16 months 14 days

Our second day in Vienna was also a wonderful day of lots of joy and fun and laughter; as well as tiredness on my end. The little ones are still greatly enjoying being back in their Austrian home, and rediscovering all their toys. But they are also enjoying new skills.

Emmy and Tammy are excited to be able to climb up the couch all by themselves now - whereas Daddy is not at all excited about that. Mainly because of a low-hanging picture they like grabbing, but also because of the danger of them falling off the couch. I had to get up and go over to the couch more than once because they had climbed up. Of course, they are over the moon about it, as you can see in the picture.

Another skill is turning the lights on. Today I saw both Tammy and Emmy turning the light on in the hallway. However, they can't turn it off yet, as the switch needs to be flipped up for that, and that's too high so far.

I'm also impressed by Tammy's desire to tidy up. Today she was picking up bricks and putting them back into the bag. Yesterday, when I let them ouf of the play area to walk to the staircase and go up, Tammy stopped to pick up a bottle that was sitting on the floor and took a few steps to put it inside a box. She returned twice for more bottles and did the same thing before I got her so we could go upstairs. Our tidy little girl!

And Sammy is much more relaxed and laid back here than in Mali, happily playing all by himself.

This morning, Randy didn't want to wake them up again for their medicine. Instead we waited for them to wake up by themselves, which was pretty late today. For that reason, we decided to feed them their breakfast right away, rather than giving them milk first. I ended up being the one to change all their diapers, then Randy squeezed the medicine in while I held them, and then we put them into their chairs to feed them breakfast. I made three portions, and was amazed at how much they ate. The little bit that was left over ended up being dessert at night.

I cleaned them up and dressed them and went to bed, while Randy went downstairs with them. Just over an hour later, he came back upstairs with them, put the boys to bed, and the girl on me for her nap. It took her a while to fall asleep, as always, but then she slept for a good while, until after noon, and so did the boys. So it was late again before I got to start cooking lunch for the five of us. In the meantime Randy went downstairs with them. However, they seem rather fixated on me right now, and as Emmy was so upset I was leaving, I just took him upstairs with me. However, he wouldn't even let me put him down on the floor for a few seconds, which made cooking rather difficult, with a baby on my arm. A few times I had to put him on the floor anyway, against his will. It was about 1 pm when the food was ready - rice with chicken and vegetables. I opened a baby jar of pure pumpkin puree and added it to their rice; it made it less dry, and they love pumpkin, and they ate all their food! Especially the girl has been impressing me with how much she can eat. By the way, this morning they all had normal stool, but later in the day Emmy had some diarrhea again.

After lunch, we went downstairs to play. When Sammy was getting tired and cranky a while later, we took him upstairs to lie down for his afternoon nap. And then we happened to end up on a video call with Barbara, who enjoyed to see Emmy and Tammy, and they enjoyed seeing her again, and Tammy even said her name "Barba".

They were getting tired too, and so we went upstairs for their nap. At first Emmy protests, but then he falls asleep fast. I lay down with the girl, but it soon became clear that she was not ready to sleep. I was more tired than her. After a while I got back up with her and fed her her afternoon meal, a cereal-fruit jar, then went downstairs with her, where the two of us played. When the boys woke up, I ended up feeding Emmy, while Randy fed Sammy his afternoon meal. Then we all went downstairs to play. At 5:30 Randy took my place so I could go upstairs and make their dinner. The girl hadn't slept and was tired, and Emmy wanted to be with me as well, so they were both screaming at the top of their lungs when I walked away.

At 6 pm - an hour later than usual again - we fed them dinner. Bread with cream cheese that they now love, Emmy and Tammy ate a whole jar of potato soup together, and the three of them ate a whole banana, they had three types of berries, and then I got the leftovers from breakfast out, milk cereal. I was wondering where Tammy was putting all that food, as her mouth kept opening up for more! Sammy also ate really well tonight.

Then it was playtime in the bathtub, before it was bedtime. The advantage of Tammy not sleeping in the afternoon is that she falls asleep fast that way. Maybe we should continue like this. Emmy was up for quite a while, but happily playing by himself for most of the time, while Sammy was screaming for quite some time again before finally falling asleep. I was giving him milk, and was falling asleep myself while he was slowly drinking. Once he was back in bed, I lay down in bed myself for a few minutes because I was so tired.

Once they were all asleep, I got myself some food and sat down at the computer for the first time to eat and watch something. That's my only "down time" of the day. Sometimes I'm so tired it's hard for me to get going after I'm done eating. Tonight I have not done the dishes or cleaned the kitchen or high chairs yet, and it's after midnight. I have not started office work yet either. Last night it was 3 am when I went to bed, as I wake up more as the evening advances, and then get more done. However, I do feel it that I have to get up in the morning now to prepare their breakfast and feed them and miss that sleeping time.