Day 647. Last night it was after 1 am again; as much as I need to, I just don't make it to bed earlier, and so I'm tired all the time. We always hear them pretty early, but don't usually get up until 8 am. Today it was just after 8. I got them out of their beds, putting Sammy on the floor, and when Randy is ready he starts changing their diapers, while I get breakfast ready. The last few days Sammy has been opening his body, and one day his diaper was off too. Today he took his diaper off while crawling on the floor, and as it was a dirty diaper, the floor got dirty too.
After breakfast I took them downstairs, and we were worshiping God, when Sonja arrived at 9 am. I gave her the children's Bible for her to read Bible stories with them, and went upstairs to clean up. Randy was finishing up with Sammy and left at 9:15 to take Sammy to his physiotherapy session with the private therapist. After I was done cleaning up, I turned my computer on to do office work. Today I was cooking for the little ones, so I stopped at 11 to go to the kitchen and make their food - chicken, potatoes and asparagus (it's the season for it). The boys returned just before 11:30, which is meal time. Sonja was feeding Tammy and Emmy while I was getting the adults' food ready, and Randy tried to feed Sammy, but he'd had enough snacks on the road to not want to eat. The other two did not like the asparagus at all, but I was amazed at how much the girl can eat. After her plate was empty, I got out the box with the leftovers, and she had lots more chicken and potatoes. Plus lots of watermelon.
I cleaned them up and dressed them, and we took them downstairs where Sonja stayed with them. Then I cleaned up Sammy, dressed him, and put him to bed, while Randy made omelets for the adults. Then I cleaned up the dining room and kitchen. At 12:40 I put Emmy to bed who fell asleep quickly, and at 1 pm Tammy, who always plays for quite some time before falling asleep. Today Sammy was awake before she fell asleep. He had slept less than an hour, so not enough. He was happy staying in bed awake for about half an hour, but then he wanted out. When I took him out, he shrieked with joy, which was enough to wake his brother up who has light sleep anyway. Randy went downstairs with Sammy, while I lay down with Emmy, but he did not want to go back to sleep, even though it had been less than an hour for him as well, so I had no choice but to take him downstairs as well.
I continued working, and as 3 pm was approaching, I stopped and went to the kitchen to get their fruit and bread with peanut butter ready. The girl usually wakes up around 3 pm, and she did today as well. I called the boys back up, and Emmy went to his sister's bed. I still needed another minute to get the food ready, and heard the blinds being hit once again, which they enjoy doing. Tammy uses her stuffed animals for that. When I went there to check on what's going on, Emmy had climbed on top of the high chair that is supposed to keep them away from the blinds, and they were both hitting them.
Emmy did not want to go into his chair, but then he was okay once he was in it. The girl is always pretty difficult after waking up, and it was impossible to put her into her chair. She also refused to eat. She was sitting on my lap, and accepted the watermelon Emmy put into her mouth. Then she went over to Daddy and also accepted the food he was giving her. Then Emmy wanted out of the chair too. I cleaned them up, dressed them, and went downstairs with them, where I waited for the other two boys to come. I then left them to go back to office work for a while.
Just after 4 pm I went back downstairs, with some pants and shoes for them, and we went right outside our apartment downstairs, where there is a huge sandbox for the people of our building. The neighbors are so kind to let us use their sandbox toys that they have in a box right there, and all three enjoyed using them. Tammy and Emmy especially enjoyed throwing sand, and Sammy eating it. We tried to stop all three. After a while Randy got the broom up to sweep up the sand, and Tammy and Emmy were fighting over who could have the broom. Emmy had much fun playing with it, and tried to sweep the ground.
Then we went back inside. There were only a few minutes left until 5:30. We've now decided for 6 pm to be the new dinner time (half an hour later). I went upstairs to get dinner ready, and then they came up to eat. They finished their food in the bathtub, and Emmy pooped for the first time in quite some time, around 2 weeks, thankfully just before it was time to come out anyway. They just came out faster than usual. We got them ready to bed, and I put them to bed with a prayer, one after another, and walked away. And thankfully I never had to come back today. No crying, no whining, they were playing and talking for a while, and then fell asleep. I was able to get my own food ready, eat, and go back to working. Then I did the cleanup, and tonight I also had to cook tomorrow's lunch in advance, as we'll be out in the morning. And now it's nearly 1 am again; I just couldn't get done earlier.
