16 months 20 days

I don't have much to write about today, nor do I have a lot of pictures. I've been pretty tired, and my nose is still pretty runny, so is the babies', some more, some less. I'm looking forward to our friend and Caritas helper returning to help us next week, in her official capacity. As it's a new year, we can have her again for a couple of weeks to help us. We pay for that service, but it's worth it. And we're really thankful that our friend Sonja already came to help us this week. She has such a passion for what she does, and does it out of a heart of love and service.

The little ones got up at 8:30 today. I made their breakfast while Randy was giving them fresh diapers, and then we fed them. I'm not a morning person, plus I only get to sleep about 5 hours per night, so I'd rather have minimal light, but Randy needs a lot of light, and so he always turns the big light on, blinding me at first.

After they were done eating, I cleaned them up and dressed them. Then I held Sammy, while Randy was preparing his breakfast, and then he took it downstairs, as well as the kids, one after another, Sammy being the last. I went back to bed, while he was downstairs with them all.

Tammy has not been tired at 10:30 when they lie down for a nap, so I told Randy to keep her with him, while putting only the boys to bed. But somehow Emmy didn't sleep this morning. And I didn't get much sleep either.

At noon Sonja arrived, just as the chicken soup was about ready to eat. We had enough of it leftover to feed to the little ones, and there was one plate leftover for us tonight. A soup is pretty messy to feed them, though. I also gave them some bread, and then they had bananas and yoghurt. They all ate really well.

I gave them a sink bath and put their clothes back on, and then they all went downstairs. Randy made omelets for the adults again, even though it was the second day this week, and we usually only do that once a week. In the meantime the rest of us were downstairs playing.

As time went on, I could tell that Sammy was getting pretty tired, and so was Emmy, so I put them to bed at around 1:30 pm, and they both slept. I then ate my omelet, while the girl was also getting pretty tired. I was able to finish it anyway and took her upstairs to lie down with her.

Recently she has not wanted to sleep lying on me, like she used to. She was fighting me and sleep for a long time, before she finally fell asleep lying on the bed, VERY close to the edge, too close for my liking. Once she was in a deep sleep, I moved her towards the middle of the bed. Sammy woke up a little bit later, and at first he was happy, but the longer nobody came to get him, the more unhappy he became. Finally I got up to go get him, and unfortunately the girl woke up in the process, even though she had not even touched me. She had only slept half an hour which was way too little.

When I got Sammy, Emmy woke up as well, and so they were all awake, and we were all going downstairs. I was very tired, not having had a chance for a nap. I can't just sleep 5 hours every night and not get a nap during the day. I stayed downstairs for a little bit, before going upstairs and leaving them with Sonja and Randy. I heard they had lots of fun. I didn't get to sleep - which I should have done - but took care of a few things. The kids were getting tired after a while, and so I started making their dinner half an hour earlier than usual, and they ate at 5:30 pm.

And they ate lots of food again, especially the girl. Emmy actually left some fruit on his plate, and the girl ate it all as well as her own food. They also ate a whole jar of potato soup instead of only half, and lots of yoghurt. Even Sammy needed seconds and thirds. Randy has been saying he has a bandwork because he's been eating so much. 😄 I sure hope all that food will show up on the scale next Monday.

Then they went into the bathtub, and we finally got some bathtub pictures again. They've been enjoying their new toys, which are really for a sandbox but also work well in the bathtub. They had lots of fun, and complained when I got them out. Then they went to bed, and the boys had their milk. Sammy fell asleep right away, and the girl needed a little time, but Emmy stayed awake and was unhappy. I gave him some dental cream; Tammy has had a molar tooth for a while already, so maybe his is about to break through, and that's unpleasant. I held him for a little bit, and then Randy took him and rocked him to sleep.

At 8 pm we had a Zoom meeting with a pastor in Quebec which was great, and then we finally got to eat, and it was late before I got started on office work. How will I ever catch up! My hope is that I can maybe get more done once our Caritas helper friend returns to help. We'll see.