Day 903. Last night I went to bed at 12:20. I set the alarm for 7 am, as we had a busy morning. Tammy joined us in bed in the early morning hours and was still asleep, when the alarm went off. I got up and as Sammy had woken up, I picked him up and took him to the kitchen with me. While I was unloading the dishwasher, Emmy walked into the kitchen. Then I started making breakfast, and as Emmy was asking for his sister, I gave him permission to go wake her up. Randy gave them all new diapers, and we sat down at the table to eat. Tammy and Emmy barely ate anything. Then I picked out their clothes and dressed them, and we left the house a little later than planned at 8:23. We had never been there before so I wanted to make sure we had enough time to find the place.
We got on the subway out of town and went to the end of the line, where a whole new part of town is being built. It's not that far from us. We still had to walk a little bit, but it wasn't far and easy to find. It was a really big school, a "Volkshochschule", which mean's "people's university", a school for adults (and children) that offers whatever class you can imagine. In the end it was where I had found the classes to sign them up for. We walked in and were the first ones there, 15 minutes early. The class was from 9 to 10. Only two more kids joined the class, which is why the school said the class might not take place. The teacher said that she's gonna get someone from the second class to switch to the first class, so we could continue. It was basically a PE class. She first got some big balls out that the kids really enjoyed. She had them do different things with them, from pushing them to hitting on them to jumping on them and lying down on them like Sammy likes doing. The kids especially enjoyed jumping on them while holding on to the bar along along the wall.
Then she set up an obstacle course for them, much like they used to do in the classes they did last year. They had to walk across three balls to get to a trampolin, and then walk over balance cushions. They enjoyed it a lot. Then she set up little cones for them to put balls into, and then they got them back out. Sammy also did a great job putting balls in there.
One of their most favorite things, especially Emmy's, was the bench she set up as a slide. It worked surprisingly well, but we held their hands so they would not fall off. Emmy was impatient, not wanting to wait his turn, when there were other kids ahead of him. He finally threw a fit because of it and ended up just lying on the floor. That's when the teacher came over and give him a hula hoop that he played with a little.
In the end she got out a box with rattles and drums, and Emmy's eyes lit up. He just loves his drums! He got a big one and made lots of noise. Then she did a good-bye song and the class was over, and it wasn't even 10 yet. However, there were a lot of kids and parents waiting outside to get in for their class. We said our good-byes, dressed them, and left to go back to the subway.
We had little time to get to their second class, but we had just missed the subway, and they only leave from there in 10 minute intervals. Randy has been wanting to check out a restaurant in our neighborhood, and I took advantage of the time to call them to find out about their lunch menu, and it happened to be a good one.
We rode the subway for three stops and then had to walk a bit, following my GPS, to get to the other school building. We got there 5 minutes before the class started at 10:30, so that was perfect. It wasn't my first choice to have both these classes the same morning of the week, but it hadn't worked out any other way. We had to once again show that we had recovered from Covid as a condition to attend the class, before being allowed in. There were a lot of people there, and we took their coats and shoes off in the middle of the hussle. There were 4 other children in the music class. For one hour we danced and sung and played bells. They loved it. There were some songs they knew from last year's classes. And we did these songs, where they sit on your legs and you move your legs. The teacher agreed to take Sammy for that, so we could have the other two. She also danced with Tammy one time, when the parents danced with their kids. And she did songs, where we walked in circles, stomped our feet or turned or waved, and did songs where they were addressed individually. One time she handed out transparent fabric to them and they put them on their heads to hide, and then we "found" them, when they took them off, which they thought was funny. They really participated, and the hour passed quickly.
We dressed them again and started walking towards the subway and the restaurant right there that Randy had seen so many times and been interested in. When I looked it up, I found out that it was a little more than just an average restaurant in terms of their menu and prices. But the lunch menu price was okay. We walked in before noon, and so it was really empty at that time, but filled up quickly. We found a table with a bench on one side, and he brought a high chair for Sammy to sit in on the other side. We hadn't been to a restaurant with them since our Austria trip last September, and never just the two of us with the three of them. But with no time to cook and this being Valentine's Day, that was our special time together.
The kids were hungry and asking for food. They had some water, and soon the carrot-ginger soup arrived. None of the kids liked the strong ginger taste (me neither), and so Daddy had to eat it all. Then we had to wait again, and they were getting pretty cranky. Of course they never sat still but moved around all the time, and I constantly had to move stuff out of their way. Finally the three plates of chicken with rice and peas arrived. I asked for extra plates and little forks and put the food on them for them. However, they hardly ate anything at all, which was surprising, as it was something they like eating. I tried to eat myself, while constantly removing stuff out of their grasp or keeping them from going where they shouldn't. It was really time to go, and so we paid, put their coats on, put them in the strollers, and made our way to the exit. There was a lady sitting at a table by herself that had been watching us the whole time, and she addressed me saying that she admired us for the way we were handling three kids. We left and walked to the subway, got on and rode the two stops home. Just after 1 pm we walked through the door of our apartment.
We took their clothes off, and I was gonna put them all to bed at once, but Tammy protested and insisted on going downstairs with Daddy the way she always does. By about 1:15 the boys were in bed, and she went downstairs. The boys were still rather active and not going straight to sleep, even though they were tired. Once they were finally asleep somewhere around 1:30, Tammy came upstairs, and it also took her a while, until 1:50, to fall asleep. Then I was finally able to walk away.
I was so very tired I really didn't want to turn my computer on but rather take a nap myself. I was overjoyed, when Randy agreed to lie down for a nap with me, which he never does. It was about 2 pm, when we lay down and fell asleep. But it was a short nap. At 2:10 Sammy already woke up crying and you don't have any choice but to get him out of bed. I lay down with him, but he wanted to be with Daddy who had gotten up, and so I let him down on the floor, and he started crawling fast to where Daddy was. Randy went downstairs with Sammy. At about 2:30 Emmy walked into the room. I lay down with him and was surprised, when he actually went back to sleep, and we both slept until he woke up at 3:15. And then Tammy walked into the room. Emmy got up and walked away, and then I heard him discover the packages Amazon had delivered, as he shouted for joy. They both came up to me with a package they wanted me to open, so I did. Then we opened all the other packages, and most of it was squeezies and bars for them. And so they immediately wanted to drink some squeezies, which meant that their yogurt jar Randy had downstairs with Sammy would not be touched by them.
I finally took them downstairs. Tammy was still very cranky and needed to be on my chest. Randy had put Sammy into his new walker that he is testing for a week, and so I finally had the opportunity to take his picture in there. He mostly sits in it rather than walking, but it just takes time for him to get used to it. And he did do some walking, which I also filmed. Then I went upstairs to get my computer and bring it down, so I could finally start working, though I knew there'd be little chance of that while being downstairs with them. Tammy was still cranky and asked to watch a video. And so she and Emmy watched a few (short) episodes of Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol. Then it was already time to go upstairs for dinner. It was 5:40 pm.
They pulled up chairs to the kitchen counter and ate, what I put on their plates in front of them. Then we all sat down at the dining room table. Tammy was still cranky and needed to sit on my lap. They never ate their soup tonight, and nobody ate much at all. Then they went straight into the bathtub, as they have lost interest in going potty for now. They not only had fun there, but ate everything that was still on their plates. Then they came out one after another, and we got them ready for bed. Just before 7 pm they were all in bed, and I sat down by them. They started talking as always, and Tamym was on my chest for a little while. She was the most tired and fell asleep first, but I was surprised how long it took the boys, especially Emmy. After an hour of sitting there I was losing patience with him and just walked away to get some food to eat. Randy had already eaten and sat down by him for a while, with him calling for Mommy to come back. After Randy had walked away, he got up again and called for me, and Randy returned to sit by him until he was asleep for good.
I was downstairs eating, and then going to work on the pictures of the day. I can tell I had a nap as I'm not as tired as usual and was able to work until 1 am without my eyes falling shut.
