13 months 4 days

This morning I woke up to Emmy crying. After Randy changes, clothes and feeds them, he takes them downstairs one at the time. Emmy was crying, being alone up here in his bed. I got up and held him until Randy came back to get him. Sammy was still here too and unhappy, so I held him until Randy came back for him.

As they had gotten up later than usual, there was no point feeding them breakfast half an hour later, since they had just had their milk. So I told Randy to wake me when they get tired, and we'd fed them and put them down for their nap later.

He woke me only 20 minutes later than my usual wake up time. So I got up, made their food, we fed them, and then it was nap time. I lay down with Tammy, while the boys went into their beds. Emmy was crying, so once Tammy was asleep, I put her in her bed and picked up Emmy. At first I thought she'd continue sleeping, but she didn't. Emmy was so tired, he fell asleep on me fast, but Tammy was now wide awake. So I took the risk and got up with Emmy and put him to bed, and thankfully, he continued sleeping. That way I could lie down with Tammy again, and this time she slept long, until waking up by herself.

They ate lunch a little later as well, as the previous meal had been later. Then I cooked for us, while Randy stayed with them. In a way I feel like a broken record telling you this, as it's just a typical day.

After we had eaten, our friend Anna came to help for a few ours. She is the one who took all of today's pictures. It was another cold and dark day, and we had to have the lights on all day long. She played with them all, and Sammy had a good day, not crying when she held him and interacted with him. I took advantage of her being here by first doing some office work, and later some much-needed work in the household. I never get to do those things when it's just us!

We fed them their next meal at 2:15; Emmy was already very tired. We tried to put them down. Tammy didn't seem tired; she'd had a long nap in the morning, and Emmy was so tired he was screaming. So Anna went downstairs to play with Tammy, while Emmy slept on me. I did some reading of my Kindle books on my phone. Recently God has really put an urgency on me to read Danny Silk's "Loving Your Kids On Purpose" and Bill Johnson's "Raising Giant-Killers", so it's really convenient to have the books on my phone. I would not otherwise have any time to ever read them. I highly recommend those books if you're raising children.

After an hour - it was 3:30 pm - I heard Tammy cry and knew she had to be tired by then. It was getting late, and so I got up and took Emmy down, waking him up, and lay down with Tammy. She fell asleep right away, and after half an hour I got up again with her, as she would otherwise sleep too long and not sleep at night.

Anna was playing with them downstairs, and Randy joined her when Sammy was getting cranky, while I worked upstairs and then made their food. They also had their dinner a little later than usual, and we each fed a baby. Again Emmy did not want to stay in his chair for long, but needed to get out and move around, and I'd put food into his mouth until he did not want any more.

We then put their pj's on, put them to bed with a prayer, put their sleeping bags on, and gave them a bottle of milk. Emmy didn't need long to fall asleep. Tammy needed a long time, but tonight it was Sammy who just wouldn't fall asleep. Nothing I did seemed to make a difference, from a fresh diaper, to more milk, dental cream, and stroking his head. I was so glad when he FINALLY did fall asleep!

And that's when we cook, eat, and start working. I have not been able to go to bed earlier recently, and it's midnight now, and I still have plenty to do.