Day 971. Last night it was nearly 1:30 before I went to bed. Not smart. And it was quite a rough night with a lot of activity. Emmy came and left, Tammy came, Emmy came again, it was tight, and my arm went numb under Emmy's weight. And he was up early, then fell back asleep, then was up for good at 6:50. His sister soon woke up and joined him. Together they were playing and pulling all kinds of stuff off for their game. Then Sammy also woke up and joined us in bed. Sammy likes to scratch and bite, and it's pretty unpleasant and he won't stop, when we ask him to. At 7:50 I also got up, when Sammy wouldn't stop playing with the blinds, which was the first place he crawled after I had put him on the floor.
I went to the kitchen, emptied the dishwasher and made breakfast. After Randy had given them their new diapers, they sat down at the table to eat. They didn't eat much, Emmy willfully threw food on the floor and then wouldn't pick it up, so we had a situation there. After breakfast we cleaned them up and dressed them. It was a cold and rainy day, but we had decided to take the boys to the hairdresser, as they really needed it.
We left the house eat 9:20. Sammy was in the single stroller, and the other two walking. Thankfully it was not raining. It wasn't long before I put Emmy into the stroller with Sammy, while Tammy went on my shoulders. That way we were moving faster. However, Sammy was crying hard and only stopped, when holding my hand, and so we couldn't move that fast.
The hairdresser was not far. I had searched in our area online and found it, and it had great reviews. It had steps into the shop so that was a little hurdle. We went inside and found the place to be full of people, including the waiting area. They took us to another area where there was space for us to wait. They offered us something to drink. Sammy was still pretty cranky and only happy with me. The other two curiously looked around at everything. It was their first time at the hairdresser's after all. There was a bunch of hair lying on the floor that they looked at. Then a guy called Emmy to come, and he sat down in a big chair. They had put a pillow under him first. The guy was a little strange. I told him his hair needed to be shorter in the front and back. Then Sammy was called to the other end of the place, around the corner, and I went there with him. A lady was gonna cut his hair. She had a high chair with a wheel, but I knew I needed to hold Sammy for this to work at all. And so I held him, his body facing me, while she started cutting his hair. He was screaming and wouldn't stop. I had to hold his head a few times, even his hand, when I turned him a little. The lady seemed a little overwhelmed. Then the boss himself came. He was a very kind man, and he took over and started cutting his hair sovereignly, while talking to Sammy with his soothing voice, and surprisingly Sammy started calming down somewhat. Emmy was done too and joined us, but I didn't like it very much, and so the boss did him as well, and then he was looking great. He saved the day! He then gave them lollipops, and Tammy was shyly asking whether she could have one too, and she got one too. We paid 26€ for the two boys, which seems a lot, but then I guess Sammy made the job much harder. I was happy with the way they looked, and every time I look at them I think how great they look now. We put their coats back on and left. We had been there for 45 minutes.
Tammy and Emmy were walking, while Sammy was in the stroller. When we got to the new apartment building next to ours, they got on the animals to see-saw. Then we continued on to get home, where we arrived at 10:20. We took their clothes off and everyone went downstairs. For me it was high time to cook, as I was making a casserole that needed an hour in the oven. After it was in, I turned my computer on to work.
Just before noon they all came upstairs. The casserole got ready just in time, but it was still really hot. We sat down at the table to eat, and Emmy cleared his plate. He always says that this favorite dish of mine is also his favorite dish. Tammy ate little for some reason, and she's also been really cranky. Sammy likes this dish too, and they all had dessert after. Then Tammy and Emmy went potty, I cleaned them up and dressed them, and the boys went to bed, while Randy took Tammy downstairs. It was 12:45. It surprised me how fast Emmy fell asleep; it was 12:55. Sammy, however, was wide awake. I stroked his head, walked away, and had to come back one more time to do the same. I walked away again, heard him a few minutes, and by about 1:10 he was asleep as well. At 1:15 Randy came upstairs with Tammy who went to bed. She was tired and surprised me, when she was asleep within five minutes. That's highly unusal for her. I returned to work.
At 2 pm, as usual, Emmy walked into the room. I picked him up and lay down with him, but he had no interest in sleeping. He looked at my computer and started talking, which was enough to wake up Sammy. I picked him up and we all went downstairs. Emmy was crying hard, when I left again. I continued working but by 2:50 I was so tired I could not go on and had to close my eyes. At 3:30 Tammy walked into the room, and I lifted her up to lie down next to me. I think we both fell asleep again until Randy came at 3:45. I told him we needed to leave at 4 pm, so there was not much time left to get ready. And I was still so tired I was moving slowly and needed a while to get functional again. I picked out clothes for them, we dressed them, and left the house late at 4:20 pm.
We got on the subway that we had to ride all the way to the end. Sammy has been wanting to be with me, so I got him out of the stroller, and all five of us ended up sitting together on seats. Sammy was really happy about that. After we got off we had to wait on a tram. One of my shoes had come apart, and I was worried how I was gonna make it there and then all the way back. Randy got some strong out and tied it all together, and it worked wonders, as if it was perfectly alright.
We got on the tram and had a pretty long ride on it. Once again they all came out of the strollers, including Sammy, and sat with me. Randy sat with the empty stroller. Finally our time to get off came, and then we still had quite a walk uphill to get to the restaurant, where we should have been at 5 pm. We got there at 5:15, and my brother and my Mom were standing outside and went inside with us. They showed us where to park the strollers, and we went to the room where everbody was gathered to celebrate my Mom's 70th birthday. I was surprised to see so many people, some of whom I hadn't seen in years. We were shown our seats, including three high chairs for the kids, and sat down. We ended up staying for 3 hours.
The kids were with Grandma one after another, but then they all wanted to be with her and in fact were with her quite a bit in the course of the evening. She's the only one they know, and even she sees them rarely. Her husband made a little speech, and then my brother started a game, giving my Mom questions about her life and family to answer. After a few questions they stopped so that the food could be brought in. However, the restaurant had stopped cooking our food because of the progam and had to restart it. It was already a good bit after 6 pm, and the kids were hungry and getting cranky. I had no choice but to get the snack box from the stroller, and they all had some. Some time later I was impressed, when they brought the kids' dish out first. I cut up the meat and distributed it to their plates; the fries came a little bit later, and they mainly ate them and not the meat. In fact Tammy really ate a lot of them. They brought out ketchup which they have never eaten before, and I let them try it. Tammy did not like it, but Emmy did. Sammy grabbed a slice of lemon and ate it. I was really surprised he liked it!
After having eaten, the kids all went to be with Grandma, and my brother continued with the questions. During a short break I decided we'd give our gift to Grandma, as it was getting late and we had to soon leave to go home. It was a one-hour trip home after all. The kids were all watching Grandma open the package. A drawing they had made were part of the packaging and because of that Grandma opened it really slowly as to not to damage the drawing. It was a pillow with their picture on it. A few minutes later we said our goodbyes. We left just after 8 pm.
Thankfully it was not raining, and it was not really cold. We had quite a walk to get to the tram stop. I was thankful that the tram arrived just after we got there as it runs only every 15 minutes on a Saturday night. The kids were tired and were therefore watching Peppa Pig while sitting in the stroller. I thought Sammy was gonna fall asleep, but he didn't. After we got off we walked to the subway, and it also left right away. The kids continued watching Peppa Pig. Just before 9 pm we walked into our apartment. We had been faster getting home than going there!
We undressed the kids to get them ready for bed. Tammy was so tired she was throwing a fit and would not calm down. It was extremely difficult to give her a diaper and dress her that way. When we had them all in bed at 9:15, she still wanted me to hold her and so I did. She finally calmed down. They were obviously really tired, and by 9:30 I was able to walk away. I was very tired myself, but sat down at the computer to work. At midnight Emmy suddenly stood next to me. Normally we can get him back to bed, and he continues sleeping. Or he lets me put him next to Randy, in our bed, and I tell him to wait there for me. But today he would not fall asleep. He finally came to the kitchen, where I was working, and sat down on the floor next to me to wait for me to be done and go to bed, so he could go to bed with me. It was nearly 1 am before I was done and went to bed.
