Day 901. Last night I headed to bed at 1 am. I found Emmy in my bed and moved him to his own bed. Tammy came in the early morning hours, and then Emmy. Emmy stayed awake and got up just before 7:30, when he succeeded in waking in his sister up, and she got up with him. I got up as well to go make their breakfast. Emmy had been asking for cookies for a while, since I moved the snack boxes higher up after the disaster yesterday, so that they can't get them any more.
We sat down for breakfast, but for some reason Tammy didn't eat anything, and there were no cookies to blame. She also did not go potty, only Emmy, and he succeeded. Then I cleaned them up and dressed them and took them downstairs, where we read a Bible story. Then Emmy wanted to go in the swing, so I put him in. When Randy came with his breakfast, I got him out and went upstairs to work.
I was working for a while but was getting more and more tired. At 9:45 I closed my eyes and fell asleep until the doorbell rang at 10:30. That was perfect timing. I opened the door for Sonja and got to work in the kitchen, making soup for lunch. Sonja went downstairs and I immediately heard cheers of joy, when they saw her, and then lots of laughter as they were having fun. At 11 Randy came upstairs to go to another grocery store to buy the remaining items on our list. With the soup simmering away on the stove I went back to work. Just before noon I put the soup in their bowsl that I put in the fridge to cool off. At noon I went downstairs to get them, and we all went upstairs. We put them in their chairs, and I put the food on the table. With Randy not back I sat in his chair to feed Sammy. When they had enough, they all had some pudding. Then Emmy asked to go in the bathtub. We haven't done that at lunch time since coming back, but he obviously remembered how much fun he had there with Sonja. Since they won't go in the bathtub tonight, I thought why not. Randy had just returned at 12:20.
All three went into the bathtub, where they had some cake and were having fun playing in the water and with Sonja. After a while we got them out one after another, and the boys went to bed. It was already 12:55, so later than usual. After a few minutes they were asleep. Tammy came up at 1:15, and I simply could not get her to fall asleep. Why is it that every time you have to go somewhere and need them to fall asleep quickly with time being short, they do the opposite. It was 1:50, before it finally got quiet.
At 2:10 Sammy woke up and was taken downstairs to Sonja. Emmy walked up to me in the kitchen just before 2:30, while I was making their dinner-to-go, and I took him downstairs to Sonja for a little bit. I continued getting everything ready for us to leave at 3 pm. At 2:40 Tammy walked up to me. I called everyone to come upstairs, and we got them all dressed to leave. We were able to leave on time and walked to the subway together. That's where they had to say good-bye to Sonja. Especially Emmy was really sad about that.
We took the train, got some chestnuts, and then took the subway to church. We walked through the mall and got to the entertainment center. Tammy was walking, or rather running, and so we were ahead of the boys. When she saw the bumper cars, she immediately ran in there, and I put her in one. I pushed her and then Emmy around, but it would have taken money to ride them. We needed to continue on to church.
We got there before the service started, parked our strollers along the wall, and sat down in the last row. We were worshipping together for nearly half an hour. They already kept saying "baby room", and then we finally left to go there.
They immediately started playing with the many toys there. After a while I gave them their dinner box, and then Randy also started feeding Sammy. Tammy and Emmy were playing hard. Not just with the toys, but also running the cars around the room. They were playing the cars were boats and the ground water. and Tammy kept playing falling into the water and calling for help, but Emmy wasn't that interested in rescuing anybody.
Somebody came into the room to bring us communion, which impressed me, and they were also able to get the service on the TV screen going, so we could listen and follow what was going on. With 6 pm approaching we tidied up the room and then left to go back to the sanctuary. They were still praying for people, while the music was going, and we were in the back with the kids. I don't remember why, but Emmy started crying, and so I went into the lobby with him, and the others followed. A few minutes later the service was over. We talked to a few people, and the kids had fun with some people. Then it was time to go home. Emmy was really getting tired.
We pushed them back through the mall and only put their coats back on just before going putside. We took the subway and got to the train station early enough to make the 7 pm train and late enough not to have to wait more than a few minutes. They had nearly finished all the food in their lunch boxes, when the train arrived. It was one with a table, which really exited them, and of course we had to sit there. A black man also sat down there, opposite us, and he started having fun with tthe kids. In the end I asked him where he was from which started a conversation. We got off at our stop and walked home, where we arrived by 7:20.
We immediately started taking their clothes off and getting them ready for bed. 20 minutes after arriving they were all in bed, and I sat down with them. Tammy came to lie down on my chest as always, and we talked about all kind of things, while I encouraged them to go to sleep. All three were awake. It took until about 8:15 before they were finally asleep. I walked downstairs, where Randy was already waiting for me with the delivered food and sat down by him. We chose a cheezy Valentine's Day movie and started eating. Half-way through the movie we stopped it and returned to our regular routine of things we do or have to do. It got way too late for me once again, and so I've been falling asleep while typing, but now I can finally head to bed. It's nearly 1 am.
