15 months 19 days

Tonight I'm in better shape than yesterday, as I'm starting to write this at 2:15 am, though I've been very tired all evening and didn't even think I'd be able to continue for a while. And I'll have to go to bed after this, meaning that office work stays once again undone. Please pray I get done what I need to get done.

Today I actually found a few minutes to work with Paul. It seems like a little miracle that I was able to do so! Maybe I can carve out short times like this every day.

Yesterday I told you that Emmy brought me the right-colored ball three times in a row when I asked him. Today I asked Tammy once, and she also brought me the right color. I researched it and found that they can recognize colors at 18 months of age, and biologically the triplets are only just over 13 months old!

It's been challenging to not have baby food jars, but having to cook for them. For Sammy it all has to be really small, and Emmy is a picky eater. Tammy is the easiest. Last night around midnight I cooked today's lunch, so we could just warm it up. It was Quinoa with vegetables and chicken - their first time eating Quinoa. Tammy happily ate it, while Emmy refused after one bite. Sammy wasn't excited either. Barbara then pureed it, which helped, but Emmy still didn't want it, though he was hungry. Then Barbara had the genious idea to get her own plate and eat, and suddenly Emmy was eating along. She's also been teaching him to feed himself with a spoon, holding the spoon together with him and putting it into his mouth. When I tried that with Tammy, she refused. She wanted to hold it all by herself! Sammy also wants to feed himself, but Randy was able to guide his hand so that he actually gets some food into his mouth.

When Barbara had watermelon later, everyone - including 3-year-old Esther - came to get some. Tammy can eat quite a bit, and Emmy just wants it but still refuses to eat watermelon.

Sammy has been more attached than ever to Randy and me. We cannot even leave him alone at all right now. When we're there, he agrees to go on the carpet and play, but as soon as we leave, he starts screaming and nothing can make him stop except for us to come back. He gets held now a lot of the day, and I've started faithfully doing his exercises with him again every day.

We had some of our Malian kids over for much of the time again today, and I just LOVE watching them play with our children. Today I saw Esther (3) smile for the very first time. She loves all the toys, and also attention, I believe. In Mali kids have to work pretty hard, even 3-year-olds.

Jonathan (12) has impressed me the most. He's been with us from birth, and we've always had trouble with him. His Mom has been with me since before he was born, and she told me that even refuses to hold his newborn brother as that is "women's stuff". I'm blown away to see how much he loves playing with Emmy, and today he even picked up Tammy, a girl, and played with her!!! I think our kids are going to change him, and are going to change culture!

There was another remarkable example of that today, that I've captured on video. I'm struggling to get all the videos uploaded because of the slow internet connection. In Mali, Dad's are not involved; the children are all the wives' work, and Randy is showing them a different way. Today, while they were all playing in the play area, Emmy was heading straight to Randy, and Esther (3) quickly jumped up to keep him away from his Daddy. In Mali many kids would get slapped for bothering their Dad. I had to tell Esther that it was okay, that Emmy could go to his Daddy.

Once I had Tammy on my arm and we went to the kitchen, where Barbara was making soup for dinner, and Fanta was doing dishes. She was so happy to get to explore a new area, and tried to open drawers and cabinets. Unfortunately our kitchen is in really bad shape, being eaten up by termites. Then she spotted Amaga and went over to him. They are not the youngest any more!

All three sleeping in the same bed has been quite a challenge; it's just not working. To make nap times work, today I put Sammy to bed first at their regular nap time, and he'd sleep. After he woke up, I put Emmy into the bed and lay down with Tammy, and both slept. When another baby is in there with Emmy, he won't let them sleep. When they went to bed at night, it was quite a challenge again, as Emmy is running around in bed waking or keeping everyone up, and he thinks it's a game when I put him down and giggles. Yesterday Randy ended up holding him down against his will until he gave up and fell asleep. Tonight the girl was really tired as she had not slept in the afternoon, and she just wanted to sleep, but her brother kept bothering her, as well as Sammy. It took a while again, even though Emmy was tired too, and it's quite exhausting to try to protect two and get the third one to sleep.

I was so tired I could not keep my eyes open. I was also pretty hungry, and eating helped a little bit. There's so much to do, but I still had to do yesterday's pictures, plus today's, and now that I'm done, it's simply too late to do anything else.

We always put them in the bathtub before going to bed. Sammy LOVES it, and in Austria Tammy and Emmy would also play happily. So far Emmy still does not want to be in the Malian bathtub, and I don't know why.

Paul and I have been discussing the Christmas events and how we should do them during Corona times, and we have not found all the answers today. Also, the restaurant we always go to at Christmas went bankrupt (Corona plus the road leading there being inaccessible). So we're gonna buy the chicken and fries already cooked and eat them on our base. So I gave Amadou all the decorations I have today, so they could put them up in the dining hall where they and all the workers and non-resident kids are going to eat them. Now it's just the lights that still have to be put up. I love seeing Amadou as a staff member for the first time, and I'm really proud of the man he has become.

As it's Monday, I weighed them today, and Tammy weighed 9.3 kilos (-500 grams), Emmy 8.4 (-800), and Sammy 6.9 (+100). Somehow those numbers don't quite seem right.