16 months 2 days

Today was a good day. Their diarrhea is finally getting better. I know they've had it for a while, but normally you introduce them to the food you yourself eat slowly, weaning them off the baby jars, and we threw them into the deep end, going from ALL baby food to NO baby food, so that was quite a shock to their system. Barbara did some research and made them a carrot-oat-soup today that is good for them, and they even liked it a lot, eating it for lunch and dinner. They'll get it again tomorrow. They were also more cheerful today, except that Emmy was pretty cranky after getting up from his afternoon nap at 4 pm and didn't seem to be able to get over it.

But it always helps when our Malian children come over to play with them. Emmy wants everyone to pick him up, and Tammy has now come to that point too. Just Sammy is not keen on anyone but Mommy and Daddy holding him. Bakary has really surprised me, as he's been great with them, playing peek-a-boo, and "throwing" them around, making them love. And I just love that first picture of Tammy and Esther (3) looking at each other. I'm sure they'd become best friends if we were here all the time.

And Tammy has found out that she enjoys brushing her hair all by herself.

Patrice has also been a great playmate, and on the picture he's playing with Emmy.

I was feeling better today, so I was able to be out and about again. I also had some stuff to do for the kids party tomorrow, and talk details with Amadou about all that needed to be done, so he could decide which of our kids does what.

The day goes by pretty fast, and before I know it, it's already time to get the bathtub ready for them. Randy introduced them a long time ago to a song called "Splish Splash" by Elmo, that he often plays during bathtime (thanks to Alexa), and I've been playing it too. Tonight, it was so hilarious, and I wished I had a video, how Emmy was dancing to it in the bathtub. He does that quite frequently, but tonight even his sister did some dancing, which is new. Time for a dance class, as their Mom used to be a big dancer back in the day!

At bedtime, Sammy now always wants milk, and Emmy drinks the most, but Tammy has been refusing milk at that time. However, as time goes on, and she keeps crying instead of sleeping, in the end she finally accepts the milk, realizing that she is hungry after all.

Sammy had a really hard time falling asleep again tonight. I really don't know what the reason is. Maybe he's just catching up to his siblings, crying because he wants us to take him out of bed. I took him out several times, but he'd scream again once back in bed. After a long time, Randy held him, and he finally fell asleep on him, and so Randy could put him down and he continued sleeping.

Last night I made some good progress with office work and went to bed at 2 am. However, my belly ache got so bad, it kept me from sleeping, and woke Randy up. So in the end, it was really late again before I fell asleep. While I was still hurting during the day, it's nearly gone now. Time for more office work!