34 months 19 days

Day 1053. As usual they were up early, and I stayed in bed as long as possible. It was after 8:15 before I could make myself crawl out of bed to make breakfast. After cleaning them up and dressing them, we went downstairs, where we read a Bible story together. Then they wanted to draw, and Sammy wanted the piano, and after setting it all up, I went upstairs to work.

I worked until 11:15, then I went to the kitchen to cook. At noon we sat down to eat chicken and rice with vegetables. None of the kids was very interested in eating, but they ate more than they would have so they'd get some icecream. After cleaning them up and dressing them, I went downstairs with them, while Randy left for the grocery store.

And we had lots of fun, as usual, doing the same things we always do. Sammy wanted to play the piano, and all three got to go into the swing and swing all the way to the ceiling. They wanted to do the Peppa Pig sticker book, and look at photobooks. And by then it was 1:30 pm and time to go upstairs to go to bed. It did not take them very long to fall asleep, and then I returned to my computer to work.

At around 2:40 Randy woke up Sammy to go to physiotherapy with him, and Emmy got up as well. I was surprised, when Emmy fell back asleep in my arms, which he rarely does any more. Tammy also continued sleeping. At 3:30 I was the one getting up and waking them up. I had looked in an app I have if there were any events for 3-year-olds today and found a fun event at a park, by a playground, that I could take them to. I finally decided we'd do it, and so we left the house just after 3:30 pm to make the 3:50 train.

Emmy was on the tricycle, while Tammy was walking. It was a very hot day today. We made our train and got on, and they sat on fold-down seats. I was taking pictures of them looking out the window, when Tammy turned around to me, giving me this great shot. We got off at the main train station and then had quite a long walk ahead, longer than anticipated. I tried to call Randy to encourage him to come join us after physiotherapy, but he never picked up. And so we made our way to the park, which was not that easy. I put Tammy on my shoulders to cross the big street, but it wasn't easy to steer Emmy who was not going straight most of the time. I was glad, when we finally made it to the park, and I could see the playground right away. The ad had said that there'd be books to look at and have read to you, as well as crafts stations. We went to the playground that they started exploring, while I was looking around to see where the action was.

The toddler slide was in the sun and made of metal, so unusable. They went on the swing and enjoyed it. Then I told them we should go find where the books and crafts were. And so we left the playground and walked on in the park. We found two men with a group of kids doing an action song standing in a circle. I figured they were part of the program, but it turned out to be the only action going on anywhere. It was very disappointing given the effort we'd made to get there. They didn't want to dance, and so we walked on, made a circle through the park, and returned to the playground on the other side. They went on the swings again, and then Emmy found a platform on a spring, where there were already two other boys. He joined them but immediately started to try to boss them around. He's very opinionated and tells everyone what they should or should not do. He stayed there a while but no one was having fun. And that's about the only thing they did at that playground, as most stuff (in the shade) was for older kids. Emmy was already turning red, and so it was time to leave and start the long journey home.

Emmy was once again on the tricycle, while Tammy was walking. She freaked out, when we started crossing the big road with her walking holding my hand, as she wanted to be on my shoulders, but we had to first get off the street. After we had made it to the square right by the entrance to the train station, there was a water fountain with drinking water, and it was also spraying water into the air to cool people off. They had fun drinking from the water fountain which they had never done before. Emmy got his shirt pretty wet, which was pleasant in this heat.

We continued walking and went to the platform our train was leaving from. It was an older train with stairs, and it pulled up pretty early. We got on the train, and it was very hot inside. The kids wanted to watch Peppa Pig, and so that's what they were doing while waiting for us to leave, and then while the train was rolling. When we pulled into our train station, I stopped the video, which upset them.  The doors opened, and a whole bunch of people wanted to get off. I put the tricycle on the platform first and stepped outside, while the kids started crying inside the train. I lifted Emmy out of the train and then Tammy. They calmed down, and we started our walk home. Tammy was still pretty cranky, as she wanted to watch Peppa Pig, and was giving me a hard time.

It was 6:15, when we got home. Randy heard us and came upstairs with Sammy. They all stayed upstairs, while I was making their dinner. It was after 6:30 before we sat down at the table to eat. Sammy did not want to eat at first, and the other two got up pretty quickly. They did eat some more in the bathtub, and Sammy even ate everything on his plate and more. They were also having fun playing with their water squirters. It was once again 7:40 by the time they were all in bed. I sat down by them, but they were really awake. I could tell that they had slept 2 hours instead of 1 at nap time. However, I myself was really tired, which made dealing with them really hard. I finally left and had Randy take my place, while I got myself something to eat. After having eaten, I went back to work. At 11 pm Emmy woke up crying for me, and so I had to sit down by his bed to continue working. Now it's after midnight, and I still have to clean up the kitchen before going to bed.