16 months 16 days

Day 4 of quarantine, and the last day at home, with activities starting back up tomorrow, with the Covid test to end the quarantine. It seems that they babies are getting into a new rhythm. They got up late again, at 8:30, and so I made their breakfast food and we fed them right away. I cleaned them up, dressed them, took them downstairs where Randy stayed with them, and went back to bed. At 10:30 Randy brought them back up for a nap. However, they were not tired, having gotten up so late. Sammy was just crying, and Tammy wouldn't stay down, and so I got up with her, and as soon as I walked into their bedroom, Emmy also lifted his head, so we all went back downstairs. Randy stayed with them again, while I went back to bed. I guess they're at an age when they can go to one nap a day instead of two.

I set a timer for 45 minutes - as I had tried for half an hour to get Tammy to sleep - and then got woken up once again to make their food. Thankfully we had leftovers from yesterday so that I didn't have to cook, and warming it up went fast. That way we were able to eat at noon - pasta with meat and tomato sauce, followed by a whole banana and half a liter of yoghurt!

After they were cleaned up and dressed, we put the boys to bed, and I lay down with the girl. The boys fell asleep fast this time, and it didn't take the girl that long either. I myself was really tired as well and fell asleep. Unfortunately the girl only slept for one hour, until 2 pm, and the boys woke up not long after. Once again we all went downstairs to play, before going back up at 3 pm for cereal with fruit.

We went back downstairs and now had until 6 pm to play. Both Tammy and Emmy crawled into the shelf again, looking out at the other side, and I'm still waiting for them to come back out the other side, but so far they always move backwards, back out onto their feet. Sammy was doing lots of crawling and playing happily.

Especially Emmy used to talk about the cat and sheep all day long, and that is now decreasing in frequency. He now talks about the packages again all the time, like he did before we left for Mali, and the word he uses for it sounds very much like the word he uses for cat. I so enjoy the time I have playing and cuddling with them and making them laugh, and it's just amazing to me that I love them so much, and that love just seems to increase.

Emmy was getting tired as time went on, more so than his sister, and he gets very cranky with little to cheer him up. The only thing that works is throwing him around, that always makes him laugh. Because they were so tired and cranky, I left a little earlier to go get their dinner food ready. Of course it made them cry when I walked away. So I turned around, picked up Emmy, and took him upstairs with me. That made getting things ready a little harder, having a baby on my arm. However, Randy and the other two came upstairs just a few minutes later, and then I was able to set him down, so he could run around and play with his sister. I also ended up giving them a preview of dinner - some of their bread from their plate - to keep them happy.

They ate REALLY well again, with Sammy impressing us the most as he cleaned off his plate! I had to get out more food for him! And the other two also ate a lot, including more yoghurt. Then we had fun in the bathtub, before they went to bed. It wasn't too bad tonight; I had to stay for a while so the girl could fall asleep, but she was pretty tired, so it didn't take too long. Sammy cried until I had given him a bottle of milk, and then he fell asleep. When Emmy saw the bottle, he also wanted one, so he also had one and then fell asleep.

Once I was able to walk away, I got some food, did some housework, and started working at the computer. During the day I think of everything I need to do, and sometimes I'm so tired at night that I can't think straight, wondering where to start and what to do. It's not even midnight, so I hope to still get quite a bit of work done.