16 months 29 days

It was a pretty regular day today. I headed to bed at my typical time of 3 am, and got up 5 hours later, when the babies woke up. I got their food ready - milk cereal and fruit - while Randy gave them fresh diapers. After feeding them, cleaning them up and dressing them, they were running around, while I was holding Sammy, waiting for Randy to get his breakfast ready and take it downstairs, and then he took the little ones downstairs one after another. All that takes time, and so it was about 9:30 when I was able to get back to bed.

I had set my alarm but I never heard it. I had been woken up a few times before, but I must have slept so well at that time that it made no difference. I woke up after 12 pm; Sonja was already here, and Randy had not put their food into the warmer. It was only the second time since our return a meal was only baby food jars, so that was lucky. Still, it takes some time to warm up, and the kiddos were really hungry. Both Emmy and Tammy were holding onto my dress, looking up at me whining, wanting me to pick them up, while I wanted to get the meal ready. It was a little challenging, but we got it done, and I fed Tammy, while Sonja fed Emmy. And at the end I got out some fruit and yoghurt, and Emmy also likes cookies.

After cleaning them up and dressing them, Sonja went downstairs with Emmy, who had had a morning nap together with Sammy. I then put Tammy to bed, who fell asleep fast, and then I had to hold Sammy, as Randy was gonna do omelets for the adults, which we usually have once a week. I lay down in bed with Sammy and had fun with him. At 1:30 I put Sammy to bed for his afternoon nap, just as my plate of food was ready. I stayed upstairs and quietly ate my omelet in bed, which was nice. At 2 pm I put Emmy to bed, and then went downstairs to try to work. Once again, I could hear both boys talking instead of sleeping. I finally went to get them out of bed, and when I handed Sammy to Sonja to get Emmy, he was crying so very hard that it woke up Tammy, so she came downstairs with us to play as well. We had half an hour of playtime, before we went back upstairs for the afternoon meal at 3 pm.

They ate their cereal with fruit jar, and I also cut up some fruit to give to them. As the boys had not slept yet, I put them to bed after the meal, which made Emmy not happy at all. However, by then they were so tired they fell asleep quickly. But, it was already 3:45 pm, so I let them sleep until 4:15 but no longer to keep them from not being able to sleep at night.

So the girl was downstairs by herself, playing with Sonja. At one point Sonja swung her left and right which she really enjoyed. Normally Emmy is the one who is crazy for that kind of stuff. And once I got the boys at 4:15, I had to do lots of swinging, mainly with Emmy, which is great exercise. Every time I stopped, he started whining; he was still pretty tired, having slept too short.

At 5 pm I left them to go get dinner ready, which takes me half an hour. At 5:30 they came upstairs and we fed them. They ate really well again, and then had fun in the bathtub, before I put them to bed. They all had milk, and the boys were still talking, Emmy the longest, before they fell asleep. Tammy was still up, and I finally gave her dental cream, as all her molars are coming out. Just applying the cream on her gums made her cry. After a while she finally fell asleep, and I was able to walk away and get my food ready.

Believe it or not, I'm still working on getting the French newsletter done, and hope to tonight. I still have a few hours of work time ahead of me.