I was heading to bed at 2:30, when one cried for milk, and then another one, and then they all got their second milk bottle of the night. Once back in bed, Tammy was having a tough time, crying and crying. I would comfort her, and as soon as I was walking away, she started crying again. I finally stayed in bed and ignored her. And then I couldn't sleep, and it ended up being a good bit after 4 am before I fell asleep. So much for going to bed earlier.
This morning we got up at our regular time, I believe. After breakfast, I went back to bed, and Randy went downstairs with them. My alarm was set for 10:50, but it never went off, because it was facing down, and it's not making any noise that way. I woke up 20 minutes later than planned and went straight to work in the kitchen, but that time was missing. I could hear them being cranky and hungry and Randy was saying they were falling asleep, but I could not speed up the cooking. Once Sonja arrived, she was able to distract them somewhat, but it was close to noon before they could come upstairs to eat.
After lunch, I put Emmy to bed first, and Sonja went downstairs with Tammy. Today it didn't take Emmy as long to fall asleep, and I could soon get Tammy and put her to bed. I continued eating my own meal, then did the cleanup, and it was close to 1:30 before I finally lay down myself for a nap. It was a rough awakening, when Emmy's crying woke me up about an hour later. Randy did not respond, so I did. I picked up Emmy and lay down with him, but Tammy had woken up in the process as well and was crying, so we had to get up. I found out that Randy had gone to the grocery store, after feeding Sammy who was downstair with Sonja. I got the food for the others and took them downstairs, where we fed them their afternoon jar. Then I left them for a short time to get some things done upstairs. When I came back a while later, it was snowing hard outside, and Sonja had them on the shelf watching it snow. That's typical April weather in Vienna. Yesterday they were outside without jackets, and today it was close to freezin temperature, and everything was white outside within minutes.
I waited to long before deciding to bundle them up and go outside to enjoy the snow. I went to get clothes and shoes for everyone, and we dressed them. By the time we went outside, the sun was out again and nearly all the snow gone. A few minutes later it was all gone. What a shame.
Everything was wet, but their ski suits protected them. They went up and down to the fence - or rather ran - and then climbed up onto the bench. Then we got the tricylce and bike out, and Emmy was pushing the tricycle, while Tammy was on the bike, moving it with her legs. I was holding Sammy the whole time, inside my jacket, and was doing everything possible to keep him happy.
It was the first time that people walking by were interacting with the kids. One lady was really interested, asking questions, and another was waving at them. And the people living right opposite us came up and greeted us, so I told them that we always see them from the inside, and their dog. They offered that the kids could pet the dog some time, but it was not with them today.
We were outside for a while before going back inside. Their snowsuits were wet in some places. We took all the clothes off, and they went back to playing inside. Sammy grabbed himself the bottle and drank. It took him a while to learn to drink out of those kind of bottles, and I love the handles, so he can hold it. Tammy and Emmy wanted to drink to, but they have no patience. Tammy always grabs what she wants, and Emmy always loses. She often takes stuff from him, and then Emmy starts crying. They fight quite a bit, and we're working on addressing it.
At 5 pm I left them to get their food ready, and Randy came downstairs. Half an hour later they came upstairs to eat. During that half-hour our neighbors had stopped by to give us a whole bunch of clothes and toys. What a blessing! One of the toys was something I had wanted to get for them!
Today they had fresh bread from the store, and Tammy ate her bread - all of it - faster than ever. Once they started playing rather than eating, we took the rest of the food to the bathtub. There Sonja was feeding Tammy and Emmy, while I was feeding Sammy. And then Emmy did it again - he pooped into the water. Then he started crying, and I told him it was okay, but we had to get them all out of the water. I have no idea how to keep him from doing that. He's the only one who does.
So they never got to drink the leftover cereal with milk from breakfast. Later Emmy needed milk, and he was missing it, I guess, and was still hungry. And right now it's midnight and he's crying. He's had another bottle of milk, an hour ago, and does what his sister did last night, wanting me to stay with him and stroke his head. And now he's waking up his siblings.
Tonight I put all their toys away on the shelves, and I added the new toys for them to play with tomorrow. They'll be busy discovering them tomorrow.
