21 months 2 days

Day 641. Last night I went to bed later than ever since aiming for midnight; it was going on 2 am. I need to be more efficient again to be done by midnight, as I've been pretty tired recently.

This morning I got up at 7:45, as Sammy was crying. I was surprised to see Emmy still sleeping. I got Sammy and Tammy out of bed, and Randy started changing them, while I was making breakfast, and Emmy was still sleeping. He woke up just as Randy was done so he could change his diaper.

After breakfast I took them downstairs for my 20-30 minutes with them until Randy comes down to stay. I've been wondering how to incorporate prayer and Bible reading times and thought that that time would be perfect for that. So I turned worship music on and started praying. Modeling is the best way to teach. I had a great time, and they danced a little bit to the music.

When Randy came, I went upstairs to clean up and then started doing office work. It was a little earlier than usual, and I appreciated the extra time. I was working away, when Randy suddenly stormed into the room with Sammy saying that Tammy had poked his eye out (he likes exaggerating). Yesterday a mug broke downstairs, and Tammy found quite a big shard and cut Sammy's cheek with it. Sammy was bleeding, so I disinfected the wound and put one of the new kids bandaids on that I just got yesterday. The rest of the day Emmy constantly pointed at Sammy saying "aua". Emmy does not like bandaids because they represent pain. Later in the day I took it off again because of that.

Just before 11 am I stopped working so I could cook lunch for the five of us. It wasn't long before I heard so much crying that I went downstairs, picked up Sammy, and took him upstairs with me. At first he was in the swing, and then on the floor, and he was fine, no more crying. Just before the food was done, the other two downstairs also got pretty cranky, so I had them come upstairs. Emmy wanted to be in my arms and would not let me put him down any more. Thankfully I was able to do what I needed to do with him on my arm, and when I finally did need to put him down, he was okay with it.

We ended up eating a little later than usual, more like 11:40, as I had forgotten something and the food was so hot. It was pasta with cheese sauce and ground beef, so lots of calories. Emmy ate everything on her plate, plus what Emmy left over. Sammy has been even harder to feed than before recently. When you put food into his mouth, he simply lets it sit there and eventually fall out. Please pray for him.

After dessert, I took Emmy and Tammy downstairs, while Randy was finishing up with Sammy and putting him to bed. Then he took my place downstairs, so I could go clean up. At 12:40 I went to get Emmy and put him to bed. When I checked on him and he was sleeping, I got the girl and put her to bed. When I did, she pointed out a stain on her bed, so we decided to change her sheet. Unfortunately Emmy wasn't in a deep sleep yet and so he raised up again, and in the end, they were running around and having fun, which is why they DON'T go to bed at the same time. With Grandma coming at 2:30, that was not gonna work. So Randy took Tammy back downstairs, while I tried to get Emmy to sleep again. But our little entertainer was wide awake now and running around in his bed, and trying to find an audience in Sammy. And then he succeeded as Sammy woke up before I could get Emmy to sleep. Sammy had only had about half an hour of sleep, but he does not go back to sleep once he wakes up, and so I took Sammy downstairs as well. As Emmy had no more audience, it didn't take very long before he fell asleep for good, but it was already pretty late. Then I put Tammy to bed and she played for a while until falling asleep.

I went back to work, though tired, and before I knew it it was 2:30 and my Mom arrived. She went downstairs to play with Sammy. When Randy left them, Sammy started screaming, and he screamed so loud that it woke Emmy up, and then Emmy's crying woke Tammy up. They had not slept long enough either, maybe about an hour, but now they were up, and so everyone came upstairs for the afternoon meal. Neither Tammy nor Emmy wanted to go into their chairs, and they both ended up on Grandma's lap. Today Emmy said "Oma" several times. Emmy refused to eat anything at all, but Tammy ate her jar and some fruit and bread with peanut butter, and even sat in her chair for the latter. Once they were done, they went downstairs to have fun with Grandma. We tried to put Sammy to bed, but he was not sleeping, and so he went downstairs as well.

And they had a great time with Grandma. They showed Grandma with their picture dictionary how much they already know, and Grandma brought some books with her to read to them that they enjoyed. They really like books. And they went down the slide to show off to Grandma. And Sammy enjoyed his Grandma time as well. Time went by way too fast, and the two hours Grandma could be with us were over before we knew it. Especially Tammy was upset, when Grandma left, and Emmy said bye-bye for a long time, even after she was gone. Even Sammy said bye-bye.

Daddy came downstairs instead, and so it was the five of us for the nearly half hour until 5 pm, and we had great fun too. At 5 I left them to make their food, and just after 5:30 they came upstairs to eat. Because of their short naps today we decided to skip the half-hour downstairs between meal and bathtub and went straight into the bathtub. They all finished their food there, had fun, and then they came out to go to bed. I walked away and stayed away for a while, only checking on them, when Tammy was really whining. The boys were both asleep by then, but Tammy had taken her pj's off and needed her rabbits and pacifier back. I put her pj's back on, and even though she whined some more after I left, she finally fell asleep. I made my food and ate, then went back to work, and thank God, now it's midnight and everything is done, so I finally get to go to bed earlier for once.