19 months 3 days

Last night at 2 am, it was already 3 am. We lost an hour, as we changed our clocks. And so I knew I needed to go to bed as soon as possible, which ended up being at 3:30 the new time, so pretty good. Of course the babies knew nothing about the time change. When they woke up at the same time as usual - at 8 am the old time - it was actually already 9 am. And so everything was messed up today. I'm waiting for these time changes to be abolished, which they said they would. Mali has no such thing.

After breakfast, I took the little ones downstairs and played with them until Randy arrived. Emmy likes pulling on the strings of the blinds, and rather than forbidding everything, I show them how to do things right. And so I had him pull up the blinds by every window, while his sister was in the swing, and Sammy playing on the floor. Once Randy came, I went to bed.

It took me a while to fall asleep. Because of the time change, I had decided to do baby food jars, which does not require time. My alarm was set for noon, I got up and turned the warmers on, and fifteen minutes later they all came upstairs to eat. They were hungry and finished their jars quickly, and then had banana, watermelon and yoghurt. Emmy went to bed first, then Tammy and Sammy. I usually wait for Emmy to sleep before putting Tammy down, but I had too much to do and there was no helper. And so it was not working, as expected, though not hoped. When his sister came, Emmy got back up on his feet and they started having fun. And they also kept Sammy awake. I came in a few times, putting them back into the horizontal. FINALLY the boys fell asleep, but the girl was still wide awake. She needed a little more help from me, before she finally fell asleep as well.

In the meantime I cleaned up, made and ate my food, and then I went to work making their dinner-to-go, choose their clothes, and pick the snacks to take with us. Emmy often wakes up after a while, before he is done sleeping, and often he falls back asleep by himself. After he had cried for a while without falling asleep, Randy picked him up and sat down with him, and he fell asleep again. When I went over there to pick out clothes, I found them both asleep.

Emmy was still the first one to wake up, and Randy took him downstairs. Sammy was next. I was glad he had slept a long time today, as he tends to not sleep that long. When I picked him up, Tammy also woke up. It was already 3 pm, so time to feed them, and we all sat down at the table for the afternoon meal. They ate their cereal with fruit jar, and had watermelon, banana and apple. Then I started with Emmy, cleaning him up and dressing him for church. Tammy was next, and Randy dressed Sammy. Then we got ready ourselves, put their coats on, put them into the strollers and left on time. The train leaves at 4:20 pm, and we were there quite a few minutes before that.

We took a train and a tram and arrived at church before the service started. It always takes the little ones a little time to warm up. At first they stay close to us and don't move much, especially Emmy, but it doesn't take long before they fell at home and they go around making contact with everyone, especially Emmy. A little girl came over to greet them early on, and as she was dancing in worship, Emmy and Tammy copied her and were dancing and twirling as well. It was really cute! I tried to film them, but of course their best dance moves happened off-camera.

I got their food out, and today they came and picked up their bread and fruit themselves, rather than me going after them and putting it into their mouths. It worked well, I just had to be careful that they didn't take the whole bowl or turn it over. And it fell once anyway, scattering the fruit all over the floor. Randy was holding Sammy and feeding him. As time went on, he was getting pretty cranky - still getting used to just one nap a day, I guess - and so I took him from Randy and played with him, throwing him into the air, which is what he likes.

Before I had Sammy, I always kept my eyes on Tammy and Emmy, often walking off in different directions, interacting with people. I went to the bathroom with both of them one time, to refill their bottle, and took Emmy with me another time. We also saw our friend Anna, who was with them for a short time.

When all three were getting really cranky, just wanting to be held, we decided to leave before the service was over. Somehow I got things mixed up, thinking it was an hour later, rather than an hour earlier, and that that was the reason. We took everything to the foyer, put their coats on, and left. We took the tram to the train, and were lucky to not have to wait long for the train without steps. By 7:15 pm we were home.

As it was relatively early, I decided to give them a bath. We still had leftover cereal with milk from the morning that they finished in the bathtub, while having fun. Emmy is rather fearful, and has been scared of the running water in the bathtub. Today he actually turned the water on and off and on and off, without fear, sticking close to me. The only danger was him turning it and changing the water temperature, and one time he started crying, when it was really cold.

As it was later than usual, even looking at the time before the change, we got them out rather quickly, and as they all wanted out at the same time, they came out together. I then put them to bed one after another, in their regular order. And they fell asleep rather quickly. Even Tammy didn't need me to sit down by her, just to come by.

I made myself something quick to eat and went downstairs to eat in my office, turning my computer on, as usual. I was a little slow-going getting things done tonight, being a little tired. Somehow I'd like to start going to bed early, and then trying to work during the day, while Randy is with the kids, though I'm not sure that's possible. I thought it was a good idea to have my desk facing the kids' playing area, when we moved in. Now I wished I had put the office somewhere else, away from the kids, to actually be able to work.