30 months 8 days

Day 922. Last night I went to bed at 1 am. Tammy was coughing a lot and before I could fall asleep, she came. I picked her up and put her back to bed. Then Emmy came. He would not stop crying or go back to bed until I let him come lie on my. It wasn't even 5 minutes later that he was willing to go to bed.

In the morning they were up early as usual, and roaming around doing who knows what for a while until I got up at 7:40 am. I made breakfast, and we sat down to eat, and then I cleaned them up, dressed them and went downstairs with them, where we read a Bible story. Then I went upstairs to finish cleaning up and then work.

At 10 am I could already hear Emmy crying for Sonja, who arrived at 11 am. They were so excited and happy to see her. Randy took advantage of her being here and left to go to the hardware store to get some screws and stuff he needs. He only returned once we were all done eating.

I put the soup on the stove to warm it up, and it was after noon before I called Sonja and the kids upstairs to eat. They really like this soup, as they all ate everything in their bowls again, like they did yesterday. Then they all had puddings. I was feeding Sammy, who ate everything and didn't even whine or refuse once. It was a little later than usual, when we were done at 12:40, which is when Randy returned. We cleaned them up and dressed them and put the boys to bed. It was after 12:50 before Emmy went to bed, and it must have been too late already, as he threw a fit, wanting to go downstairs to be with Sonja. He acted like an overly tired baby, and after I had kept him down for a while against his will and aggravating him, I called Randy over who could be the good guy, and Emmy relaxed into his arms and fell asleep. It was 1:20. Then Tammy came upstairs. I tucked her in and walked away, and a few minutes later she was asleep.

I returned to work, even though I was tired, and at 2 pm Randy left to go to the grocery store. At 2:25 Emmy walked into the room. He lay on me for 5 minutes before he asked to go downstairs to be with Sonja. Sammy surprised me, when he slept a full 2 hours and woke up at 2:50. I took him downstairs as well. Not long after I was back upstairs Tammy woke up just before 3 pm, and I took her downstairs to her brothers. Then I returned upstairs to work.

Randy was gone all afternoon, going to a third store after he had come back, while I was working all afternoon. The kids didn't call my name even once, nor did I ever hear them cry. They were simply having fun with their friend Sonja. At 5:15 I went to the kitchen to start making dinner, and half an hour later I went downstairs, put the "tidy up" song on and told them it was time to tidy up. As usual, they didn't want to help. After a while Tammy started helping, but Emmy never lifted a finger. Tammy got 10 cents for her piggy bank. Once we were all done, we went upstairs, where I already had their plates on the dining room table. We sat down to eat, and Sonja said her goodbyes. After they had eaten a little bit at the table, they went into the bathtub, where they continued eating, but tonight they did not eat it all. They were having fun though. We got them out one after another and got them ready for bed. By 7:10 they were all in bed. I sat down by their beds, and Tammy lay down on me, while I was holding Emmy's hand. Then we started talking, until I started singing. I kept asking Tammy to return to her bed, and she finally did. Emmy had already said in the water that he was so tired, but he just would not fall asleep. Every time I got up to leave, he started crying. it was 8:20 pm before I was finally able to leave. I went to the kitchen to get myself something to eat, then sat down to do so. After I was done I returned to work. Thankfully it's been quiet all evening. Now I'm planning on going to bed very soon.