Day 944. Last night I headed to bed at 12:35 am. Randy had gone to bed early in light of spring forward, losing an hour tonight. I also gave up trying to finish the German translation of the newsletter. Tammy wanted to join us in bed, and it was a back and forth a few times, sharing her time between our and her bed. At 8 am - which was 7 am on their body clocks with the time change - Sammy started crying and I went to get him. Then Emmy joined us as well. It wasn't long before Tammy was up, but she got her new helmet and was playing with it instead of coming to our bed. At 8:15 I got up to go make breakfast.
We sat down to eat, then I cleaned them up and dressed them, and we went downstairs, where we read a Bible story. It was nearly 10 am, when I left to go upstairs and work. And so I went straight to the kitchen to make lunch, which took me an hour. It was after 11 am, when I finally sat down by the computer to work. To help the kids with the transition to the new time we decided to have lunch at 12:30, half an hour earlier for their body clocks and half an hour later on the actual clock. We sat down to eat, and all three finished their bowls. Then they all had pudding. We cleaned them up and dressed them and the boys went to bed. Sammy was already in bed and wide awake, when I put Emmy down at 1:15 pm. It took him half an hour to fall asleep, which is when he always falls asleep on his body clock. Then Tammy came back upstairs and went to be at 1:50, which was earlier than usual on her body clock, and it took her about half an hour to fall asleep, which is also her usual time on the body clock, but was already 2:20 in real time. I had sat with them for much of the time, and finally returned to my computer after 2 pm. I was definitely missing the hour. I worked until 2:30, then I went to the kitchen to make their dinner-to-go. At 2:45 Emmy walked into the room. I picked him up and tried to put him back to bed, but he didn't want to. Then Randy was gonna sit in the chair with him, but he wanted Mommy. So I lay down in bed with him, but he didn't stay long anyway. Randy then went downstairs with him, and the peanuts that he wanted. I returned to getting their dinner ready. At 3:25 Sammy woke up and was fussing, and I got him out of bed and put him on the floor near me. Five minutes later his sister woke up, and I picked her up and sat down with her. Then I shouted for Randy to come upstairs with Emmy. It was 3:30 pm after all, and we had to leave at 4 pm. We dressed them, got everything ready, and left perfectly on time to walk to the train station.
It was another warm day, and the sun was back out. The kids didn't come out of the stroller while waiting for the train, but did on the train, especially as it was one with tables. There was a family with kids playing a game on their table, and Tammy and Emmy watched them curiously the whole time. We also played our own game, with Emmy having to hit my hands that I'd withdraw fast enough not to be hit. They were having fun. We got off the train, were able to buy chestnuts one more time before they close until next winter, and walked to the tram stop, where I peeled them and gave them to them. Our tram arrived and we got on, and the kid were able to sit on a double seat together. Then they wanted me to come over to their bench and I did. When a guy sat down on my seat by the stroller, Emmy was very upset about it until the very end.
We finally got off and walked up the hill to where the church was meeting. We got there a few minutes before the service started and walked to the front. There were few people there yet. The lady with the flags and fabric got it all out, and our kids started using them right away. Tammy likes the long band on a stick, and today she also got Daddy to use it. Tammy really did a great job with it. Emmy did more sitting and watching than using anything. Sammy was with me, and he did great all evening. He was having fun with the fabric, and the band, and was enjoying the music.
After a while Tammy and Emmy started going up the steps to the stage. A lady was there telling them not to, but they thought it was funny and went up anyway. Daddy told them not to, and then I came as well to keep them from going up. We finally decided to go upstairs to the toddler room. Emmy wanted to see Sonja, but I told him once again that she was not there tonight.
We went to the baby room, and then Randy left us to return to the sanctuary. All the kids started playing right away. It was an hour earlier for their bodies, so a little early to eat. Sammy was playing with the big box of cars, and Emmy found himself a little cart and a baby in a stroller. He also found a train and rail tracks that I put together for him, but then it was Tammy who pushed the train around on them. Then she ended up with a Mom and several kids who were playing a game. Emmy found a hammer and a house and started hammering. Emmy had gone to the food box to get food from time to time, and I had given some food to Sammy. Then the teacher said it was time for the program to start.
We sat down in a circle, Sammy kneeling and leaning on my leg. The teacher did the individual greeting song with a sheep hand puppet. In the end the puppet kisses each child, and Sammy kept making the kissing sound, which was really funny. Then the kids received Bibles and sang the Bible song they love so much, where they hold the Bibles high into the air. They were given mirrors, and then the teacher told a story about Jesus loving children. One teenage girl then played Jesus, and all the kids had to run across the room to her. Tammy did, Emmy didn't care, and I helped Sammy walk over there; he was very motivated. Then it was playtime again.
Sammy got to play with the hammer and the block you have to put sticks in and hammer them into. Emmy had me get the big pirate boat down and played with it. Then Randy returned, and Tammy and Sammy ended up at the workbench, playing with it. Every time I tried to go away from there with him, he got upset, and so I stayed, even though holding him up affected my back. Then the "tidy up" song started playing, and we sat down to put their shoes on and left to go back to the sanctuary.
Randy had already told us that Anna was there, and so Emmy and Tammy kept shouting her name, as they made their way to the bottom of the staircase. As it was the end of the service with the speaker praying, it was quiet in the room, and so their voices could be heard everywhere. We walked down the stairs, and they both wanted to jump into Anna's arms. Sammy was also happy to see her. Tammy and Emmy ran off and started running away and running back to us. I did my best to always see where they all were. We saw Renate on the other side of the room but she was busy and we never talked to her. And so we decided it was time to go home. We walked to the exit and put their jackets on, then left. It was 7:15 pm.
We walked down the hill to the tram stop, where I got their dinner boxes back out. They started eating, continued eating on the tram, and then waiting for the train until it was all gone. They stayed in the stroller this time around, both on the tram and train, and I let them watch Peppa Pig. When we got to the train station, we still had about 25 minutes to wait for the train. We found a good waiting place inside the hall, where they were watching, while Sammy was playing. That way time passed quickly, and then we got on the 8 pm train, where they continued watching, and then we walked all the way to our building, arriving home at 8:15.
We immediately started undressing them, I cleaned them up, and then we put their diapers on. By 8:45 or so they were all in bed. I sat down by them, we walked, Tammy wanted to lie on me, then I put her to bed. It took a while, but by 9:10 pm I was finally able to walk away. I went downstairs, where Randy was already waiting for me with our delivered food. I put a good movie on, and we started eating and watching. Then we stopped and are gonna fninish the movie next week. I went straight to my desk to work, and it wasn't long before my eyes started falling shut while working and they're still doing it. But I was able to finish my report tonight. We'll have to get up really early tomorrow, so I'll better go to bed.
