30 months 1 day

Day 915. Last night I headed to bed at 12:45, once again later than planned. Tammy and Emmy both joined us at some point during. When I became aware of it around 5 am, because I had no room, I moved them back to their beds. They came again later. By 7 am Tammy was sleeping next to me again, and Emmy was walking up to me, asking me to get up and make breakfast, and Sammy was crying. I don't know how I managed to fall back asleep and only get up at 7:45. I was very tired.

I made their breakfast, and we sat down to eat. Then I cleaned them up and dressed them, and we went downstairs, where we read a Bible story together. Then I went back upstairs, where I spent some time doing housework before sitting down at the computer. Just after 10:30 the doorbell rang, and Emmy was immediately shouting "Sonja" downstairs. As the gate on the bottom of the stairs doesn't close right now, they came up the stairs to welcome her, and happily went back downstairs with her. Randy jumped on the opportunity to go shopping right then rather than after lunch, when time is tight as well, and left for the grocery store. At 11:20 I went to the kitchen to start cooking. I could hear the kids having fun downstairs.

Just after noon I called them to come upstairs to eat. There were two new foods on their plates, fish sticks and sweet potato mash. Sonja took their clothes off, while I got all the 6 plates ready. Who would have ever thought that I'd be cooking for 6 people! After everything was ready, I sat down by Sammy to feed him. He ate more than his siblings and really liked the food. Tammy and Emmy barely touched anything, but had puddings. I was telling Sonja what Emmy had said last night that I forgot to write down yesterday. I was sitting by their beds talking with them before they fall asleep, as usual, when Emmy said, "Mama alt. Neue Mama kaufen." Which means translated, "Mommy is old. I'm gonna by a new Mommy." I asked him if he wanted a different Mommy, and he said no. In the end he agreed that he wanted to keep me.

While we were talking and finishing up, Randy returned from the grocery store and started putting everything away. I started cleaning them up and dressing them, and then Randy got Sammy out of his chair and did the same with him. By 12:45 Emmy was in bed, and Sonja going downstairs with Tammy. Sammy came a few minutes later and fell asleep right away, before Emmy did at 12:55. At 1 pm Randy went to get Tammy who was asleep by 1:15. Perfect! For once they fell asleep quickly on a day, when it mattered because we had to leave the house early. I sat down by computer to work, tired but knowing I had little time since I had to get everything ready for us to leave at 3 pm.

At 2 pm I went to the kitchen to make their food-to-go. At 2:15 Emmy walked in and wanted to go downstairs to be with Sonja. Sammy was awake and crying, and that woke up Tammy who had only been asleep for an hour. So all three were up and went downstairs to be with Sonja. I continued getting their food ready and then chose their clothes to wear, and they came upstairs to get dressed. Today Emmy put both socks on by himself. We left the house on time, or rather early, at 3 pm.

We walked to the train station together where Sonja had to say goodbye. We took the train, bought some chestnuts that they love as much as their Mommy now, and took the subway for a few stops. Then we walked through the mall to get to the church. Tammy and Emmy were walking once we reached the top level, and Sammy was crying because he wanted to do the same. I got him out of the stroller and had him sit on the stroller handle while I was pushing it, and he was perfectly happy again.

We walked by the guitar shop that is such a magnet to them. They looked at the guitars, but we had to move on. We got to the bumper cars, and I put them into a car each and then pushed them around a little bit. Then they came back out so we could continue on to church. We took the elevator, and there we were. We walked into the sanctuary and found some seats in the back. Worship had just started. Tammy and Emmy have been cranky for days (the runny noses and coughs?). At first they sat or stood or moved and listened and watched quietly. But soon Emmy started asking for us to go to the baby room, and then Tammy joined in as well. I had Sammy for much of the time who was having a great time. Before worship was over we left to go to the room.

The second baby room was locked but that's where the little cars for them to drive are. They really wanted them, and so I asked someone to unlock the room for us. It wasn't easy, but in the end we were able to get the cars for them and made them happy. Tammy and Emmy immediately got on them. They had already asked for their food, and so I put their box on the little table. They then used the cars as chairs. Randy was feeding Sammy who he put into the baby seat. Later Sammy also got to ride a car. He had a lot of fun, when Randy moved him back and forth between his legs. And then his sister also wanted to go through Daddy's legs, which I happened to capture on video. Randy also let him slide on the slide.

On that picure you can see Emmy standing by the door. He'd suddenly decided he wanted to return to the sanctuary and was crying, when I said no. We finally did leave 15 minutes before the scheduled end of the service and returned to the sanctuary. We found ourselves a few seats, and at first they sat quietly. Then they started getting up and walking around. Again I ended up with Sammy because he was not happy with Daddy and wanted me. The service went overtime, but overall they were not making too much noise. After it ended, some people greeted us, and then we started making our way to the exit.

We walked through the mall again to return to the subway. This time I had Emmy and Tammy standing in the stroller. Right before the exit there was a Mac Donald's. I was hungry and so we stopped to get some food to take with us. Randy ordered a Happy Meal for himself. The toy was a zebra. We got our food and went to the subway station, and the train arrived right away. I was giving the kids fries, and all three loved them. We got off the train and took the elevator to the train level. We had just over 15 minutes to wait for our train, and so we all ate what we had bought. Tammy ended up with the zebra, which upset Emmy who also wanted to have it, but she was not passing it on just yet. I told them the zebra was "Emmy's Sammy's Tammy's". In the past Emmy used to have his name in there twice. Today he just added his name, making it four names total, "Emmy's Sammy's Tammy's Emmy's".

At 7 pm we got on the train and sat down in seats. Tammy was still holding the zebra and loving it. I asked her to give it to Emmy for a little bit but she didn't want to. I finally took it from her and gave it to Emmy. She wasn't happy but allowed it. Emmy was really happy and playing with it. We got off the train after a few stops and walked all the way to our house and then apartment. As we walked into the building, Emmy gave the zebra to Sammy who also wanted to play with it. That was so precious after he had wanted it for so long! We always get them out of the stroller, when we enter the building, and Tammy tried to take the zebra from Sammy, but I would not let her. She started crying. Emmy walked over to her and hugged her to comfort her. Then he took her hand, and hand-in-hand they walked up the few stairs and then to our apartment door. It was so very cute! Once we were back in the apartment, I took the zebra and gave it back to Tammy. Next thing I know she gives it back to Sammy. It was all just so precious! In the end it was Emmy who got to go to bed with it.

We started undressing them and getting them ready for bed. Emmy and Tammy were suddenly wide awake again and having fun. As I watched, I discovered that they were playing "praying for someone". At church there are sometimes people lying on the floor praying, and they always look at them with interest, and I tell them they are praying. Now one would lie down on the floor, and the other lay hands on him to pray, ending it with a big AMEN. Then they'd switch. Then Emmy told his sister to lie on her belly, and he prayed for her, and then he lay on his belly and had her pray for him. They were having lots of fun doing all that. It was really precious and warmed my heart to see our children play praying for people.

By 7:45 we had them all in bed. Tammy wanted to lie on me, even though she was really tired, and they talked as usual. I quietly removed the zebra, and when Emmy asked me, I told him it had gone to bed as well. By about 8:15 they were asleep, Sammy being the last one to drift off, and I was able to walk away. I took my computer downstairs to my office and started working. I have high hopes to make it to bed earlier tonight.