17 months 9 days

I went to bed at 2:30 last night, but at 6:30 all three wanted some milk, before continuing to sleep. They were up a little earlier anyway, but we let them talk until 8 am before we get up to start the day. This morning Emmy only had ONE spoonful of the cereal with milk and fruit and refused to eat any more. But in the evening he LOVED drinking the rest. So he got fruit and snacks. Tammy ate more, plus fruit. She's not a big fan of snacks.

They were nearly done eating, when Caritas helper Christine arrived, and I went back to bed. However, I can hear everything, and so I stay awake until everyone is downstairs. Today Christine dressed Tammy and Emmy and took them right outside our downstairs door with two cars they sit on and move with their legs. They had fun!

The boys went to bed at 10:30 for their nap, and they must have slept right away because there was no crying waking me up. While they were asleep, Tammy had Christine all to herself, and they did some drawing together.

The doorbell rang at 11:30 and woke me up. It was the cleaning lady who had come to finish what she started last time. Christine was already in the kitchen cooking, while Randy was downstairs with the girl. I don't know if it was the doorbell, but the boys were awake, and I got them out of bed. The cleaning lady got busy, while Christine finished the food, and I put it on their plates so we could eat. I was feeding Tammy, and Christine Emmy. They didn't really eat very much; it was rice with chicken and vegetables. I then got some fruit and yoghurt out as well. After they were done eating, Christine went to get the cleaning rag, and then taught Emmy how to clean the table. I cleaned up and dressed Tammy and put her to bed, and she fell asleep quickly, and slept nearly two hours.

We all went downstairs, and the cleaning lady soon did too to vacuum the play area. Emmy was very skeptical and a little fearful of the vaccuum cleaner. When it was off, he was slowly approaching it to check it out, and when it was on, he was safe in my arms. When Randy came down with Sammy, he put him in his old babybed to be out of the way of the cleaning lady, and Sammy knelt in there, holding on to the railing, which is how he's supposed to sit. He actually likes pulling himself up into a standing position, but the physiotherapist said that's not good for him. Randy and I don't really know why; he sure seems to enjoy standing on his feet.

At 2:15 I went to get their afternoon jars, and I fed Emmy downstairs; he only ate half the jar and preferred playing. He was getting tired though. Randy decided to feed Sammy upstairs in the kitchen, where there was more light and he was further away from where Tammy was sleeping. When Emmy was done eating, I took him upstairs, just as the cleaning lady was leaving, and then Tammy woke up as well. I put Emmy to bed, and Sammy followed suit after he was done eating, and I took Tammy downstairs. Christine had to leave too.

So it was just us girls downstairs, as Randy stayed upstairs and ended up falling asleep on the stool in the kitchen. I spun Tammy around on the old office chair, then pushed her on the baby swing, we read books, and had lots of fun. Just before 4 pm I asked Alexa to play some Christian kids songs, and when I did, she started playing them in the baby room upstairs instead of downstairs. I immediately heard the boys crying, when the music had suddenly come on right next to them. Alexa has done that before, and I just have to remember not to ask for music, when sleep sounds are on upstairs. I went upstairs with Tammy, and we got the boys out of bed, and the five of us went downstairs. I would have woken them up at 4 pm anyway.

We then had another hour of playing together, before I had to leave to get dinner ready, and we had lots of fun. Sammy was crawling, and at one point actually pulled up both his legs under him, which is a big deal, as that is how you actually crawl, so the more he does it, the better. Most of the time he's just pulling his whole body with his arms, while trying to push with his legs.

Before I was done getting their food ready, Randy already came upstairs with them as they were tired and cranky. Instead of food, I gave them leftovers from lunch, and they enjoyed eating it more than they had at lunch time. They ate pretty well, and we took the rest with us to the bathtub. When I got the leftover milk with cereal from the morning out, they couldn't wait to drink it - out of the cup of course - and they drank it all, taking turns, including Sammy.

Then they went to bed. Tammy and Emmy had some milk, and I was able to leave pretty quickly. Sammy started crying, but he refused to drink any milk, and so I gave him dental cream. He seemed to be fine, and so I got my food and went intot he bathtub, which I get to do too rarely. However, Sammy started crying again and hard while I was in there, and Randy couldn't get him to calm down. So I had to get out of the water, got Sammy out of bed, and held and rocked him while singing to him. Crying turned to sobbing and then he got quiet. I put him back to bed, and he started crying again, but I stayed and stroked his head while singing to him, until he was fine and I could walk away. I then went back into the bathtub to relax. Once I came out, it was time for house work, cleaning up, and then I could finally sit down by the computer to start working. I had a few private messages today, but I don't even get to look at anything during the day, and sometimes I'm just too worn out to do so at night. In fact, I have not accomplished enough at night recently and so my to-do-list is getting longer. Even now it's already 1:40 am, so not much time left to work.