Last night it was nearly 1 am before I was done and ready to go to bed. This morning we got up at 8 am, as usual. What was unusual was that only Sammy was crying. When I walked into their room, Tammy and Emmy were still lying down, but immediately got up. If Sammy would have been quiet too, we could have slept longer.
We got up, and Randy changed their diapers, while I made breakfast. Emmy had not taken his pj's off today, but his diaper opened up, and he had poop all over his legs, so it took a little longer to get him clean. After breakfast, I took Emmy and Tammy downstairs, and Sammy joined us a few minutes later. I got the two new books out that arrived, and we had lots of fun looking at them together. They have pages full of different stuff and play sound bites from the different areas of the pages. They were very interested and concentrated and read them several times during the course of the day.
Once Randy came downstairs with his breakfast, I went upstairs to clean up and then work. Unfortunately I just never have enough time to work. It's usually 90 minutes I have in the morning. When I worked until 4 am, I had many hours of uninterrupted work. Still, I do feel better sleeping those 7 hours every night and working during the day.
At 11 am I stopped to get lunch ready for the six of us. Sammy had gone to bed at 10:30 because of his physiotherapy session in the afternoon. He already woke up at 11:15; maybe I had made too much noise in the kitchen. I then held him, until Sonja arrived at 11:30 and took him downstairs for the few minutes until lunch was ready.
Once a week we have fish, and we're still working on finishing all those baby jars. I had one jar left of two different fish jars, and gave Emmy and Tammy half each, while Sammy had another one. I also made fish for the adults, and had some fresh fish for them too. At first Emmy did not like that fresh fish, but then he ate it after all. The adults had fries on their plates, which they didn't, and so they kept begging to get more fries, and we obliged them. After yoghurt, apple and watermelon, I cleaned them all up, and Sammy and Tammy went downstairs with Sonja, while I put Emmy to bed. Poor Emmy had no brother there to entertain and laugh at him. I helped him out, so he'd fall asleep faster, and then I went to get Tammy and put her to bed as well. She played for a little while and then fell asleep.
I cleaned everything up and got ready to leave at 1 pm. It was the third and last warm day before it cools down again, and so neither one of us needed a lot of clothes. In fact, I felt for Sammy that the lamb sack to keep them warm in winter was still on the stroller. We had to take three subways to get to the hospital, which is tiring. Sammy had fun and pulled the top of the stroller completely down. There was a hole that I looked through to see him inside, which made him laugh.
There are a lot of checks at the hospital - temperature, my negative test result, and my appointment paper. And still, we got to the waiting room 15 minutes too early. Sammy was in a great mood. He'd had some food on the way there, and I got him out of the stroller. He kept trying to pull my mask off and was laughing out loud every time I kept him from doing it. It was hilarious! But the hospital staff takes the mask very serious, and I've been scolded several times, including today, when the mask slides down my nose just a little bit.
They have some activity boards for kids on the waiting room walls, and Sammy ended up standing by one and playing with it. I was steadying him, but he was standing pretty well. Then the physiotherapist finally showed up, and we started his one-hour session. And he did great today. He never once cried, but was curious, and smiling, and active. Towards the end he got a little tired, but he never got cranky once. On the country, he did lots of laughing even at the very end. He was practicing sitting and using his hands to hold himself up and play with blocks. We also talked about how much he loves standing, and I showed her how he stands up. I'm really excited because he's now getting shoes that will give him more stability, as well as a special standing construct that goes all the way up to his hip. He'll be able to stand in there, with his feet and leg positions being corrected. He will still have to hold on to stand, but it will help him get stronger and better at standing.
We started our long trek home. It was rush hour, and the subways were full. I was glad, when we got home just before 4 pm. We found Sammy's siblings outside with Randy and Sonja, but they came inside, once we arrived, and so we all ended up downstairs. Randy went upstairs to take a break, while I enjoyed having fun time with them until 5 pm. It's been a while since I've been chasing them and making them laugh hilariously, so it was great fun. We also read some books, and watched a short teaching shapes video. Time went by fast. Emmy did not want me to leave at 5 pm and was crying.
But about half an hour later their food was ready for them, and they came upstairs to eat. Randy had gone to the grocery store, so we had some fresh fruit again that we had been out of, and fresh bread. In the bathtub, all three finished all the food. And they had fun with the new suction cup frogs I've added to our collection. Emmy once said "poop" and started crying, but there was no poop, and he believed it after a few minutes and started playing again. No poop in the water today.
We got them out and ready for bed, and I put them to bed and walked away. I returned for Tammy once, but that was it. I was able to get my food ready and eat. While I was eating, Sammy started crying hard. I gave him some dental cream, and then milk, and then he was fine again. I was able to finish eating, and then get to work again. Now everything is cleaned up and ready for tomorrow, and it looks like it will be close to 1 am again, before I make it to bed.
