3 years 3 months 22 days

Day 1209. It was another rough night. Emmy was up first, as usual, and at 9 am my alarm went off. I was so very tired and did not want to get up at all. The kids joined me in bed to open the advent calendars, then we sat down for breakfast. Time was going by fast, and my 10 am lesson was approaching quickly. I just about still managed to dress them, then I had to close my door. Randy took them downstairs, while I started my lesson.

Just before 11 am was done. I could hear some fussing downstairs and decided to use my remaining few minutes before having to cook to take the Christmas tree decorations downstairs and get started with the kids. I could only find one of the two boxes and took it downstairs. The kids were really excited, when I came with the stuff and started taking chocolates and putting them on the tree. I told them I wanted to put the lights on first, but they were in the other box. We put the star on top of the tree, and it was projecting rotating snowflakes onto the ceiling. We started looking for the other box and kept looking everywhere, but we simply could not find it. And then it was already high time to go to the kitchen to cook, so we went upstairs. The kids started watching videos, while I started cooking.

Just after noon we sat down to eat. Tammy finally ate better, now that she's over the worst part of this cold/virus. But now it's Emmy who has it the worst. He's had a fever, and had it all day. Tammy and Sammy had icecream, then they continued watching until 1:15, which is when they lie down to sleep. However, today I was having a tough time getting them to sleep. As I was so very tired myself, it was pretty frustrating. For some reason it was Sammy today who just would not sleep. He kept playing, throwing his pacifier out and then asking for it, and throwing it out again right away after I had handed it back to him. He did that numerous times. I finally ignored him, and after some time I was glad he started crying. I waited a little and then went back to him, gave him a pacifier and sat down by him. He finally went to sleep, but it was already 2 pm.  And now Emmy was already awake. I told him he needed to sleep more. He only agreed to lie down if it was in my bed, so I let him crawl into bed next to me. A few minutes later I also lay down, right next to him, and closed my eyes. I was kept awake for a while, but must have fallen asleep, as the timer woke me up after 25 minutes. It was time to get up and get ready to leave just after 3 pm.

We all put nice clothes on for the special Christmas service, but Randy had somehow missed the memo. We were in a rush and left just after 3 pm. It was really cold, especially because of the wind. We took the 3:20 train, then got fresh chestnuts and took the subway. Even though Tammy was the one who wanted the chestnuts, she only ate one, and the boys didn't want any today, which is very unusual. Tammy was really cranky today, which was a sign that she has not totally recovered yet. We walked into the shopping mall and crossed it to get to church. I had said to Emmy repeatedly that we could stay home, as he was sick, but he insisted that he wanted to go to church. You could tell he was sick as he did not want to run but sat in the stroller as we were crossing the mall.

We got to church just before the service was starting. We found some seats in the third row, and I sat down with Sammy, while Emmy was sitting in Daddy's lap. Tammy was first with them and then joined us. They were pretty quiet and watching the performances of Christmas songs. Tammy did ask a few times to go to the baby room, but I told her no. Sammy was having a good time sitting with Mommy.

About an hour into the program, it was announced that the kids could all go to another room to watch a Christmas movie, and so we joined the group. We went to a room I had never been in before and sat down in the first row. Then the movie "Bo and the Christmas star" started. I thought it was a great movie. After a while Sammy was getting antsy, and so I got up with him. We went to the back, where chairs were stacked against the wall, the stacks sitting next to it each other. Sammy started walking on them sideways, and the stacks not all being the same height gave him an additional challenge as he had to lift up his feet to take a step up. But he did great and walked the length of the row four times with my help. Then I tried to go back to the Christmas program with him, but he didn't want to be there, so we left again.

When the service was over and the movie was not, we left the movie to go to the café, where everybody was. We talked to a few people and then left. Emmy was visibly sick and just sitting in the stroller. Tammy wanted to push Sammy, so I let her. We walked back through the mall to the entrance, where there is a McDonald's. They had only had some snacks, but we needed to get home, and so we just bought some food to take with us. None of them ate much anyway. We took the subway, but then still had about 20 minutes until our train's arrival, and so we waited in the hall, with the kids watching Paw Patrol. I took Sammy to the ticket machine, where he had fun touching the touch screen and making it talk. Then we went to the platform and got on the 7 pm train. By 7:15 pm we were back home.

We filled the bathtub and put them in, together with some fruit. They all had some. Then Emmy came out first and went straight to bed. By the time we all sat down by their beds, Emmy was asleep. And so I opened the advent calendars with Tammy. I had just started reading the second story book, when Emmy woke up and quickly climbed out of bed to join the storytelling time. Then I prayed for them one by one and put them to bed and sat down by them. It was about 8:15 pm. They were all sick or tired, and so I was able to walk away just after 8:30 because they were all asleep. Emmy then woke up while I was making my salad and I had to stop and sit down by him again. He was soon asleep again, and I returned to the kitchen. It was about 9:15 pm before I was able to sit down and eat. Now it's after midnight, and it's been a rough night so far. All three are coughing, Emmy has a fever, and Tammy is also clearly still sick. Those two have already woken up a lot asking for milk or for me to sit by them. Emmy has also lied down next to me one time. I'm just very, very tired and about to head to the kitchen to clean up and then go to bed - for once before 2 am.