20 months 23 days

Day 632. What a night last night! I already wrote yesterday about how many times I had to put pj's back on Tammy and Emmy, including the diaper for Emmy. When I checked on them around midnight, I found Emmy asleep completely naked, and lying on a wet sheet. Tammy had kept her diaper on and only taken her pj's off. I couldn't leave them like that. I dried up Emmy, put a fresh diaper and his pj's back on, while Randy changed his sheet. I also put panties over his diaper so he couldn't take it off again as easily. And I put Tammy's pj's back on her in bed; she never even woke up at all.

I had thought I would make it to bed by midnight, and in the end it was after 1 am again. I guess I was so tired that it took until 8:30 this morning to wake up. When I walked into their room, there they were - Emmy completely naked, and Tammy with only her diaper on. So much for panties keeping that from happening. Those pj's are obviously too big, so tonight I put a right-sized pj with a zipper in the front on Emmy, and right-sized pj's with buttons in the front on Tammy. And guess what - I had to put Tammy's pj's back on a few times tonight again, but Emmy could not take his pj's off. It's the only pj with a zipper we have.

After breakfast, we went downstairs until Randy took my place and I went upstairs to clean up and then do office work. It was food jar day, but I cooked some fresh salmon for them to add to the rice with fish jar. As for us adults, we had enough leftover asparagus soup that I only needed to warm up. The kids liked the fresh fish, but Sammy was not eating much today. He didn't eat much all the day, as that cold/virus is really affecting him now. In the afternoon we noticed that he had a fever, and his body stayed pretty hot for the rest of the day. When I touched him late tonight while he was sleeping, his body temperature felt normal again. Please pray for him. That's the highest fever any of them have ever had (38.4 C).

Nap time has really been difficult recently. Today I decided to not put the boys to bed at the same time, so Sonja had both Tammy and Emmy downstairs with him, while Sammy went to bed. Emmy has not been sleeping before 1 pm, but I decided to get him a lot sooner than that. I thought Sammy was asleep, or he wasn't asleep enough, because suddenly he was awake, and so entertainer Emmy had his audience again for his show, instead of sleeping. I finally got him to sleep after all and went to get Tammy to put her to bed. She must have been pretty tired, because I didn't take her long to fall asleep. As for Sammy, once you wake him up, he does not go back to sleep. Even though he had not slept more than 5 minutes or so, it was over, and I had no choice but to take him downstairs where he enjoyed Sonja's full attention.

Randy went to the grocery store, while I went back to doing office work after having cleaned up. Tammy and Emmy woke up at the same time and started talking to each other, no crying. And then Randy returned as well. It wasn't 2:30 yet, but we stilled called up Sammy and all sat down for the afternoon meal. Sammy was so sick he didn't even want the peanut butter.

After cleaning them up and dressing them, Sonja went downstairs with Tammy, and Sammy went to bed. Thankfully he slept for about 45 minutes. As for Emmy, it was time to come on an errand with Mama, and so I dressed him, got the tricycle, got myself ready and all I needed, and off we went, out the door. It was good that Tammy did not see us leave.

As we did not have to take any public transportation, the tricycle was the best choice. I didn't want him to walk all the way on the sidewalk, nor did I want to carry him. The tricycle worked great (and it has a seatbelt), and he got to take everything in around him. He had great fun, as we walked and walked. Our first stop was the post office, where I just put two letters into the mailbox. And then we went to the drug store (Bipa). I got him off the tricycle and put him into the cart, and then we started going through all the rows with my list in hand. It was Emmy's first time at Bipa, and second time ever in a store at all. He was holding two toothbrushes in his hand and wasn't letting go off them. In fact, after paying for everything I noticed that he still had a toothbrush in his hand that I had not paid for, so I quickly did.

Our main purpose of the store visit was me having to print out the new pictures of our Malian sponsored kids, and that took quite a while. The lady working there was really nice and interacting with Emmy. At the last Bipa in our old neighborhood it was the complete opposite. We were finally done with everything, and so I strapped Emmy back onto the tricycle, put the shopping bag over my shoulder, and we started the long walk back home. When we had left home, the sun was shining. Now there were dark clouds and it was very windy, and I picked up the pace to get home quickly. It wasn't that easy with a shopping bag, and having to lift Emmy's front wheel off the ground, as he does not know how to steer yet. We were already pretty close to home, when it started raining, and raining hard. I started running which wasn't that easy with everything, but we did well and did not get that wet at all. Once inside the building, I let Emmy walk the rest of the way to our apartment door.

Once inside, he was a little cranky. I took his shoes and clothes off, and took him downstairs, where he was happy, when Sonja took him. I put the stuff away and cleaned up and then joined everyone downstairs. That's when I found out about Sammy's fever. Randy went upstairs for a break, while Sonja and I stayed to play with them. I was holding Sammy and trying to keep him happy. I finally put him into the swing, which was a great decision, as he really enjoyed it and was not cranky or crying any more. He stayed in there a long time.

At 5 pm Randy switched with me, and I started making their food. It was after 5:30 before I called them upstairs to eat. They ate their soup at the table, but finished the rest of their food in the bathtub as always. I was also able to get Sammy to eat a little more in the bathtub, but he still had a good bit left over. I weighed them tonight, and then we put them to bed. Tammy weighed 11.3 Kilos, Emmy 9.9, and Sammy 8.2, which is the same weight he had 3 weeks ago, when we saw the dietitian at the hospital.

I walked away from them and got some food, and I already told you how I had to put Tammy's pj back on a few times. I also sat with them for a while, trying to help Emmy fall asleep, who wanted me there. Thankfully Sammy had no problem sleeping tonight. However, they now stay up a long time before they fall asleep, until about 8 pm. Maybe it's time to have them go to bed later than 6:30 pm, but so far I simply cannot figure out how we would adjust the schedule for that to be possible.

After eating, I went to work, putting all those kid pictures into envelopes that I will have to mail tomorrow. It took me quite a while. Then I cleaned up the kitchen and dining room and came back downstairs to write my update. Unfortunately it's already 12:40 am, so it will be 1 am once again.