3 years 7 months 17 days

Day 1324. Normally I don't write a report on days where we don't go anywhere, but in the end we did leave the house, which hadn't been planned.

Tammy joined us in bed again at some point, but early in the morning she was restless and returned to her own bed. Emmy always comes early in the morning, and then he gets up around 7 am. He gets his story-telling headset and lies back down again next to me. Usually Sammy wakes up right after him, and Emmy gives him the second headset, or we turn the CD player on for him.

Last night I had gone to bed earlier, before it was 1:30 am, but I was still very tired this morning. The doorbell got Randy out of bed around 8 am, and even though he pushed the buzzer to let them in, the package delivery guy never came to our door. Now we have to go to a shop to pick up our package. How annoying! Randy lay back down and got up again later to make breakfast. After they had eaten, I cleaned them up and dressed them. It was already pretty late, about 10 am, when they went downstairs to play, while I sat down at the computer to work. At 11:30 I went to the kitchen to make lunch. Just before noon they all came upstairs, and a few minutes later we sat down to eat.

The kids ate well, then had what Emmy calls "Easter cake", followed by some Easter chocolate. After I had cleaned them up, they went off to watch different things. At 1:15 I put them to bed for their nap. By about 1:40 I was able to leave their side, even though Tammy wasn't asleep yet. I had my lesson ready on my computer, so I lay down for a nap myself. At 2:45 my alarm woke me up. I really would have preferred to continue sleeping and did not want to get up. I could hear that Sammy was awake and that the CD player was on for him, and that Randy was sitting in the chair by them. When I went in there to get myself a chair for my lesson, I saw that Emmy was up too, but barely up. I sat down at my computer to get ready for my 3 pm lesson and could soon hear all of them up. Then it went quiet, when Randy took them downstairs.

I finished teaching at 4 pm, as my second class at that time was cancelled. I had already let them know that we were gonna do French class today, since they are no longer continuing the class at the French Institute. And so they came upstairs, I put paper on the dining room table, and they sat down for their first French class with Mommy. I had looked up some appropriate greeting songs for children and put my computer on the table for them to see, listen and sing along. We did two of those. Then I reviewed the numbers from 0 to 5 that they've already learned and reviewed the colors, also doing some games and a song. Then it was finally time for what Tammy was waiting for - coloring. I gave them an Easter-themed page each that they started coloring. I showed Emmy again how to correctly hold the crayon, and he tried coloring that way. After they were done, I put their drawings into their binders and let them choose a sticker each to put on them. Then we were done.

I had finished getting the yearly photos of our sponsored kids in Mali ready and needed to go have them printed out. Of course the kids wanted to come along, and with Tammy and Emmy going, Sammy wanted to come too. As Randy needed to pick up a few things at the grocery store, we all put our coats and shoes on to leave the house.

We left home at 5:10 pm. Sammy's current favorite word is "U-Bahn" (subway) and he often asks whether we're taking the subway. So I kept telling him all day that we were gonna take the subway in the afternoon, and he was happy to finally do so. We rode it for three stops, then we had reached our destination. We first all went to the post office to go to the ATM, then Randy went to the grocery store, while the kids and I went to the drug store. The kids would have liked to go to the grocery with Daddy, but Daddy preferred not to have them with him. As for myself, I like having them with me in the store.

We first went to the photo printer, so I could print out the 54 pictures of our sponsored kids in Mali. Once the process had started, we all went to the kids' food section, where they could pick out some stuff - like Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol snacks and drinks. Then we returned to the pictures that were still printing. Then we paid and left the store. Randy was already outside waiting for us. We all walked back to the subway and rode it home, where we arrived just after 6 pm.

For some reason the kids still wanted to go downstairs , so I let them. I started making their dinner and called them back upstairs a few minutes later. They sat down at the table to eat, and I kept bringing them more fruit I had cut up. We also still had some colored eggs from Easter and did the traditional "Eierpecken". It means that two people each holding an egg with the pointed end forward hit each other's eggs, and the egg that doesn't break wins. Emmy has alway been a sore loser, and so he cried hard, when he lost. He then played against Sammy and won, which made him feel better.

After they had eaten some at the table, they went into the bathtub, where they continued. Then we got them out and ready for bed. I read some Bible stories to them, prayed for them and flew them into bed. Tammy is getting pretty heavy, approaching 15 kilos, so it's markedly getting harder to throw her around in the air. It was just after 8 pm, when they were all in bed, and I sat down by them. Once again they were pretty talkative for a while. Just before 8:30 Randy took my place, and tonight they got quiet earlier than usual. As for me, I was so exhausted that I lay down in bed and closed my eyes for 15 minutes. Only then did I turn the light and my computer on to get back to my normal routine. I worked for a while, then got myself something to eat, before continuing my work. Now it's approaching 1 am. I just have to finish cleaning up the kitchen, and then I can go to bed.