29 months 29 days

Day 912. Last night I headed to bed just before 12:30. Tammy joined us in bed at some point, and Emmy came in the early morning hours. They were up around 7:15, and half an hour later we also got up. They now move a chair to the shelf to climb up on and get to the cookie boxes that would otherwise be out of reach. They are always up to something mischievous in this time between getting up and us getting up.

I made breakfast, and we sat down to eat, but they never eat much (too many cookies?). Then I cleaned them up and dressed them. Since we got up a little later than usual, it was already nearing 9 am. Randy took his breakfast downstairs and opened all the blinds up. At 9 am the doorbell rang and the new Mobile Support lady arrived - for her second time ever. We all went downstairs together. I left them there to go back upstairs to clean up, put a chicken in the oven, and then go to work on the computer.

But first I called Paul who I had not communicated with in a while and got up to speed on everything going on. Then I started working. At 10:30 the lady left and I said my goodbyes. At 11 I had to go down the stairs to bring Emmy a pacifier and comfort him. He was actualyl okay, when I put him back on the ground and walked away after a few minutes. At 11:30 I started cooking. Randy already came upstairs with them 10 minutes early, but it wasn't until noon that it was all ready. Tammy ate lots of chicken today, but Emmy barely touched it. He is a pork-lover. He ate a lot of the rice and vegetables. Then he left to go potty - with success. I gave him a new diaper, and he returned to eat some puddings. Tammy didn't go potty and also ate her puddings. Sammy was rather cranky, but he also ate some puddings. Then we cleaned them up and dressed them, gave them cough sirup and nose drops. Tammy's nose is now dripping the worst, which made the Mobile Support lady nearly turn around, as they're not allowed to be here, when anyone is sick.

Randy went downstairs with Tammy, and the boys went to bed. By 12:45 they were both asleep. I returned to my computer and did my Covid test, Randy did his after coming upstairs with Tammy. Then he left to take the kits to the drop off location. Tammy went to bed after 1 pm, and it took her a while, as usual to fall asleep, which was around 1:45, after I had walked away. I returned to the computer to work and would have much rather closed my eyes and slept a few minutes. But I had to get their dinner-to-go boxes ready, as we had decided to go to the zoo with the weather being so beautiful. It was 2 pm, when I decided to close my eyes for a few minutes only. At 2:15 I woke up and saw Emmy standing next to me. I picked him up and made the mistake of telling him we were going to the zoo. He started crying, when we took him and his brother downstairs, as he wanted to leave right away. His crying woke up his sister who had only been asleep for half an hour, and I had to put her back to sleep. Then I went to the kitchen to get their food ready. After a while Emmy was calling up to me, asking me to let him come upstairs. I answered him with "not yet". I wanted Tammy to get as much sleep as possible. At 2:45 I let him come upstairs, and Tammy woke up and got up right after that from the noise. She was really cranky, as expected, after one hour of sleep with an interruption. She's also cranky, when she's had enough sleep, it's just the way she is. I dressed her anyway, while crying, and did the same with her brother, while Randy dressed Sammy. It was after 3 pm, before we left.

It's a long one-hour trip to the zoo, using two subways and then walking to the entrance. Even though it was their snack time, none of them wanted to eat anything. We got to the entrance just after 4 pm, showed them that we have recovered from Covid, showed them our one-year tickets, and were let in. At that point we didn't realize the zoo was already closing at 5 pm.

The giraffe house was closed because of a new baby. So we walked over to the kangaroos, but there weren't any. That was not a good start! We continued walking to the rhinos, and there weren't any either. Were we even gonna see anything? We saw a sleeping panda bear. We walked on to where the monkeys were, and the kids were excited to see them. Then we continued on to the elephants, who were inside. Tammy and I watched an elephant poop, and we were laughing at the quantity coming out of his behind. We all stayed in there watching the elephants for a while.  Then we continued on.

A lot of animals had already been moved inside for the night, and we happened to walk by those "houses" with glass windows, allowing us to see those animals close up that you usually only see from the distance. I've never seen a zebra this close up before! There were also flamingoes and antilopes. We walked on and saw two penguins and some sealions. On we went and then saw several cheetahs from close up, which was really cool.

We continued walking towards the exit, having confirmed with people that they were closing at 5 pm. Ever since telling Emmy we were going to the zoo he had wanted to see the fish, and our time was short. The house with the aquariums was right by the exit. When we got to it, we had 15 minutes left. I had Emmy and Tammy both standing in the single stroller, while Randy left the stroller at the door and carried Sammy. I'm glad I had the stroller, which made it much easier to not have to run after them, and they were able to see really well. Emmy was scared of the fish, while Tammy was touching the glass. Especially Tammy really enjoyed everything, but Emmy did too. There were big fish and small fish and colored fish. One time you walk through a glass tunnel, and a huge fish was right above us. Then we saw some kind of reptile, and it also had tiny birds inside with it. Emmy really liked those. We continued on, walking by the butterflies, and not seeing any of the turtles. We had reached the exit and walked outside and over to the bird cage right next to the exit. The parrots were really loud and moving around, and Tammy and Emmy were watching them. Then it was 5 pm, and we walked through the exit.

Traveling two hours for one hour in the zoo? It was still worth it. I got their lunch boxes out and gave one to Emmy who ate all the cantaloupe, which is their favorite fruit right now. Tammy only ate a few bites, and I fed Sammy while we were walking back to the subway. On the subway they ate some more, but Randy started giving them cookies which was more interesting. Tammy and Emmy wanted out and sat on seats with me, even though both subways were pretty full. Emmy was rather tired. It was 6 pm, when we got off the second subway, and five minutes later we walked through our apartment door.

Emmy was eager to go into the bathtub. They both took their diapers off and got in. I got their boxes out and took them there, and they ate more, though not everything. It seems like they were in the water longer than usual. We got them out and ready for bed, and by 7 pm they were all in bed. I sat by them, and Tammy lay down on my chest. Then she started talking about the day, and Emmy joined in as well. After a few minutes she returned to bed. Everybody wanted to drink some milk. Then I sang my two songs I always sang, which kind of marks the end of all the talking. After that I encouraged them to go to sleep. Emmy was asleep first. I finally walked away before the other two were asleep.

I got myself something to eat, ate, and went back to work. I was surprised that we both got our Covid test results pretty early tonight, even though Randy only dropped the kits off after 1 pm. We first tested positive on January 18th, and today it was the first time since then that Randy had a negative test result. The past few weeks it had been positive, but with such a high CT number so that he was not contagious and free to move around.