29 months 4 days

Day 887. Last night I headed to bed at midnight, but it was a long time until I finally got to fall asleep. Emmy came to me three times, but he was really good at walking back or being walked back to his bed each time. He's learning! And so we had the bed to ourselves until the early morning hours, when first Tammy and then Emmy came. By 6:20 they were up for good, and by 7 we were all up.

I made breakfast, and after breakfast I cleaned them up and dressed them, and we went downstairs to read a Bible story. They saw the contraption Randy had finished last night to work with Sammy, and they immediately loved it. Emmy put a big block by it and climbed over the railing inside, and Tammy followed him. Then they kept climbing in and out and giggling the whole time. In the end I put a blanket over it so that they had a cave, and they loved it. There was an opening on the bottom, and Sammy was on the outside talking with them on the inside. I left them at that point to go upstairs to work.

I didn't go straight to my computer, as I had some cleaning up and organizing to do first. Then I turned the computer on, even though I was very tired after a shorter than usual night. By 10 am I could not go on and closed my eyes, setting a 90 minute timer.

It was a rough awakening, when the timer went off. I got up and went to the kitchen to cook. As always, Randy came upstairs with them early, at 11:45. By noon we all sat by the table to eat. Tammy and Emmy ate lots of meat - they like pork - and I had to give them more. As always they did not touch the dumplings. I had been unaware that I was out of sauerkraut, so I cooked some mixed vegetables that they also barely touched. Then they had some pudding, the boys also cake, and Tammy and Emmy had some peanuts at the end. We cleaned them up and dressed them, and the boys went to bed, while Randy went downstairs with Tammy. Sammy fell asleep quickly today, but not so Emmy. He kept talking about going to the service, and I kept telling him he needed to sleep quickly, so we could go. That didn't help. It was 1:10 before he finally fell asleep. Then Tammy came upstairs, and by 1:30 she was asleep too. TIme for me was short to get everything ready for us to leave by 3 pm, plus I was very tired myself.

Sammy woke up at 2:10, and I picked him up and carried him to Randy. Then Emmy got up at 2:20, and all he talked about was "Gottesdienst", going to the service at church, and I kept telling him that's what we were doing. Tammy woke up crying at 2:30; she's usually pretty cranky, when she wakes up, and she also kept talking about going to church. We still had plenty of time, so I tried to ask them for patience, told them we were going but still had some time. Randy went downstairs with Sammy and the snacks, while I slowly started dressing them and myself. I had already finished making their dinner to go and to put it in boxes, and the stroller was also ready with everything we'd need to take with us.

We left at 3 pm, saying good-bye to Randy and Sammy. Randy's last Corona test was still positive, and I cannot handle taking more than the two with me.

It was raining, which is why Randy had suggested we'd stay home, but they'd been talking for so long about going to church and were so eager to go. I pushed them as quickly as possible throught the train to get to the subway station, and then we walked on to the train station. We still had some time to wait, and so Emmy stood on the bench. It was too cold to sit on the metal. The train came, and both of them sat on seats on it. Then we got off and took the subway to get to church. It was still raining, and we still had a little walk ahead of us to get to our destination. I opened my umbrella and held it over the kids who were both sitting in the stroller, and pushed the stroller with my other hand, trying to see what was ahead. I was glad, when we got to the building, and had a hard time opening the heavy double-doors to get inside. We took the elevator all the way up to the top floor, where the church now is. We hadn't been there since November, since before we left for Mali. When I looked at the first poster on a door, I saw that it was celebration weekend. That meant there were no individual services, and so there probably was not service at 4 pm as usual. We still walked on to the coffee shop, where the entrance to the sanctuary was, and the people there confirmed to us that there was no service. Great! All the effort and no service. I guess I should have checked their website before leaving. We went to the bathroom and then turned around. I told them we'd walk around the entertainment center to see what was there and slowly walk back to the subway to go back home.

The first place we saw had different game machines sitting around, including for smaller kids, and they were watching with fascination. We didn't stay there long. Then they saw these round bumper cars. An adult with a kid younger then them was in one, driving around. I didn't even have any coins with me had I wanted to do this. But I put them in one car, and they inspected it all. Emmy loved it. Then I put him in another car and started pushing him to move him around, which he loved, and did the same with Tammy, but not for long. I told them we needed to move on. Emmy was crying, when I lifted him out of the car and walked away.

We continued walking into unknown territory, as I don't know that mall. We walked by a bunch of vespas behind glass that they were pretty interested in. Then we got to a guitar shop that really got their attention. They stood by the window looking at the guitars inside and didn't understand why they couldn't go inside. The shop was not open. We continued walking and got to the elevator to go down. It had glass walls so that you could look down, and they enjoyed doing so. Once on the bottom, we walked outside and straight into the subway station, so that we were not exposed to the rain. We just missed the subway, which was annoying, as the intervals were rather long. They had a squeezy and some snacks while waiting.

We took the subway for three stops and then had to take the elevator up to the train platform to go home. There were other people on the elevator that needed to get off on the level in between. That time delay meant that we missed our train. It closed its doors just as we got to it. We would have made it if the elevator had gone straight up to there. It was annoying as it was 30 minutes until the next train. That was a long time to wait in the cold with two little kids. We took the elevator down to the street level and went to the chestnut stand to buy some chestnuts. The kids were eager to eat them. We went inside, into the hall, where it wasn't quite as cold, and found a place to eat and wait. Tammy came out of the stroller as well, and so they were both running around and exploring everything, from the paper stand to the ticket machines. They enjoyed choosing all kinds of different tickets on the touch screen. Then we walked back over to the elevators and saw several dogs outside, on the other side of the glass. And so the kids went all the way to the glass to be nose to nose with the dogs and were having the greatest time. They were laughing, running there and running away again. The dog owners noticed but didn't mind. And then Emmy fell while running back towards the window. He hit the round metal edge right by his eye - exactly the same spot he injured right in the beginning of our time in Mali. What is it with Emmy alwas hurting himself bad right by his eyes! He was crying, and I picked him up. It was time to take the elevator back to the platform to take our train, and so I carried him on the elevator, with Tammy walking on. He didn't cry for long. Once outside again, it was cold, and I offered them my gloves. So they had a glove on each, which they enjoyed. Then our train arrived,  and we got on. It was 5 pm. They both got out of the stroller again to sit on the seats, but went back in before we got off. We still had to walk all the way home. As soon as we walked into our building, they got out of the stroller to walk themselves to our apartment door.

When I unlocked the door, there was Sammy on the floor. What was he doing upstairs at 5:15? Randy said they'd been tired of being downstairs. However, the other two were eager to go downstairs, and so everyone but me did. I turned my computer on and had just a few minutes to work in peace. Just before 6 pm they all came back upstairs to eat. I put their food from the lunch boxes on their plates, added the soup, and we sat down to eat. They didn't eat much, mainly strawberries and blueberries. Then they went on the potty - nothing happened - and into the bathtub. Sammy came out first, upset as always, and then the others, and we got them ready for bed. It was nearly 7 pm by the time they were all in bed. I sat down by them, and Tammy immediately came to lie on my chest. Surprisingly Emmy didn't tonight. I stayed with them until they fell asleep, which was 7:40 tonight. Then I went to get something to eat, ate, and went back to work. And it's taking me a little longer tonight to get done, even though I'm so very tired and was hoping for an early bed time. It's after midnight, and so far no sighting of Emmy.