Day 665. It's not even midnight, and I have a hard time keeping my eyes open. I have not had enough sleep recently. And Emmy had even gone two nights without milk the last two nights, so I thought he was also stopping to drink at night, but he's had tonight's milk.
Last night I went to bed at 2 am, but was up again at 2:30, before I had fallen asleep, when Sammy was crying. Last night it was him who was coughing. Thankfully everyone is done with it now, and tonight there's no coughing whatsoever.
This morning Randy got up at 7:20 and went into their room. I don't know why as it's always me who goes in and gets them out of bed. In any case, we all got up too early, and it was definitely not the right day for that. I made breakfast, we fed them, then cleaned and dressed them, and I went downstairs with them, where we worshipped God together. It was already hot, and I was thankful for the ceiling fan. Sammy is stilling saying "heiß" (hot) all the time, and Emmy now says "Mommy" very intentionally, when he wants me, instead of saying "Mama" like he used to. It's also him who always mentions "Oma". They're correctly repeating more and more words that we say, and saying more and more words themselves. I was surprised to hear Sammy clearly say "hallo" (hello) several times today.
After worshiping and praying with them, and reading some Bible stories, I went upstairs once Randy came to take my place. I cleaned up and sat down to do office work. At 9:20 Randy already put Sammy down for a nap, and he actually slept that early, for an hour. Then I got him out and kept him with me, trying to work, until I called the others up at 10:40. I found out that Emmy had fallen asleep downstairs. Only because we got up so early, and maybe also because of the heat. We dressed them and left the house at 11 am.
It was really hot, especially when it's an old subway train that comes as they don't have air conditioning. After the subway we took a tram, and then we had to walk a bit. We got to the restaurant right on time, at noon. My Mom and my brother had had their birthday during the strict lockdowns, and so they had their dinner with the whole family at the restaurant today. We were sitting outside in the coutyard, but under big umbrellas, and it was extremely hot, with no breeze whatsoever. The kids were tired and hungry. And Grandma was the only person they knew well. She was also the only one spending any time with them at all. Right when we got there, Emmy immediately stayed with her, and Tammy then joined him and stayed with her for a while, while Emmy came back to where I was. I think this is just a wonderful picture of my Mom with Emmy.
Emmy was the only one of them who walked around a little bit. Once he walked over to his two cousins, but both were busy playing on their phones and ignored him. I felt bad for Emmy.
I got some snacks out as it was 12:30, an hour later than when they normally eat, and they were were hungry. Thankfully the food arrived a few minutes later. Randy and I were each eating a pizza, and I had ordered chicken with rice and peas for them. They were so nice and brought us three bowls and spoons, and I put some food in the bowls. An adult dish is the perfect amount for three kids.
And that's when the challenge started. I was getting frustrated and stressed and found myself wishing someone at the table would step in to help us, but we had to manage feeding three babies and ourselves by ourselves, and it was not easy at all. Sammy sat in the only high chair they had, but it had no tray. I had Emmy, and Randy had Tammy, and everyone was making a mess. Emmy kept reaching for stuff at the table, like my knife and the pizza, and Tammy ended up pushing my glass over, so I lost what I had to drink. He also ate out of his bowl with the spoon, which was good, but messy. Somehow I managed to eat my pizza, but I was ready to take them home and to bed. Nobody was talking to us anyway, and they were tired. As soon as Randy was done, Emmy was the first one by the stroller, wanting to get in. We strapped them all in and said our good-byes and left at 1:30 pm. Normally they're all asleep at that time.
We had a long walk to the tram again, then a long ride, and a long subway ride. Emmy looked really tired, but I did not want him to sleep in the stroller but sleep in his bed at home, so I took him out of the stroller in the subway, which he enjoyed and kept him busy, looking out the window. The other two were not in danger of falling asleep.
We got home at 2:30, and ten minutes later they were all in bed. The girl was protesting at first, but I sat down by their beds, and it did not take long, and they were all asleep. I was really tired myself, but ended up working for a while, until I could not go on and closed my eyes and nodded off. Unfortunately Emmy woke up after only an hour, and he would not sleep on me. Randy wasn't responding to my calls, so I went downstairs with Emmy, where I found him asleep on the couch. I wanted to hand over Emmy and go back upstairs, but Emmy refused to let go of me, so I stayed. But it wasn't long before I heard Sammy, so I pried Emmy off and left to get Sammy. When I picked him up, the girl woke up too, so I picked her up and took them both downstairs. Tammy wasn't really ready to get up, so she lay down on Daddy, and they both continued sleeping.
Emmy was really clinging to me, and Sammy wanted me to hold him as well. Every time I tried to sit down with Emmy on my arm, he'd go frantic. I still don't know why he insisted I'd keep standing instead of sitting down, and what difference it made to him. One time I sat down anyway, right next to Sammy who was fussing, and he stormed off in anger, crying hard and throwing a fit. I filmed him and uploaded the video. After a while he did come back to me. However, I was never able to leave, but we both stayed with them until 5:30. Emmy was on my arm the whole time, not wanting to leave for some reason. One time he was practicing pushing the light switch buttons on the floor lamp. And just before I left we were looking at photo books of them together, which especially Tammy enjoyed, and she was upset when I closed the book and put it back up.
Sammy impressed me, when he pulled himself up into a kneeling/sitting position all by himself. And when he answered the (toy) telephone and said "hello". He's also increasing his vocabulary!
At 5:30 I went upstairs to make their dinner, and half an hour later they came upstairs to eat. I had already heard Sammy crying for a while. All three ate really well at the table; they had not had an afternoon meal after all. And while they did not finish it all in the bathtub, they came close to it. It was the second day in a row I had made the water cooler because of the heat, but it was nearly too cool tonight. We had been in there for a while, when Tammy decided to go behind my back and turn the water on, which they enjoy so much. Randy got the shower head down, which scared Emmy enough to stay away, but not Tammy. Randy had to get Emmy out of the bathtub, as he was crying at that point, but Tammy had the greatest fun turning the water on and off. It was time for her and Sammy to come out as well. We dressed them, and I put them to bed and waved good night and walked away. I did not have to come back and sit down by their beds.
I continued working until I got hungry, had some food, and continued working. Tomorrow we'll have to get up extra early, but I was unable to get done sooner tonight so I could go to bed earlier.
