15 months 3 days

I went to bed around 3:30, and got up just after 5 hours later to make their food. At 9 am we fed them, and twenty minutes later we put them to bed for their morning nap. Tammy fell asleepon me after 20 minutes and slept 35 minutes because Sammy was crying and woke her up. Emmy always sleeps half an hour, then wakes up and needs someone to pick him up and rock him back to sleep. Sometimes Daddy can do that. So at 10:15 everybody went downstairs, which is rather early, while I went back to bed. I was hoping to get some good sleep, as Sonja was coming at noon, meaning I could sleep in, as they would not need me to feed them. But it just never works out that way, hasn't yet so far. Doorbells, noise... They fed them at 1 pm, and I could hear every word they were saying. Then they went back downstairs. When I heard Sammy crying really hard a few minutes later, I went downstairs to comfort him and took him upstairs with me, which he enjoyed. He was tired, and so I put him to bed. At 1:40 the others came up to to go to bed, a little earlier than usual, since they had not slept long in the morning.

At 2 pm I picked up Tammy to lie down with her, and she fell asleep ten minutes later and slept for an hour. At 2:25 Sammy started crying, and as Daddy was rocking a sleeping Emmy, I slipped Tammy onto the bed and went to get Sammy. This time I did not lie down with him next to Tammy, as it would probably have woken her up. Instead we went to the kitchen, where I could see our bed, to see when she'd wake up. After Emmy woke up, they all went downstairs, while I stayed with Tammy, who woke up and immediately continued sleeping on me.

At 3 pm the others came back up for their afternoon meal, and when Tammy woke up a few minutes later, she joined them as well to eat. Then we all went downstairs to play, while Randy went to the grocery store. And we had lots of fun. Tammy got onto the rocking horse, and Emmy found a big ball, and he likes his balls. Sammy played with the activity cube he enjoys, as well as some other toys. Tammy also played with this weird bird with glowing eyes that talks; I don't really like it.

Randy returned earlier than expected and joined us. Especially Emmy was getting pretty tired. At 5 pm I went upstairs to make their meal, and they came up to eat half an hour later. The past few days they had refused to eat the bread. Tonight we had the bread again that we usually buy, and surprise surprise, they actually ate the bread again! I don't know why they didn't like the other bread, it wasn't that different.

I was feeding Emmy, as I was expecting him to be throwing food to the ground again, and he did. I would tell him no, and he'd do it, and then I would hold his hand so he could not use it, which he didn't like. After a while I'd let go of it, and he'd do it again, and I would restrain his hand again. Today he kept eating the bananas with his free hand, as if he didn't mind me holding his other hand, but eventually he did mind it. In the end he'd had enough of everything, and I could not get any more food into him. At least he hadn't thrown as much to the ground as yesterday.

They all went into the bathtub, which they always enjoy, and then went to bed in their typical order. I walked away right away, which caused Tammy to scream, and it was only getting worse over time. Eventually I returned and sat down next to her bed. Even then she'd sometimes start crying, and would only calm down when I'd stroke her hair through the bars. Sammy was wide awake and talking up a storm. He did start whining at some point, and I gave him some milk. He ended up being the last one to fall asleep, pretty late.

Cooking, eating, and I wanted to talk to Paul as he had sent me testimonies, to understand them better and know which picture goes with which testimony, but it turned out that he was at the hospital with our oldest kid and newest staff member, who needs to get his appendix out. I don't know how bad it is, and what clinic he is at, but we appreciate your prayers for him. Hopefully I'll find out more tomorrow.

Now it's 1 am, and I still have some office work to get done.