Day 961. Last night I went to bed at 12:30 am. Tammy joined us in bed at some point. This morning Emmy was up early again, and we all got up just after 7 am.
I made breakfast, we sat down to eat, then I cleaned them up and dressed them. There was still time, and they wanted to go downstairs, so we did, and I read a Bible story to them. Then Randy came, and I went upstairs to get ready. A few minutes later they came back upstairs as well, and just after 9 am we left the house.
We took the subway to the end and went up to street level, where we met up with Sonja. Then we took a tram together, which took quite some time. Emmy and Tammy wanted to sit on regular seats with Sonja. We got off and still had to walk a little. I had never been to that indoor playground before, but had found it, when looking for Easter activities and decided to check it out, even though it was a long way from home. We got there just as it opened at 10 am. We paid, parked our strollers, took our shoes off, and went inside.
There were not a lot of children there. There were twin girls that were 4 years old, a little boy that was younger than ours, and another little boy that was even younger and just learning to walk. The first place the kids went was the two giant crocodiles. At first Emmy was scared, but not for long. Then they went into the pool full of balls and went down the slide. It was pretty deep. It was probably Sammy's favorite thing in there; he loved sitting buried in the balls.
There was a pipe, and all three crawled into it, and then I rolled them around. They enjoyed it. Emmy really enjoyed the motorcycles and cars and ran them around really fast, as there was lots of space for it. Then Tammy discovered the big, high, blow-up slide. I helped her up to the top, which she soon mastered pretty well. At first I thought they might be too young for it, but not at all. Soon she climbed up there pretty easy, and while Emmy had a little trepidation the first time he went down, that was gone after that. Tammy went up there over and over again and made friends with the twins in the process. They would always go down together. She then followed them to other attractions and went into the ball pool with them and climbing around.
They had a blow-up castle to jump around in, and I ended up in there with them. I lay on my back and had all three at different times come, and I jumped with them and held them up into the air, and they all enjoyed it. Sonja also had Sammy jump in there, and he enjoyed it.
They had a pool full of building blocks, but they weren't as popular as expected. Tammy left right away, and Emmy built a tower twice but then went on to other things. Outside the room they had a little library, and I sat down with him and read a book to him. He had something to drink and went back inside. Later the other two came outside as well to eat and drink, and I read some books to Tammy. Then we went back inside.
They had a big climbing construct there that Tammy followed the twins into, and I was surprised at how well she did climbing, and so did Emmy, when he went there later.
Somebody brought out a box of toys, which got Sammy's interest, and he checked out some of the toys there. Then Randy saw the soccer goals and used one as a walker for Sammy.
Everyone was in the pool of balls, when they dimmed the light to signal that it was nearly closing time, i.e. noon. One of the workers had been playing with Emmy and the crocodile. Now everyone got up to leave, and so did we. We dressed them again and left to go home.
We made a stop at the pharmacy and then walked on to the tram stop. We got on the tram and rode it to the end. Tammy was sitting on seats with Sonja, Emmy at first as well, but then he wanted to sit with me. He was clearly tired, and so was Sammy. Once we got off at the end of the line, we crossed the busy road and walked to McDonald's.
It was 12:30, when we got there, and pretty busy. We found a corner, where there was room for us, and I went to a board to place our order. I took a number and sat down with everyone else. The kids were hungry and impatient, and it took time. I went to check on our order and saw it sitting there with no one bringing it. So Randy went to get the food and bring it to us. Emmy and Tammy ended up sitting on a bar stool together right next to me, while I had found a high chair for Sammy, and Randy was feeding him. Later Emmy went over to where Randy and Sonja was. They also spotted the balloons and were allowed to each take one. Unfortunately the toys they got with their Happy Meals were not age-appropriate.
After 50 minutes we left McDonald's again and walked to the subway to go home. It was surprising that none of them was falling asleep, and they didn't even ask to watch Peppa Pig, which they usually do, when they're tired. The balloons kept them busy and distracted.
It was 1:45, when we got home, so an hour later than when they usually go to bed, at least the boys. We immediately put them to bed, and I sat down by them. By 2 pm Tammy and Emmy were asleep, but not Sammy who seemed wide awake. After I walked away he soon fell asleep.
I turned my computer on, but was extremely tired and soon fell asleep myself. Randy, however, left to go to the grocery store. At 3:35 Emmy walked into the room, waking me up. I picked him up and lay down with him. Five minutes later Tammy woke up, and so I took them both downstairs to Sonja, together with a snack. I then finally got to start working. At 4 pm I woke up Sammy, so he would not sleep too late, and a few minutes later Randy returned. I went downstairs with Sammy, who was snuggling against me. He started crying, when I handed him to Sonja, and so I took him again and held him longer. I tried to get him interested in toys, so he'd get distracted and busy with them, but he really wanted me. Once he heard Daddy had returned, he wanted him even more. But Daddy went straight from unloading the groceries to putting the curtains up in the kids' room. Sammy was not at all happy about that. I left once to get some work done, but returned after a few minutes, as Sammy had cried non-stop. When I left again later, he was finally happily playing and okay with me walking away. Tammy had asked to do some drawing, and he enjoys that too, and it kept all three busy.
But I only had a few minutes left, which was not enough to actually work. At 5:15 pm I started making their dinner, and half an hour later I went downstairs to tidy up with them. At first they said "no", but then they both got busy and tidied up with me and Sonja, one of our better days, and so they both received 20 cents each for their piggy banks.
We went upstairs to sit down at the table to eat. But first we were looking at the new curtains in the kids' room, saying "wow" over and over again. It was looking greater! It soon turned out though that the curtains were too short or the curtain rod too high, and so light was coming in on the bottom.
Sonja said her good-byes, and we sat down at the table to eat. They ate some, then we put the rest in bowls that we took to the bathtub, where they continued eating, though not that much. We got them out one after another and got them ready for bed. By 7 pm they were all in bed, and I sat down by them. Tammy wanted to lie on my chest, as usual. They were all excited about not only the new curtains, but also the new bedding I had put on in the morning - Peppa Pig for Tammy, Paw Patrol for Emmy, and Winnie the Pooh for Sammy. We talked for a while, Tammy went to bed, and I sang for them. Tammy was the first one to fall asleep; she had already said in the bathtub that she was tired. The boys were still up for a while. Sammy finally fell asleep, but Emmy simply would not but was giving me a hard time instead. I tried to leave, which just caused crying and him leaving bed and sitting down on the floor by the kitchen. At 8:15 I once again picked him up and sat down with him by his bed. I was hungry and had had enough. Thankfully Randy had finished eating, and Emmy was okay with Randy taking my place. I was finally able to walk away and get my dinner ready that I took downstairs to eat. After having eaten I went back to work. Emmy has woken up a few times and needed us to help him fall back asleep. He is our lightest sleeper!
