After as short night, I was surprised it was 8:30, when we woke up this morning, half an hour later than usual. I made breakfast, we fed them, I cleaned them up and dressed them, and Randy took them downstairs. I went back to bed, until my alarm woke me at 11:15 to turn the food warmers on. It was baby food jar day. I set a timer for 15 minutes that woke me up once again, and I called them up so we could feed them.
I now put the content of the jars onto their plates, as they like eating themselves with a spoon. They're pretty good at it, though they still need a little help at times. We finished the meal with yoghurt, banana and watermelon. Then I cleaned up Emmy, dressed him, and put him to bed. Then I cleaned up and dressed Tammy and sat down on our bed with her and got the children's Bible out. This was the third day we did this, reading the Bible together, while waiting for Emmy to fall asleep. While we did that, Randy was finishing up with Sammy and put him to bed. Emmy wasn't asleep yet, and he decided to get back up at that point. Randy finally took Tammy downstairs, as Emmy was still awake, and I started cleaning up. Usually Emmy falls asleep fast, but he simply was not today. I finally went to get the girl, as Randy also had something else he wanted to do, and put her to bed. And then the party started. They were talking and laughing and running around in their beds. To the point that Sammy even woke back up. I could not get them to sleep, though I tried a few times. I finally got Sammy out, as he had already slept some, and after a while Emmy fell asleep first, and a little while later Tammy. It was already pretty late by that time.
After having eaten, I fell back asleep myself. It's always a rude awakening, when the kids wake back up, and wake me up too. Randy was already downstairs with Sammy, so I picked up Emmy and lay down with him. He rested on my chest for a while, but did not fall back asleep. Once he got up, I took him and their afternoon jar downstairs.
Randy then fed Sammy, and I fed Emmy downstairs. Emmy was in the swing, and I'd just grab the swing and put another spoonful into his mouth. It worked really well. The whole time I was waiting for Tammy to wake up, but she was still sleeping. Randy left after Sammy was done, while I stayed with the boys, and we had fun.
At 4 pm we went upstairs, as that is the cut-off time for naps. Tammy woke up as soon as she heard the noise of us coming. We then dressed them all, and I gave Tammy a cereal bar as her afternoon meal. By the time we left the house, it was nearly 4:30, so rather late. And that's while we only went to the playground closest to us. It was the last warm day, so we wanted to take advantage of that, and yesterday they had not been outside.
Tammy and Emmy were walking - actually Tammy loves to run, while Emmy stops frequently looking at things, and so Tammy and I were way ahead, while Randy tried to get Emmy to move and finally carried him. Sammy was in the stroller, which is just easier. The playground is really close, and they had lots of fun. They always love seeing other kids, and there was another little girl they were just watching at first. But then Emmy pushed the wheelbarrow, and the shopping cart (he has never been to a supermarket before), and Tammy found a duck she took for a walk, pulling it up and down the sidewalk. Emmy likes slides, so he went down the slide a couple of times. I had Sammy, and sat him on one of the climbing things, which he enjoyed. And then we went over to another climbing contraption, where he got to go on top, and Randy sat him there kneeling, which he did all by himself. I then had Tammy, and then Emmy, helping them climb across and back and down, which they enjoyed. Time was flying, and it was already 5 pm by the time we started walking back home. It's a straight shot, walking right towards our balcony at the end of the path.
Back in the apartment, I went straight to work making their food, while Randy took their clothes off. They always come to me for bread with cream cheese while running around, but Tammy did not seem hungry tonight. She stopped coming very quickly. Once I was nearly done, they all sat down in their chairs and started eating, while I finished up. Then I sat down with them and fed them their soup. There was still lots of bread on their plates. After a while I took their plates, combined everything on one, and put it in the bathtub, then putting them into the bathtub. There were more leftovers than usual tonight; probably the cereal bar at 4 pm.
They all wanted out of the water, so they all came out at the same time. And I finally weighed them, having last done so 5 weeks ago. They don't gain as much weight as they used to any more, and Sammy didn't gain any, which is concerning. He's been on the same weight for way too long. Today Tammy weighed 10.7 kilos (+300 grams), Emmy 9.7 (+400) and Sammy still 7.9.
I put them to bed and walked away. It was only Tammy who I could still hear fussing. When I finally walked over to her bed to help her out, she had taken her pj's off, so I put them back on, put her into her sleeping position, and stroked her head, then walked away. From there it didn't take much longer.
I was already downstairs, when I heard Sammy cry. I finally checked on him, and he was lying sideways, stuck between the two sides of the bed. I guess the leg braces make movement a lot harder. I freed him, comforted him, and put him back to bed. Now it's 1 am, and they all have had their milk. The reason they woke up is probably that Paul called me because he was so excited, and I have to talk loudly for him to understand me. Today we had our Easter Kid Party in Mali, and nearly 1500 children came. 1000 shoes were given away, and the village chief sent someone to let us know how thankful he is for what we do for the community. Neighbors also came - to pull out their kids, telling us how upset they are that their kids sing Christian songs at home and have their mentality change.
