Day 957. Last night I went to bed at 11:30 as Tammy had had a tough night already. And so it was a long time before I ever got to sleep. Tammy joined us in bed, but was restless. And then Emmy came and left four times in a row. It was a rough night. Tammy also wanted to go back to her bed at one point, and then came back later. Emmy was up around 7 am as usual, and soon his sister joined him. Randy put Sammy into our bed, as he was fussing and wanting out of his bed. Around 7:45 I got up to make breakfast.
We sat down at the table to eat. Once again Sammy barely ate anything. He and Tammy both have runny noses right now. Then I cleaned them up and dressed them and took them downstairs. Last night Randy had set up the train for them, so they were really excited to see that. As they started playing, I was leaving to go upstairs to work. I told Randy I was probably going to the post office and drugstore. As soon as they heard that, Tammy came running, saying she wanted to come along, and then Emmy also wanted to come along of course. And so they came upstairs with me, and we all left to go to the subway station. It was extremely windy, to the point that the kids were whining, especially Tammy. I pulled the stroller cover over them. We took the subway for three stops, then walked to the drugstore, where I printed out pictures again. Every time a picture came out of the photo printer, they were laughing. Then we went on to the post office that was around the corner, where I mailed some letters, and then we returned to the subway station. There was a problem somewhere, causing the subway not to run the whole line and making it confusing, where the train was going where we wanted, and so we let one go inadvertently and then took the next one. When we got off, the strong wind hit us again, making Tammy whine. I ran part of the way with the stroller to get to our building faster. At 10 am we were back home.
I took their coats and shoes off, and they went downstairs to Randy and Sammy to play, while I went to work. At 11:20 I went downstairs so that Randy could come upstairs and make omelets for the adults. We were looking at photobooks together, then they wanted to watch Peppa Pig, and I let them. At 11:45 Sonja arrived and started playing with Sammy, while the other two finished their video. I went upstairs to work a few more minutes before warming up their lunch. At noon they came upstairs, and we sat down at the table to eat.
The kids had different leftovers, while the adults had omelets. But they also had some bacon and some of our omelet, followed by pudding. Then we cleaned them up and dressed them. We put their shoes and jackets on and left the house just before 1 pm. Normally they go to bed, but today we were going to an Easter Egg hunt. There had been a paper inviting everyone to it on our building's door for a while. It was organized by the party that is in charge of our district. It was cold and windy, but at least not raining, even though the ground was still wet in many places. The park, where it was taking place, was right next to our building. We could see the tents they had set up from the distance. It had started at 1 pm, and there were a few people already there. We had to write down our name and email address (welcome all the party emails!), show our Covid recovery paper (at an outside event?), and we received little chocolate wavers as well as as stamp on our hand. They also asked us for donations. We were told to find short sticks they had stuck into the ground nearby and bring them and that they would get an egg for each stick.
And so we went to the bushes nearby, where we could see the sticks sticking out of the ground. Surprisingly the kids had a really hard time seeing them, even when they stood right in front of them. We stopped, when each one of us had two sticks, and returned to the registration desk, where we handed them in. That's where she told us that it was only one stick per child, as they only had so many eggs. Then each child received a red (real) egg. It's not what I had expected anyway. I thought they were actually gonna look for eggs in the grass which would have been a lot more fun.
The lady then pointed us to the different crafts booths. We did two out of the four. The first one had plastic eggs on sticks that you had to dunk into a liquid after putting drops of color in them, and it created a cool pattern on the egg. Sonja helped Tammy, and I helped Emmy do it. Then the lady put them into a sponge so they could dry. We went to the next table which was just for coloring. They got a coloring book from that party and started drawing lines on it, but those crayons were really not ideal for little kids. It was cold, and so we decided to go home after a few minutes. They could take the coloring books with them. On the way out they each received a wind wheel - also in red, the color of the political party organizing the event. And so they had the wind wheel in one hand, and the plastic egg in the other, and the real egg we had put into their pockets. They all went back into their strollers, and we started our short walk back home.
By 1:30 we were back home. We undressed them, and the boys were in bed by 1:45 pm, while Sonja went downstairs with Tammy. I thought they'd fall asleep fast, it being an hour later than usual, but it took Emmy until 2:05 to sleep. Tammy came upstairs and lay down at 2:10 and was asleep a few minutes later. I was so tired myself that I also lay down at 2:20 pm, while Randy left to go to the grocery store.
At 3:15 Emmy walked into the room, and Sammy was up as well, and so I took them downstairs to Sonja, together with some snacks. At 4 pm Tammy woke up from me talking with Randy who had just returned from the store. I took her downstairs as well. Sammy was a little cranky and wanted me there with him. He also heard Randy upstairs and wanted him even more. And so I soon packed my stuff and took it downstairs to work there, right by them, where I could also interact with them. I had some office work to do that I needed my office for. Sammy was happily playing on the floor, while Tammy was looking at photobooks with Sonja, and Emmy was riding his car and kept coming to me. Randy was still putting groceries away, and Sammy was really happy, when he finally came downstairs. Sammy loves the stairs that Randy made for him, and with Randy's help he went all the way to the top and was right on the other side of my computer. He played there for a while, then Randy wanted to make him go downstairs, but he wanted to stay on top. Then he put him into the playpen that he enjoyed for quite some time.
At 5:15 I went upstairs to make dinner. Half an hour later I went downstairs to tidy up with them; neither one of them helped at all, and so it was Sonja and I who tidied up. I hurt my knee again that Tammy had jumped on a few weeks ago, it hurting ever since, and that's when I went upstairs. A few minutes later everybody else came upstairs as well to eat. We sat down at the table to eat, while Sonja said her good-byes. They all ate some, then we put the rest in bowls that we took to the bathtub. They ate more while playing in the water. They really like singing right now, besides dancing, and can sing loudly together for a while.
They came out of the water one after another, and we got them ready for bed. By 7:10 they were all in bed. As always Tammy wanted to lie on my chest, while Emmy held my hand. Then they were talking for a while. They brought up going to the circus again, as well as the puppet theater. Emmy is torn about going back there; he says he wants to go, and then he says he's too scared to go. But you can tell how both those places impressed them so much that they still talk about them. After a while I started singing, I got Tammy to lie down in bed, and it got more and more quiet. By 8 pm I was able to walk away.
I went to the kitchen to get something to eat, then went downstairs to eat, and then went back to work. I've heard Tammy cry a few times, but I guess Randy, who is upstairs, took care of it. I have some more stuff to do, but hope to make it to bed at a decent time.
