18 months 24 days

Last night I headed to bed at 3:30. This morning we already got up earlier, at 7:45, to feed them. However, it was close to 9:30 before the last kid left to join Randy and the others downstairs. At 11 am my alarm woke me up, and as hard as it was, I still got up and started cooking lunch. It took a little longer than expected, and so it was close to noon before we sat down to eat. They enjoyed the lentil-tomato-soup, and had banana, watermelon and yoghurt as dessert.

Then I put Emmy to bed. Usually he's asleep by the time I've cleaned up and dressed Tammy and am putting her to bed. Not today. And it's not working when he's still awake. Instead of sleeping, they kept each other up, having lots of fun. After a while of hearing them laugh, Emmy got quiet. He had fallen asleep, but Tammy was riled up and still up and talking. They had both taken their sleeping bags off again, and Tammy had thrown her rabbit out. I put it back on, got the rabbit back, and put her into sleeping position, and had to stay a little to help her calm down and finally fall asleep. It was already 1:15, when she did. And she ended up sleeping two and a half hours, which is unusual for her. Randy was even getting worried. Emmy woke up once but thankfully fell back asleep by himself, and woke up again later at a good time. I was cleaning up and never had a chance to take a nap myself, which I had wanted to do. I heard Sammy getting pretty cranky and tired, and went to get him and see if he'd fall asleep on me. However, that usually doesn't work for him, and so I put him to bed, and none of the others woke up when I did. However, after a few minutes of silence, he started crying, and we finally had to get him back out. It wasn't long after that Emmy woke up, and I quickly got him out before he could wake his sister up. We took them downstairs to feed them. I put Sammy into his special chair he hadn't sat in for a while, and fed him there. Then we put him to bed again, but same story. It was surprising that Tammy wasn't waking up from his crying, considering how long she'd already been sleeping. Sammy came back down, and a little later I went upstairs to get Tammy who was slowly waking up. I held her for a while and then took her downstairs. As it was already 4 pm and 90 minutes before dinner time, I just gave her some snacks to eat. Emmy decided he wanted some too. And Tammy took some and gave it to Sammy.

We had fun playing until 5 pm - from swing to slide to reading books. Then I left to get their dinner ready. Once I had some bread with cream cheese ready, they came upstairs and came to get a piece from time to time while playing. When I was nearly done, we put them into their chairs and gave them their plates. That's when it gets quiet, while they're eating their favorite foods first. When I don't sit down with them soon enough, I already find food all over the floor, which was the case tonight. And it was Tammy who likes moving and organizing the food on her plate, and that includes throwing some out. I fed them the soup, and took the plates away when they stopped eating and were just playing with food and throwing it. I combined their remaining food on one plate and took it to the bathtub, where they finish it. But tonight a lot of bread was left over - too many snacks earlier.

Sammy came out of the water first and went to bed first, then Emmy, and then Tammy. The boys fell asleep fast, but Tammy was whining for a long time. I finally gave her some dental cream, as she had other signs of more molar teeth coming, which hurts. Sammy has another one about to break through as well. It was already pretty late, when I had to sit down by Tammy and help her finally fall asleep.

Now it's not even 10 pm, and I'm very tired. It's time for me to go clean up the dining room and kitchen, and then sit down and get some more office work done. Another week starts tomorrow!