18 months 3 days

Last night I went to bed early again, at 1:30 this time, not having done any office work after our "date night" because it was our anniversary. That's two nights without office work, and tonight doesn't look good either. If only I could find time during the day to do it, so I could keep going to bed earlier.

This morning we got up earlier, at 7:45, as one of the boys was crying so hard. It was still quite a bit after 9 am before they had all eaten and Randy had taken them downstairs with his breakfast, so I could sleep. And then it takes me some time to fall asleep.

My alarm woke me up at 11 am, as I had to cook today. I was surprised to find that Randy was just putting Emmy to bed for a nap. Emmy has been transitioning to sleeping AFTER lunch instead of 10:30, and 11 is an inconvenient time, especially since the plan was to feed them lunch at 11:30. I was extremely tired and would have loved to go back to bed, when Randy suggested we'd feed them at noon, but I got started cooking anyway, and lay down for a few minutes when it was done and not yet noon. I made rice with chicken and vegetables for the little ones, while we had leftovers from our anniversary dinner (delivered food) last night. When I called down to Randy at noon to come upstairs with Tammy, Emmy woke up, which I had hoped anyway.

So we all sat down for lunch. Then it was Tammy's turn to sleep. I put her to bed and then went downstairs with Emmy, while Randy was still finishing up with Sammy and making tea and coffee for us. Once they came downstairs, I could go upstairs to clean up, get their clothes for church ready, as well as their food to take with us. I was going rather slowly because I was so tired.

Tammy woke up just before 2:30, and so the boys came upstairs and we all sat down at the dining room table for the afternoon meal. As Tammy had just woken up, she needed to sit on my lap to eat. By the way, she is doing really well eating with a spoon. Once the food is on it, she can move the spoon to her mouth without losing the food without me helping her. After the meal, it was the boys' turn to sleep. I put Emmy to bed and went downstairs with Tammy. Once Randy had put Sammy to bed and come downstairs, I went back upstairs to finish the preparations for church. Time was short.

While I was working, I could hear the boys - talking and laughing, and most certainly not sleeping. In fact, I had watched them interact downstairs earlier today, and it was the cutest thing, with Sammy doing lots of laughing. In any case, they never slept. We finally got them out of bed, dressed them all, packed everything, and got ourselves ready, and left late. We were running part of the walk to the train station so we'd still catch the train. It was already sitting there, so we ran and made it.

After train and tram, we got to church on time and found ourselves a place to sit. We do take up a lot of room. At first Tammy and Emmy were still a little cautious, but that lasted much shorter than last time (which was the first time after months). When worship started, we were near a bunch of dancers, and Tammy and Emmy had fun watching them and dancing themselves. In fact, they both had lots of fun all night long and never got tired. They made lots of contact with mainly children, especially with one little girl.

There was another little girl their age who was going up and down the staircase on the picture. That really got their interest. Immediately they started going up the stairs, but they have never gone DOWN stairs. Of course they were gonna do that now, and so I held their hands while they went downstairs. Tammy just went for it, while Emmy was more cautious. It will be interesting to see whether they'll want to go down the stairs at home as well.

Time went by pretty fast, and before we knew it, the service was over. We talked to a few people, some being amazed at how much the little ones have grown, as they hadn't seen them in a while. Emmy was definitely getting tired, and Sammy was already really tired. Randy had held him the whole service long, except for one time, when I did.

We also saw our friend Sonja, who ended up helping us put their coats on, and then left together with us. We took the alternative route home, which was a tram and two subways. Another guy from church joined us besides Sonja, and so we had some company for much of the trip. Emmy was really tired at first and I though he'd sleep, but he woke up getting food and having fun with Sonja. The girl didn't even seem tired, and Sammy rarely sleeps in the stroller.

We arrived home just after 8 pm. Half an hour later they were all in bed. Emmy fell asleep fast, Tammy needed a little time and was checking whether I was sitting by her bed, and Sammy was crying again and ended up being held by me for a while. When I put him to bed after those few minutes, he was fine and fell asleep. When they were little, Tammy and Emmy were always rocked to sleep by us because they couldn't fall asleep otherwise, now it's Sammy's turn.

It was 9 pm before I was free to walk away and get some food. Now it's 2 am, and I'm debating with myself whether to do office work, or let this be the third night without office work and go to bed. The work won't get done by itself.