31 months 8 days

Day 950. Last night I went to bed at midnight. As always there was movement during the night, but not as much as the previous two nights. However, Emmy was up extra early at 6:30 am. Tammy was sleeping with us, Sammy soon started crying. Emmy was up for a while, but then actually fell asleep again in my arms for a short time. Randy brought Sammy to us, and then they were soon all up. It was 8 am, when I got up to make breakfast.

After breakfast I cleaned them up and dressed them, then we went downstairs. Tammy had been in distress because of a piece of nail sticking out of her toe, and so I was gonna cut it off. Randy had to hold her still, as she was scared, even though there was nothing to it. Then I cut all their nails. I took my vitamines and went upstairs to work.

I made good progress working. Just before 11:30 I went to the kitchen to make lunch. Just before noon they all came upstairs before I had finished cooking. A few minutes later everyone sat down to eat. Tammy surprised me, when she ate all her sweet potatoes, and then also ate the same amount again. She ate pretty well. Not so much her brothers. Emmy wanted what was on my plate, which was some diet food, and was upset, when I only gave him a little spoonful. He did get over it after a while. And because he also wanted to have the new dessert ("Obstgarten"), he ate some more. Then they all enjoyed the dessert.

We cleaned them up and dressed them. By 12:55 the boys were in bed. Sammy fell asleep first, and it took Emmy until 1:15 to fall asleep. A few minutes later Tammy went to bed. Usually she's asleep by 1:30, but not today. I kept going back and forth and encouraged her to sleep, while first cleaning up the kitchen, and then making their dinner-to-go. I could barely keep my eyes open because I was so tired. At one point Randy rocked her, but after a few minutes later she wanted to go back to bed. When I checked in on her a few minutes later, she was standing in bed and taking all her clothes off. It close to 2 pm, and we were supposed to leave at 3 pm! I'd had enough! By 2 pm her brothers woke up from all that was going on. Just what we needed! I told her she was not going to church if she didn't sleep. Randy took the boys downstairs, and I picked her up and sat down in the chair to rock her. After a while I put her back to bed, thinking she'd be asleep within minutes, but she was not. She continued playing, while I was watching time pass on the clock. I got her out to rock her one more time, but nothing I did was working. At 3 pm she was up for good. I had hoped she'd at least sleep a little bit so we could all go to church together.

We went downstairs to the boys, where we discussed what to do now.  I knew I needed to keep my word that she was not going to church without having slept. But she really wanted to go, and I preferred us all going as well. So I told her that she was gonna get to go to church today, but next time she'd have to stay home. We quickly got them all dressed to go to church and left on time at 3:30. Which was actually not on time as we would have left at 3 pm without all the drama. Missing the first train, that was the next window of opportunity to leave so we'd catch the next train.

When we left the building, the cold air hit us in the face. It's hard to believe that a week ago we were outside short-sleeved because it was so warm. It's always really windy, where we live, and so we went to the subway as fast as possible, then went on to the train station, where we waited in a protected area. We got on the train, and Emmy wanted out of the stroller and enjoyed sitting in a "big chair" for big people. Tammy sat with me. After we got off we went down to the subway. The kids were asking for chestnuts as we had always bought hot chestnuts there, but the guy had already closed with winter "over". We rode the subway for three stops, then walked into the shopping mall to walk to church in a warm and dry place. Before we took the elevator up, I ran into the grocery store with Tammy and Emmy. It was day 2 of my diet, and I had not been able to have my afternoon snack, so I bought one. Then we continued on to church. 

It is on the top floor of an entertainment center, where you first take the elevator to one level and then another elevator to the top level. When we got to the second elevator, it was out of order. That meant having to use the escalator. I left them to quickly go upstairs to the church and get some people to help us with the strollers. I should have known that Tammy and Emmy would cry and scream if I left. I could hear them from the distance. I found two guys that agreed to help. We went back down, I got Tammy and Emmy out of the stroller, and they took the stroller with Sammy, while Randy got the empty stroller on the escalator. After two escalators we had made it to the church.

We were over half an hour late, when we walked into the sanctuary, but worship was still going. We found ourselves a few empty seats, knowing we weren't gonna be there for long anyway. I had Sammy and had fun with him. He even raised his hand of his own accord. Tammy was on Randy's arm, and Emmy on the chair. By now it was snowing outside, which was remarkable to see. Emmy noticed that there was no drummer today, and he seemed to be shocked by that. We didn't stay very lon before we left to go to the baby room.

The church was helping Ukrainian refugees and so they were everywhere in the coffee shop and all the rooms. When we got to the baby room, the mother and child that were there decided to leave. Our kids wanted to have a car, and so I went to the other baby room and the refugees there were so kind to give me one of the cars - much to Emmy's delight. The kids immediately started having fun - with the car and bed, and we also got some toys out. I got their food out, but they were not interested in it yet. Tammy and Emmy were playing wild together, like they have been recently. By the end of the night Tammy had new scratches from Emmy as well as bad teeth marks on her arm.

Sammy was having fun playing, but did not want to play alone on the floor but have Mommy or Daddy hold him. He played with different toys, and when he was with me, he just wanted to climb up to the top of the chair and go down the other side. I held him up there, moving him and making him giggle. Behind us Tammy and Emmy were playing at one point. They had found some railtracks they put together. By the way, we took Tammy's dress off to keep it clean, and because her stockings were put on backwards, I took them off and she didn't want to put them back on. As for Emmy, his "shirt" is actually his body, and so I didn't take it off.

Not long before the service was over, two Dads walked in with their child each. Sammy greeted them in a friendly way and talked to one of the Dads, saying "hello" repeatedly and waving at him, who ended up taking him for a few minutes At that time I was holding Emmy who was just really tired. Then the music started in the sanctuary, and so we packed up to leave and return there. By the time we got there, it was nearly over. As people started walking out, a few greeted us, in particular the kids. Then we started walking towards the exit, when I remembered the elevator problem. We asked and were glad, when we were directed to the kitchen elevator that was going all the way down and straight out of the building. Normally that would have been perfect, but it was snowing hard, and it was cold and windy. We pulled the covers over the strollers, but the longer we walked in this weather, the more they were complaining. We finally got to the subway, where it was covered and dry. And we were lucky that it came right away. Not only that, there was a good chance we'd make the next train home a few minutes later. The kids wanted to watch Peppa Pig, and so I let them, as they were tired. We got off the subway and quickly went up to the platform for the trains and were thankful we had made it there just before our train's arrival. On the train the kids continued watching. By 6:45 we were already back home, which is rare.

We took their clothes off, and I decided there was time for them to take a bath. That's where I gave them their lunch boxes again, and they ate quite a bit more of it. Then we got them all out, and by 7:40 pm they were all in bed. I sat down on the chair by their beds, and Tammy came to lie down on my chest as usual. We talked for a while, and I was surprised they were not all more tired. I tried to get Tammy to lie down in her bed, and even Sammy was not falling asleep. At one point Emmy and Tammy both asked for Daddy to sit in the chair, and so we switched. It was just before 8 pm, and at 8 pm our food arrived. I was surprised, when the delivery guy asked me about Randy who usually takes our delivery and then continued asking questions and doing small talk. The kids weren't even asleep yet! After I closed the door, they were increasingly calling for me to come back and so I did. By then they were pretty close to falling asleep already. Tammy was asleep first, then Emmy, and Sammy was still awake, when I left.

I went downstairs, where Randy was already waiting for me with the food, and we finished last week's movie while eating. We were interrupted, when Sammy started crying, and we both had to go upstairs a few times before he fell asleep again with no crying. Once we were done, he went upstairs, and I sat down at my desk to work. And somehow it got later again than I had wanted.