13 months 16 days

Emmy had such a tough time last night; maybe another tooth coming? I was glad to be going to bed a little earlier, but no such luck. At 2 am he woke up and I gave him milk, but he started crying whenever I walked away, which is unusual. I stroked his head until 2:30 and walked away, and he again started screaming. I had also changed his diaper and given him dental cream, so I knew all his needs had been met. I decided to go to bed and let him scream. Thankfully his siblings slept so well it didn't bother them. Hopefully it didn't bother our neighbors either. He cried until 3 am and obviously I couldn't fall asleep before he did.

It was really tough getting up in the morning, but I've got to feed the babies, so I do, no matter what. As they take a nap after that meal, we fed them at the dining room table. I could tell they were tired, but the big question is always which baby I lie down with, as both Tammy and Emmy need help falling asleep, and Randy is not available as he's eating breakfast. I had Emmy first and he fell asleep, but I failed in even having him slide off of me and onto to bed and continue sleeping. So I put him into his bed, hoping he would continue sleeping, but he didn't. I lay down with Tammy who had a good long nap on me.

As we were short on time, I had actually hoped she'd wake up before 11, so I could get things done, but I'd had a good nap with her. I took her downstairs to Randy and her siblings, and prepared their clothes and other stuff for our trip to church. It's always a major undertaking going to church. I also started cooking an easy meal for Randy, and prepared mine, but while he was able to eat his meal after we had fed the babies, I did not have time to cook and eat mine. I just grabbed something fast.

We started feeding them at noon, then dressed them, and let them crawl around, while we ourselves were getting ready and were getting everything ready. We left on time at 1 pm and caught the train (that goes only every half our). It was the coldest day yet today, with a cold wine.

Since Emmy hadn't had his morning nap, he fell asleep in the stroller. He seems to have a habit of falling asleep on the way to church. Today it was not a typical service, but the many different (language and national) congregations came together to celebrate, that's why it was 2 pm (one of four services to choose from), and that's why the sanctuary was full. Since it's the time when the Filipinos usually have their service, most people there were Filipinos.

We rolled into the sanctuary as usual and found seats in the back, close to the door so we could go outside with them easily. An usher came and told us the strollers couldn't be in there; I thought he was saying the babies couldn't. Then a higher-up usher came and explained that we had to leave the strollers outside and can bring the babies in. Emmy was still sleeping, so Randy rolled him back to the foyer, while I stayed with Sammy and Tammy.

A little while later Randy returned with the strollers and an even higher-up usher who said it was okay for us to have the strollers in the sanctuary. That sure made it easier.

As it was time for their 2 pm meal, I went first and took Tammy to the baby room to feed her. I had a bib with me; we haven't used any in a long time as we always take their clothes off at home. After she was done eating, I went back to the sanctuary with her and Randy left to feed Sammy. Not long after, Emmy woke up, so I took him and Tammy to the baby room - where we were now all reunited - to feed him. However, he had just woken up and was cranky and simply refused to even take one bite. I left the jar there to try again later, but Randy threw it away when he gathered everything up. I returned to the sanctuary with Tammy and Emmy, and Randy joined us a little later.

The biggest nice surprise was that Anna happened to be at the service as well. She sat with us and helped when needed and took some great pictures. Like this one (and the video) of Emmy interacting with the Filipinos sitting behind us. It was hilarious! Emmy would jump and laugh for joy, just because she touched his finger or did other things that weren't special at all.

There was a little African boy sitting in front of us, and the whole time Tammy and Emmy tried to interact with him, but he was not interested and walked away or ignored them. It was really sad; the boy was sad, and our kids too because of it.

Tammy was getting really tired and I tried to put her to sleep. She put her head down a few times, but only for seconds; there was just too much going on.

As you can imagine, we're so busy with the kids that we don't really hear much of what is being said from the front. That's our reality of going to church right now!

When the service ended, a few people talked to us, but most people there didn't know us. We put three tired babies into the strollers, and put their coats and blankets on them to go back outside and to the subway. We took a subway and a train, and Sammy was getting antsy. As we were rolling towards our house, Randy was lifting the front of back wheels of his stroller up which made him laugh out loud. It was so cute!

It was way into dinner time by the time we got home, and half an hour to make their food was just too long. Instead I put some jars into the warmer to feed them; usually we only feed them that food for lunch. While it was warming up, we took their clothes off and I got their pj's etc. ready. It was a "12" jar, now that they have started their 12th month age-wise. However, Sammy is always behind in what he can handle food-wise, so some of the chunks in there were just too big for him. The other two loved it.

We then went through our usual routine to put them all to bed. Tammy and Emmy needed me to stay for a while, but it didn't take too long before they were asleep. Emmy again woke up screaming a few hours later, but I was able to put him back to sleep by stroking his head, and it didn't take as long as last night. Now it's 1 am, so hopefully there won't be repeat of last night tonight.