29 months 15 days

Day 898. Last night I headed to bed at 12:30 am. Just after 4 am Emmy crawled into bed with us, and Tammy also did at some time. At 7:10 they were up, and at 7:45 we all got up. I made breakfast, we sat down to eat, and then they went potty. Then I cleaned them up and dressed them, and we went downstairs. First I did a PCR test, and then I sat down to read a Bible story with them. When Randy came downstairs, he did his test, and then he left to take them to the dropoff box. In the meantime I was playing with them, and we were once again playing going shopping in the supermarkt, where they gave me money, and I gave them money back. When Randy came back, he sat down to eat his breakfast - late, as it was already 10 am - and I went upstairs to work.

I closed the door so I would not hear them cry or call me, but it didn't work. At 11 or so I went downstairs because Tammy was crying, and so was Sammy, and I took care of all three of them so they didn't have to cry any more. Tammy wanted to swing, but they often speak German with Daddy, and so he doesn't understand what they want. This would be a good time to learn German. Sammy wanted to be thrown around, and so I did a lot of that to get him laughing and happy, but as soon as I'd put him down, he'd cry again. With 11:30 approaching I left again, which got them upset again. I put food into the oven and returned to work. Just before noon I warmed up leftovers and put it on their plates, and Randy came upstairs with them. Then we sat down to eat. I put the lasagna on our own plates, and as expected they were more interested in our food and had some of it as well. Tammy didn't really hardly eat anything, Emmy ate a little. They are now so eager to go potty after eating that they don't get to eat puddings any more. They went potty and then had some cake. We cleaned them up and dressed them, and the boys went to bed, while Randy went downstairs with Tammy.

The boys were wide awake at first. I finally left them, and they fell asleep without me around 1 pm. A few minutes later Randy came upstairs with Tammy who went to bed. I was very tired, but it didn't look like the girl was at all. In the end I left her as well and she fell asleep by herself not long before it was 2 pm. It was about that time that I finally closed my eyes and fell asleep myself. A few minutes later Emmy woke up, Randy told me, and went downstairs with him. At 3 pm Tammy woke up, as well as Sammy, and she came to me and I held her for a few minutes. Then Randy and Emmy came upstairs to get snacks, and we all went downstairs. Tammy is always cranky after waking up, and today she wanted to watch babies, and I said no, and so she started crying and crying. I went upstairs hoping to work. They kept crying, as Emmy joined his sister, and would not stop. I finally took my computer downstairs to stay there. But they continued crying. She cried until 3:45, wanting to watch babies. I had them both on my lap, while Randy was feeding Sammy. Then they finally got up to go eat some snacks and play.

As always they all wanted to go in the swing, and I had the boys in there together for a while, until they complained about it being too tight. They're getting bigger!

Sammy was a little cranky, and when he's upset, he beats his head against the ground. He actually has blue spots on his forehead from doing that, even though we stop it as quickly as we can. I did some more throwing him around to make him happy, and then Randy put him in the home-made walker and he walked around the whole room. It's definitely not ideal, as he's not in a good position, but he likes it. It will be a few more months before he gets a real walker.

At one point he was happily playing by himself, going through the play food in the box. Tammy was also pretty busy cooking for her baby, and having her baby go potty, and rocking her. When she brings me the food she made in her toy kitchen to eat, her eyes always light up, when I tell her how good it is and what a great cook she is.

We also played going shopping again. I'm teaching them how it works, as they have not been to a grocery store often yet. They put food into their carts and then came to me to pay. I "scanned" each item with the toy registry and put them into a plastic bag. Then they gave me their money, and I gave them money back. They enjoyed the game.

Emmy was rather cranky, and he came to me for more balloons, even though they have quite a few blown up right now. I blew up six more for them, each a different color, and we made a color-learning session out of it. They're getting better at it, but still get it wrong a lot. Emmy wanted more balloons, but I said it was enough, and so he threw a fit, which you can see on the last picture.

Today it was Emmy who was first to want to watch Barbapapa as dinner time was approaching. At that time, when they're getting tired, hungry and cranky, I like to let them watch, and so they sat down and watched an episode of Paw Patrol. That's all the time we had. As Randy had already been tidying up, we went straight upstairs instead of tidying up together. They pulled chairs up to the kitchen counter to stand on, and I put their plates in front of them and the food I was cutting up on their plates, so they could it eat right away. They eat pretty well that way, but then don't hardly eat, when we sit down at the table. Today they at least ate a big part of their soup at the table. Then they already left to go potty. From there they went into the bathtub, and I put the rest of the food in a bowl, and so they ended up eating most of it. Sammy actually finished his food and ate some of theirs.

They were having fun in the bathtub as always. Then we got them out one after another and got them ready for bed. They have been eating cake at that point, after having brushed their teeth, which I know is not ideal. They went to bed one after another, with a prayer from Mommy, and by 6:50 they were all in bed. I sat down by them, Tammy lay down on my chest, and we talked about all kinds of things for a while, and prayed for all the people they wanted to pray for. I left them just before 7:30, when they were already close to falling asleep, and Randy took my place. I got myself something to eat and went downstairs to eat. Then I went back to work. I have not made enough progress in my workload recently, but don't know how to improve on that. We have not had any help this past month, with us and also Sonja being sick. Tomorrow she's coming for the first time, but she has to take it easy to start with.