Day 1280. Sunday morning or not, Emmy was up as early as usual. Because of Tammy's cold, she also spent quite a bit of time sleeping in our bed last night, and it gets pretty tight space-wise, when both kids are in bed with us. At one point we moved the sleeping kids to their own beds. We had quite a slow morning, but I was more active than usual, reading books to them, as they were not allowed to watch videos today because of their behavior yesterday. I had all three in bed with me and enjoyed our time together.
Randy made his own-style oatmeal for himself and them, as usual, and sat down with them at the table, feeding Sammy. However, Tammy did not want to eat, saying she had a soar throat. I then made hot chocolate for all of them, and all three drank that. Then I cleaned them up and dressed them, and they slowly went downstairs with Randy.
It was already after 10 am, so time was short. Still, instead of sitting down by the computer, I started changing all the sheets of all the beds, which took quite some time. Then I finally sat down at the computer. At about 11:30 I went to the kitchen to cook. Soon Randy and the children came upstairs. As there were no videos today, they asked to see pictures of themselves, when they were small, and so I put on videos of them from their first and second time in Mali. They were fascinated and watching with interest. Sammy wanted to see them too, so I put him into the kid's chair by the computer.
Just after noon we sat down to eat. After lunch they continued watching, and they enjoyed the videos from just over a year ago, when they were older, more. It was so much fun, and I was with them, that we went a little over time and it was closer to 1:30 before they went to bed for their nap. I sat down by them and was glad that they fell asleep quickly.
I then lay down myself and closed my eyes without setting an alarm or timer. I sure needed that nap. Sammy was up first and Randy got him out of bed. Once Emmy got up, he came to me and woke me up, and then Tammy was up as well. It was just after 3 pm. I slowly got up myself and started making their dinner-to-go boxes. Then we dressed them, and we left the house just after 4:30 to make the 4:50 train, which we did.
It was very cold and windy once again. When we got off the train, we bought some chestnuts, then we got on the tram that took us to church. The service starts at 5 pm with announcements, and worship then starts closer to 5:30, which is when we arrived. There seemed to be more people than usual there today. We walked to our usual spot and went to the front. Emmy and Tammy were excited about all the balloons everywhere, as there was a special celebration today. Emmy stood on the stairs looking at the musicians on the stage for quite some time. I had Sammy and had fun with him. At about 5:45 we took their food and went upstairs to the toddler room.
We were not the first ones there. Randy returned to the sanctuary, while the kids ran to start playing. Sammy wanted to play with the play kitchen, of course, so I sat down with him there to make sure he wasn't falling. Tammy got a doll and started feeding it, while Emmy was playing with cars.
Then it was already 6 pm and time for the program. Sammy was not happy at all, when I pulled him away from the kitchen, and he stayed unhappy during the program, which has never happened before. We started with the general greeting song with actions, then the teacher did individual greeting songs for the kids, where they get to cuddle the hand puppet sheep. Then they got Bibles, and we did the Bible song, where they lift their Bibles high up into the air. Then the teacher started her teaching on God/Jesus being the winner, and us with him. The program wasn't long and ended with everyone holding hands and the teacher speaking a prayer. Then everyone sat down to eat.
All our three kids ate very little, as they wanted to go play. Sammy wanted to return to the kitchen, so I took him there. Then he wanted to play at the workbench, and the other two also came by there. Emmy also played being Kasperl as there was a theater frame for it, and Tammy was dressing the dolls in princess clothes and put a crown on herself. Then Randy returned, and we put their shoes on to go back down to the sanctuary.
Sammy was calling out for Anna, as usual. She'd been gone for a few weeks, so he hadn't seen her in a while, but today she was there. He was so very excited to see her and really clung to her, hugging her tight. She showed us that he was hanging on her neck without her holding him. He did not want to leave her, but it was time to go. The service was still in full swing showing no sign of ending, and so we put their coats on to go home and left, hoping to catch the 7:30 train.
We walked to the tram stop in the cold, but then had to wait for quite a long time. We were all freezing. Tammy and Emmy had behaved so well that I let them watch Paw Patrol, while they were eating their dinner out of the box. They continued doing so on the tram, and then once we got off at the train station. Unfortunately the train had left without us. And so we stayed in the hall, letting Sammy play with the touchscreen of the ticket machine, and I fed him the rest of his food after the other two kids had finished theirs.
When it was time to go up to the platform, the kids wanted to take the escalator again, and so the three of us did, reuniting with Randy and Sammy upstairs. Then we got on the train and were home just after 8 pm.
We got them ready for bed, and I still read them some Bible stories, prayed for them, and put them to bed. I sat down by them for some time, and then Randy took my place, while I went to get something to eat. Now it's after 1 am and time to clean up the kitchen and go to bed.
