Did anyone miss my update last night? I always post around the same time, and I would think there were some of you that were surprised by the absence of my update. I was surprised myself to go to bed without it! I just knew it would take me a long time to go through all the pictures from church, and I was so very tired, I simply went to bed and left it for today. The advantage - for you - is that I won't remember as much about the day leading up to church.
There was really nothing special about the morning or afternoon. It was food jar day, and they enjoyed the pasta with tomato sauce and ham. Nap time was a disaster. It just so happened that Emmy wasn't sleeping yet, when Tammy lay down for her nap, and so it was party time and impossible to get them to sleep. Sammy was asleep fast, and woke up before the other two even went to sleep, and he had slept for over an hour. At some point they did fall asleep, and woke up too early really, not having slept enough. Sammy came upstairs with Randy, and we fed them their afternoon meal at that time. I had not finished getting their dinner-to-go ready, so I did that while they were running around, as well as picking out their clothes. We dressed them, got ourselves and everything ready, and left a few minutes early.
Tammy and Emmy were walking out the building with me, while Randy was finishing up with the strollers. It was a warm, sunny day, and they enjoyed running around in front of the building for a few minutes. When Randy came with the strollers, they got to go sit in them. And this time Sammy had the bottom seat in the double stroller, while Emmy had the single stroller. The whole time on the way to church and back, he was so excited to have this great view, eagerly taking everything around him in. It worked out great, making that switch.
With the train running every half hour, we always get to church at the same time, a few minutes before the service starts. We took them out of the strollers, and worship started. They had great fun, and ventured further away from us again, like they used to do. They were intently watching the girls dancing nearby. And then there were some kids with small flags in the front that really interested them. They allowed them to take the flags, and so both Tammy and Emmy got to wave a flag for while - until Emmy took the stick out, and I could not get it back in. If only they could have seen their Mommy years ago, how I'd be the only one dancing with flags at church, week after week. Some people still identify me as the girl who danced with flags.
Just after 5:30, Tammy and Emmy and I walked upstairs to go to the toddler room. There was only one other kid in there, which surprised us. We sat down to eat, and as time went on, more and more kids arrived. Tammy and Emmy were so focused on watching the other kids, I had to put the food into their mouths for much of the time.
Just before 6 pm, Randy brought Sammy. He had fed him downstairs. At 6 o'clock the kids' program started - their second one ever. The lady did a great job, and the kids listened attentively. After the 20-minute program, it was playtime. As always they had lots of fun on the slide. Tammy sat down by the man at the bottom of the slide, and Emmy sat down with him briefly as well, while Sammy was lying next to him for a short time. At 6:30 Randy came to pick up Sammy, and a few minutes later we also left to return to the sanctuary. Our friend Anna was there, greeting us at the bottom of the staircase. Then Tammy found a soccer ball and was so happy, she would not return it, and was crying, when she had to because the owners were leaving. The service ended, and we talked to a few people. Then we put them into the strollers to leave. On the way out, every woman received a rose because it was Mother's Day. That was so nice! Randy had the kids do a drawing for me during the day, and they gave that to me. And a lady came up to me with a drawing she had made during the service and said that she felt that it was for me. And then she gave it to me. It was a waterfall with Jesus on the top, and an invitation to receive refreshing from him. I told her it was my birthday this week, and that excited her.
We left a little later than usual, I guess, because when we got to the train station after having taken the tram, it was quite a long wait time, over 20 minutes. And the first train was late; it was one where you had to carry the strollers up a few steps, and as the S-train was right behind it - with no steps - we waited the additional minute for it to take us home.
While waiting for the train, I ordered food from my phone. I had actually forgotten my reading glasses at home, so couldn't really read anything on my phone, which was annoying. I had tried to order the food before leaving, giving them the time to deliver it, but that wasn't possible. Even without my glasses, I managed to download the app and still had the food order in my cart, so I was able to complete the order. It turned out it was a good thing I did because it was only at 9 pm that the food was delivered.
We were glad when the train came just after 8 pm, and at 8:15 we were finally home. It takes a while before all three are undressed, changed, dressed, and in bed. But the advantage of the late time was that they fell asleep quickly.
We went to work, cleaning up, putting stuff away, and putting the tables up downstairs for us to eat and watch a movie. We hadn't done this in months, so I was really excited about it. It was thanks to Mother's Day. So we took our food downstairs and watched a movie together, while eating good food. That sounds like a perfect night at home to me! Towards the end of the movie I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. When it was over, it was 10:30 pm, and I was so very tired, I did not know how to start processing all the pictures of the day and write a report. In fact, I was so tired I decided to just go to bed. By 11 pm I was in bed, but then Sammy started crying, so I made him some milk and fed him. Once I sat down, Emmy was crying in jealousy, so Randy made him a milk and handed it to him. So in the end it was somewhere after 11:30 before I made it back to bed and could finally fall asleep.
