emmy was too scared to go up, but Tammy went up by herself and down a few times. It was getting late, so it was time to go.
We started walking back towards the exit on the other side that we hadn't seen yet. There was definitely more stuff they could have gone, and they did not want to leave yet, even though we had been there for 90 minutes, but it was already later than planned. We got back to the strollers and dressed them all again and left to walk to the bus stop. It was windy and cold. It was still a good walk to the bus stop, and then we still had to wait 20 minutes for our bus. Then we got on and rode it all the way to the end. From there we still had a good walk home.
It was 12:25 before we got home, so half an hour later than planned. I immediately put the soup on the stove to warm it up, and we took all their clothes off. By then the soup was warm enough to eat, and so we all sat down by the table. Tammy hardly ate anything, Emmy ate more. Then they got up to go potty, and both succeeded. I gave them their gummy bears, and they had som cake. Then the doorbell rang; it was the cleaning lady we hadn't seen since before our trip to Mali. They were all a little fearful which is so unlike them. She even gave them all candy. She went to work, and I went to work cleaning them up and dressing them. Sammy went to bed first and was asleep by 1:10. Emmy went to bed next and was asleep by 1:15. I had never even had time to sit down by their beds yet. I was still tidying up so the cleaning lady could do her job. Then Tammy came upstairs and went to bed at 1:25, but she simply would not go to sleep. I finally walked away, but came back to help her fall asleep. It took her half an hour.
I went to work instead of taking a nap At 2:50 Emmy walked into the room, and Sammy started fussing at the same time. Emmy got some milk, Randy got Sammy out of his bed, and we all went downstairs, together with snacks. I went back upstairs and to work while Tammy was asleep. At 3:35 I turned the ocean waves off, which was enough to get her to wake up. I tidied up some stuff in their bedroom and then took her downstairs with some squeezies. I returned upstairs to do a little more work, and then went downstairs with my computer at 4 pm.
And then the fun started. Tammy wanted to look at the new photobook that arrived today. Sammy was crawling around, but I have to be careful as he tends to put the pages into his mouth and tears them, and those books are expensive and meant to last. It wasn't long before they wanted to watch Paw Patrol, so I put it on the Alexa device. Sammy wanted to be with me, but he was not interested in watching. Once he got too cranky, I took him to the swing, where he was laughing again. Emmy wanted to also swing, so I put him behind his brother, and they had fun together - for a short time. It's often the case that Tammy stays with the video for the longest. She watched some Peppa Pig as well.
They were playing with their kitchen, saying how they were gonna cook for us. But first they had to go shopping. I had just received play money so we could play the check-out and have them pay, but I had not used it yet. I kept asking them whether they had everything they needed in their carts, and they kept saying no. Until they were ready. We have this little cash register I sat down with and started "scanning" each item in Emmy's cart, putting it all into a plastic bag I had brought downstairs for this purpose. In the end I asked him for money, and he gave me the 200€ bill I had given him earlier. I gave him smaller bills and coins back, and he guarded them as if they were real money. Then it was Tammy's turn, and I repeated it all with her. I don't know what had happened but Emmy was upset and turned the plastic bag over so that everything went flying. Then he lay down on the floor and I never figured out what he was upset about.
I looked at the clock; it was time to start tidying up, but nobody was helping me. Then we all went upstairs. The cleaning lady was still working upstairs, but we were able to go to the kitchen, pull the chairs up, and start getting dinner ready, with them already eating what I put on their plates. Then I warmed the soup up, and everybody sat down at the table to eat. They were still watching the cleaning lady with suspicion and said good-bye, when she left. When they were done eating, it was potty time, and Emmy succeeded. But while Tammy was on the potty, more was coming out and ended up on the floor. And then he peed on the floor in the bathroom before he could go into the bathtub. I told him to let me know in the future that he needed the potty before he'd just let it go on the floor.
I put their remaining food on a plate that I took to the bathroom with us, and they finished it all. I hate doing this again, but they do eat that way. They were also having fun playing in the water. Then Sammy came out first, followed by Emmy and then Tammy. We got them all ready for bed, and it was about 7 pm, when they were finally all lying down, and I sat down by their beds. It was a typical evening with them all talking about the day and Tammy lying on my chest. After a while she returned to her bed, but we continued talking. Randy then took my place, and I went to the kitchen to get my salad ready. Then I took Randy's place again and sat there until they fell asleep, which was only just before 8 pm, and Sammy was STILL awake at that point. I took my salad downstairs, ate, and then went back to work. Now It's midnight and I'm really tired and need some sleep.
