31 months 26 days

Day 968. Last night I went to bed at midnight. It was a quiet night, thank God. Emmy was once again the first one up, when he came to lie down next to me at 6 am. He stayed for a while, then left again, and returned later. At some point he woke up his sister and they were playing together. Sammy also woke up and cried to join us in bed. At 8 am I got up to make breakfast.

It was later than usual, and the cleaning lady was coming at 9 am. When she arrived a few minutes early, the kids were up from the table but not dressed yet. She started in the dining room, while I was dressing the kids. Then we all went downstairs, but I went back upstairs right away as I had a lot of tidying up to do so she could do her job and clean. It took me a whole hour, but I'm looking forward to everything being clean and tidy again.

At 10 am I finally sat down to do office work. I'm still trying to catch up on everything. At one point Randy came upstairs with a bloody Tammy; she had bit her lip because of Emmy doing something to her. It looked worse than it was, and I washed the blood off and took her back downstairs. At 11:40 I went to the kitchen to make lunch, while the cleaning lady went downstairs as she was done upstairs. At noon everyone came upstairs to eat.

We sat down at the table, and everyone ate well and would have had pudding. However, Emmy behaved so badly that he did not get any. Then I cleaned them up and dressed them, and the boys went to bed. Sammy was in bed by 12:40, Emmy  five minutes later. I sat down by them, and once again the struggle to get Emmy to sleep started. Sammy was asleep after a few minutes, but Emmy tossed and turned and gave me trouble, all the while I was so tired myself. He simply would not fall asleep, and I did not know what else to do. Randy was downstairs with Tammy, waiting for me to call them upstairs. I walked away a few times, hoping that would help, but then he fell asleep with me next to him. It was 2 pm. I called up Tammy who went to bed. I tried to walk away, but she wanted me to sit by her. And then Sammy woke up from the noise she was making. Randy was not happy to not have had a kid-free break and went downstairs with him. By 2:15 Tammy was asleep, and I was finally able to sit down by my computer.

I was working, when Emmy already walked into the room at 3:10. That had not been a very long nap! He made enough noise for Tammy to wake up a few minutes later, who had now slept even less. I took them both downstairs, together with some snacks, and returned upstairs to work.

The kids called me a few times, but I got away with staying upstairs. At 5 pm Emmy was crying so hard that I did go downstairs to give him a pacifier. I comforted him and then I turned Peppa Pig on for them, which made them very happy. Randy was with Sammy, so I went back upstairs. At 5:40 we turned the video off, and today it was Emmy who was crying hard because of it. I told him I'd be right down in a few minutes to tidy up with them, which did not make him any happier. He kept crying until I actually went downstairs. I picked him up and told him we'd tidy up together now. At first he said no, but then he actually tidied up, while his sister refused to until the end. I told him I was proud of him that he had tidied up even though he had cried so hard. We all went upstairs to eat.

We sat down at the table, and Emmy won the egg-pecking against his sister. I also took a coin out of Tammy's piggy bank and gave it to Emmy for having tidied up. After they were done eating at the table, they got up to go potty, while I put the rest of their food into bowls to take to the bathtub, where they continued eating and today, ate most of it. So did Sammy. They were role-playing steering a boat again, asking for tickets and closing doors and windows and steering around icebergs and other boats. Sammy came out first, then the other two. By 7:20 everyone was in bed.

I sat down by them, Tammy and Emmy both lay on my chest, then Emmy went to bed, and we talked. We talked about the Easter bunny we saw, the puppets and the circus. Then I encouraged them to stop talking and to sleep. I picked up Sammy to hold him as well, and Tammy threw a fit because she still wanted to be rocked. I tried to tell her that she was not the only child and had to share, but to no avail. I held him as long as possible, then put him to bed and let Tammy climb back on me. She lay there for quite some time before she finally agreed to go to bed. Sammy fell asleep first, then Emmy, but Tammy still objected, when I tried to leave. At 8:10 pm I still had to come back because she was crying. Finally Randy took my place, and she kept crying for Mommy, while I was getting something to eat ready. And then she finally stopped crying. Thank God! I was able to sit down and eat, and then went back to work trying to get things done.