30 months 19 days

MORE PICTURES TO COME

Day 933. Last night I went to bed at 12:40 am. Tammy joined us in bed at some point, and it wasn't even 6 am yet, when Emmy came. But he did not go to sleep. Soon they were all up and exploring the room, and Sammy joined us in bed. I was so extremely tired, I did not want to move, even though their crying for me to get up and make breakfast became more and more insistent. I don't know why, though, as they hardly eat anything for breakfast.

It was our first time having breakfast in this place. And i realized we had not brought Randy's jam with us for his oatmeal. Instead we found some sugar to put inside. I cut up some fruit and bread with cheese and salami. The table was just about big enough for us, but it was way too nice for kids and had nothing to protect it. And the chairs were rather low for them to sit on, but they managed. They just ate as little as always. And I ended up having Sammy on my lap and feeding him, while eating myself.

After breakfast I did the dishes, we cleaned them up and dressed them, and  we decided to go to the grocery store and a playground and eat lunch at home. We left the house at 9:20, drove the few minutes, and parked at the grocery store. Then we walked to the playground across the street. It thad rained last night, and so much of it was still wet. They were not able to use the slide. Emmy and Sammy did go on the swing. Tammy started climbing up the net, but then changed her mind and went back down. They had a really cool swing with tires, but Tammy did not want to go on it, neither did Emmy. Sammy did, and he just had a great time. He sat on it really well, so that I could even let go of him. He went up and down and left and right and around and giggled.

Tammy decided to carry wet sand up to the top of the slide, and she was very concentrated and committed to the job. Her pink leggings were covered in mud, and so were her hands. She also crawled through a tunnel that Emmy walked through. Then we decided it was time to leave and we walked back to the grocery store. There was a trailer selling fresh rotisserie chicken in front of the store and we bought one - our lunch. Then we went into the grocery store. Sammy got to sit in the seat in the shopping cart, while the other two had to sit in the cart itself. We walked through, grabbing the items we needed and putting them into the car, covering them up. Sammy started getting crankier and crankier, not wanting to be in the cart. We paid and walked to the cart, and now Sammy was screaming, when Randy put him into the car seat. But it was only a 3 minute-drive home. Emmy and Tammy had a squeezie, but that was obviously a mistake at 10:40, as they hardly ate anything for lunch.

Back at the house I opened up the bag of toys for them, and all three started happily playing. The plan was for Randy to stay with them, while I work in the other room. But Emmy came with me, and then Tammy came, and then they ended up watching Peppa Pig on my phone, sitting right next to me, while I was trying to work on the computer. Then Radny came with Sammy, and suddenly I had Sammy on my lap occupying him as well. So much for working!

After a while I turned my phone off, which they weren't happy about at first, and we all went into the other room, where the toys are. I continously tried to get some work done. At 11:50 I went to the kitchen to get lunch ready. As there was no microwave I had to warm up the microwave rice on the stove, added some peas, and put that and the chicken on everyone's plates. We sat down to eat, but as I said, Emmy ate a little, Tammy hardly anything. Only Sammy ate well, and again on my lap. He would not eat, when he was on Daddy's lap. He then had a pudding, but not the others who wanted one. I told them if they ate some chicken and rice, they'd get pudding too. It got to the point that I brought their plates back, but they just wouldn't eat. And so I cleaned them up and dressed them, we gave them new diapers, and then it was nap time.

It was a great advantage that the bedroom had blinds that made the room completely dark. At 12:50 everybody lay down on their mattresses, and the boys were asleep right away. By 1 pm also Tammy was asleep, which was also a lot earlier than usual for her. It was so dark I couldn't even see them, even though I was sitting on the floor between Emmy and Tammy with my computer on so I could catch up on work. After a while I grabbed my stuff and sat down on my bed instead to work. I was getting really tired myself while working, and at 1:50 I lay down myself and closed my eyes. After half an hour I woke up, five minutes later, at 2:25, Emmy woke up and lay down on my chest for a few minutes. Then he left to go to Randy, but came back right away as he was asleep, and so the other two were up as well within minutes. And so we dressed them and got ready to leave.

At 3:10 we left the house, loaded them into the car, and started the 15 minute drive to our friends' house, where we arrived at 3:30 pm. Only the Dad was home at that time. The kids had already seen all the playground items in their garden from the street and wanted to go play there, and so we stayed outside. Tammy climbed up the ladder to the slide, but then didn't want to go down. Instead she put one toy vehicle up there on the slide after another and watched them go down. In the end she went down after all. Then she went to the swing and enjoyed it. Emmy had a wheelbarrow he was pushing around. There was also a little swing they both went down on, and a little trampolin, but the big trampolin was the best, of course. Emmy was having fun jumping with our friend, Sammy with Randy, and Tammy with their little girl, once she got home.

Tammy was the most excited about their cute, little dog and petted it right away, at first with hesitation, but not for long. Emmy was too scared and never got over it.

After a while we went inside. They were disappointed that the cat was not home. But there were lots of toys and they immediately started playing. They played the whole time with their 4-year-old girl. We also had some cake, them only a few bites as they were too busy playing. Before long every family member had come home. Being with my friends there was like a breath of fresh air, just having fellowship with like-minded people. It made me realize how very little fellowship I have in Vienna. What a precious few hours!

The kids were happily playing with their girl most of the time. Sammy was either with Randy or me, and he was especially enjoying the play kitchen. At 6 pm we sat down to eat dinner. As always the kids didn't stay at the table for very long, but at least they had eaten a little. As they had raw vegetables, I had them try them again, but they just don't like them. I was feeding Sammy who was sitting next to me, and later I switched seats with Randy. As it was getting later, they started getting cranky, and it became clear that it was time to say good-bye. It's a shame that we don't own a car so that we could go visit them more often.

We said good-bye and loaded the kids into the car. The cat even came to visit before we left. It was a 15 minute-drive back to our house, where we arrived at 7:45. Tammy wanted to watch Peppa Pig, but she seemed to understand, when I explained to her that I needed to give Daddy directions so we could find our way back.

We got out of the car and went into the house and up the stairs to our Airbnb apartment. We undressed them and got them ready for bed. Tammy and Emmy still wanted to eat some food and had a cereal bar. By 8:05 they were all in bed. I sat down on the floor between Emmy and Tammy. Everyone had some milk, I sang for them, and they were soon all asleep. I then left the room to go to the living room and work on the computer there. Randy and I both sat in there, he with his phone and I with my computer, each of doing their thing. Before it was even 10 pm I got extremely tired, hardly able to keep my eyes open, but I pushed on. I'm behind on work, but I still hope I get to go to bed at a decent time before a long and busy day tomorrow.