Day 640. Today the schedule was off all day, and it started in the morning. I went to bed at 1 am, and as always we start hearing them around 7 am and ignore them until 8, which is when we get up. Today it was 8:40 before I woke up, to my greatest surprise, and it was Sammy who was crying. When I went into their room, I was even more surprised to find that Emmy and Tammy had fallen asleep again. I picked up Sammy and took him to our bed, which made him happy. It was only a matter of minutes before the other two woke up, and so we all got up for a late breakfast.
After breakfast I went downstairs with them, as always, until Randy came with his breakfast and I could go upstairs to work. Obviously it was rather late by the time I was done cleaning up and sat down to do office work. At least I didn't have to cook today, as we had enough leftovers from yesterday for everyone. I always have to cook my own meal anyway, as I'm on a special diet.
Sonja arrived at 11:30 (she came today instead of tomorrow) and played with them until noon, which is when we ate today because of our late morning. After the meal Sonja played with Tammy and Emmy downstairs, while Sammy went to bed for his nap. It was already going on 1 pm at that point. Because Tammy had ripped off my decoration last night and again this morning, we switched out hers and Sammy's bed. Now Sammy is by the drawers and the decoration, but at this point he can't stand up and rip it off, and Tammy by the window. Sammy was excited about his new bed position and had to explore the back of the drawers touching his bed, so it took him a little longer than usual to fall asleep. Then I went to get Emmy and put him to bed. Well, he was NOT tired, and I did everything I knew to do to try to get him to sleep, but to no avail. He was running in bed, laughing and having fun. I was concerned he'd wake up Sammy whose bed touches his, and surprised when Sammy continued sleeping. Until he did wake up. He'd barely had an hour of sleep, which is how long how I'd been trying to get Emmy to sleep. I was tired myself and exhausted. Of course Sammy wasn't gonna go back to sleep and was now a captivated and laughing audience for Emmy. I took Sammy downstairs to Sonja, and continued to try to get Emmy to sleep. At that point he was so very tired he was just crying and wanting me to hold him. I could not get him to calm down without picking him up and ended up lying down with him on my chest, while Randy put Tammy to bed. He then slept about an hour on me, until 3:10 pm. I then took him downstairs to Sonja with a jar of food. Sammy had already eaten. A few minutes later Tammy also woke up, and we called everyone to come upstairs. I had already prepared her food, bread with peanut butter and fruit, and she ate it all. Including fresh pineapple, which was the first time they'd ever eaten any. Tammy loved it, while Emmy did not like it.
I knew that our train was leaving at 4:10 pm, so I rushed to pick out their clothes and get them and everything ready. We managed to leave at 4 pm, which was enough time to make it. We learned from last time, when we tried to take the bus and could not get in because it was so full. There's more room in the train. It was two stops and then a 15-minute walk to get to the playground in the gardens. Emmy was riding the tricylce, while the other two were in the double stroller.
That playground is the biggest I know, and as this was once again the only sunny and warm day, there were a lot of children there, which spreads out nicely. We started out at the slide. Emmy and Tammy went down numerous times, really enjoying it. Emmy was more courageous, even standing on his feet at the end, while Tammy was slowing herself down and coming to a stop before the end. Then we went to the other side, where they enjoyed a hanging bridge. Sammy stood on it too.
Then we went on to the next playground area, where there was all kinds of stuff to climb on. Tammy showed her courage there, when she went into this tunnel made of fence and got half-way through. Then her feet went through the holes. We helped her back up, she walked back to the entrance, but went through the holes again, and it took me quite some time before I could get her back out and out of the tunnel. Emmy didn't even try to go through.
Then we went to the big swing they could all sit in, and then Emmy enjoyed the round bench around the tree, jumping on it and off it with Sonja's help. Randy had found a funny tree with branches going all the way to the ground, like a curtain, and was inside with Sammy, and we joined him. I put Tammy on the big branch, so this was her first time climbing a tree! And so did Sammy.
We went on to the next playground, where Tammy enjoyed sitting on a bouncy bee, and Emmy enjoyed the little tunnel slide. When I looked at the clock, it was already 5:22. As the train was leaving at 5:44, with the next one half an hour later, it was time to move, as it was already pretty late. We switched them around, with Tammy now sitting on the tricycle. I wanted to put Emmy into the stroller, but he didn't want to, and so he ended up on my shoulders. I carried him the whole 15 minutes to the train station, but when the train was approaching, I put him into the stroller, where he stayed the rest of the way.
It was exactly 6 pm, when we were back in the apartment. They all went downstairs, while I went to work making their food. Exactly half an hour later they came upstairs to eat, so it was an hour later than usual. They still didn't eat any more than usual at the table, and finished all their food in the bathtub. Then they went to bed. Even though it was late, they were wide awake and playing and having fun. I only once went to check on them because Emmy was crying hard, gave him a pacifier again and put his arm back into his sleeve, and put him back on his belly. He protested, when I walked away, but not for long. It took a while, but then they finally fell asleep. I was very tired, but had a lot of work ahead to make my food, cutting up all the ingredients for my salad. As it was late, it was also late before I finished eating, and midnight before I started cleaning up, and 12:45 before I started writing, and now it's 1:30. So I'm setting a new record of how late I'm going to bed since I started going to bed early.
