29 months 9 days

Day 892. Last night I headed to bed at midnight. The kids were all sleeping in their beds. It wasn't long before Emmy came to me, wanting to climb into bed, but I wouldn't let him. At first he was crying, but then he put his head on my arm and hand in my hand and just stood there. When I asked him again to go back to bed, he asked for milk. He drank some and then walked away to return to his bed.

In the morning it was Sammy who started crying early, some time after 6 am, and then Emmy got up and lay down next to me. Randy gave Sammy some milk, but that didn't calm him down, so Sammy joined us in bed. It was unusual for Tammy to not already be in our bed. After a while Emmy got up, and soon thereafter Tammy was up too. She never even climbed into bed with us, but was having fun with Emmy. When I got up at 7:45, I found them removing everything from my baking drawer, and the clothes were already on the floor. Great! I made breakfast, we sat down to eat, and then I cleaned them up and dressed them and we went downstairs. I turned my computer on to get our PCR test results. Randy was STILL positive, while my test was negative. Then Tammy reminded me that it was Bible story time, and so we sat down on the floor to read a Bible story. Then I went upstairs, and Randy went downstairs. It was about 9 am, so not that much time left. I got everything ready, and while I did, so I could hear Sammy downstairs at the gate calling my name. He's never done that before, but today he knew he was going to physiotherapy with me, and he was impatient to come upstairs. I put his coat on, put him in the stroller, and at 9:45 we left the house. The other two were upset and asked to also come along to "Lulala" (Julia).

We took two subways and then had a walk ahead of us. They're filming a Netflix movie with Chris Hemsworth there, and so there were barricades everywhere, but they were not filming at that time and so I was able to walk through without any problems. We got to Julia's place a few minutes before the session started. Sammy was in a really good mood. We sat down on the mat, and the physiotherapist put some steps up with toys for him to climb up on, and he did great, wanting to go all the way to the top which he did. He stayed on top and played there, while the therapist was working with his legs primarily. Then he put his legs on the floor and stood, holding on to the steps, and then he wanted to walk on to look at other stuff. She showed me how he would go from a sitting/Kneeling position to a standing position, but it was not an easy movement.

And then the session was over and Sammy was the first one to say good-bye, before we were even ready to leave. We walked back to the subway and rode two subways home, where we arrived just before noon. We found Tammy and Emmy standing in the kitchen nibbling on peanuts. Randy said that they had been hungry. I warmed up the leftovers, and we immediately sat down to eat. After having eaten, the kids were eager to go potty. They took their diapers off and Emmy went first, then Tammy, but only Tammy succeeded, much to Emmy's frustration. I cleaned them up and dressed them, and the boys went to bed, while Randy went downstairs with Tammy. I sat down by the boys, who were still wide awake. I was tired myself and knew that my break was short with lots to do, so my patience was limited. I finally went downstairs to stay with Tammy and asked Randy to go upstairs. He was able to get Emmy to sleep, but Sammy was still fussing, when I came upstairs to check on the situation. Randy went back downstairs and I told him I'd let him know, when Sammy sleeps. It was 1:20 before Tammy could come upstairs and go to bed. And it was 1:40 before I could leave her side because she was asleep.

I sat down by my computer, starting to get to work to get as much done as possible, but time was not sufficient. Emmy walked into the room at 2:20 already, just as I was trying to finish up. I picked him up, but he didn't stay long, but got up to go to Randy, who ended up going downstairs with him. At 2:30 Sammy woke up, which is when I stopped working to get ready, and to get Sammy ready. At 2:45 we walked out the door; Tammy was still sleeping.

We exited the building at the other end and walked all the way to the next subway stop, where also the tram stop was. It's only 3 stops on the tram. We just missed a modern tram that we could have gone on. The next tram that came was an old one with steps. There were few people, but after asking, someone tried to help me get the stroller in. It didn't fit, so I had to stay outside and let it go. Annoying. The next tram was also an old one, but I still tried again, again asking for someone to help me, but it simply didn't fit. The third train coming a few minutes later was AGAIN an old one, and I didn't even try any more. By then we were gonna be late, and I was furious with the public transportation system that they can't use more modern trams! I ended up waiting for 25 minutes before the fourth tram was FINALLY a new one that we could get on. It came at the time that Sammy's physiotherapy session should have started.

After three stops we got off and still had some walking to do to get to the center. And when we got there, there was nobody at the window, so we had to stand there and wait and lose more time. Finally someone came, our physiotherapist opened the door and checked my PCR test, and together we went to her room.

At first Sammy was wondering where we were, but it passed very quickly. We hadn't been there since early November, as the therapist was sick after that and then we left for Mali. Sammy was supposed to start again next week, but then she called me yesterday saying that he could already start today, and so there we were. I took his coat off and put him on the mat. She had a huge drum there and Sammy crawled over to it. She then helped him get into a sitting/kneeling position next to it, while leaning on the drum. And then he was busily using his hands on top of the drum, while kneeling on his own. She was impressed at the great balance he had, that he could sit there for so long without falling over. She tried to encourage him to also use his right hand. I told her about how much he's increased his vocabulary, as Sammy had been silent up to that point, and I succeeded in getting him talking so she could hear it for herself. I also told her once again how much he likes walking and showed her the recent video of Sammy walking in the home-made walker Randy created. I asked her if Sammy could get an actual walker. With the session already over, we sat down at the computer and she showed me some models that would be available. She said that she was gonna try to get a few different ones to try out for him between now and the end of April, when the orthopedic doctor was gonna be there, who could then help us decide which model would be best for him. Great! I took pictures off the screen of two possible models.

Then it was time to say good-bye, and Sammy was the first one to say it, and he said it quite a few times. We left, but did not walk back to the tram stop. Instead we started walking the opposite direction to get to the subway station, even though it was a long walk. I was not gonna wait that long for a modern tram again. Instead we had two stops on the subway to go home, and I think that's a much better way to go.

It was 4:30 pm, when we got home. We took our clothes off and went downstairs, and it was only then that they realized we were back. Sammy got to go to Daddy, while the other two immediately came to me for different things. Emmy wanted to swing, and Tammy too, but she didn't stay long, saying it was too tight together in the swing. I went to take my computer downstairs so that I could finally finish the grocery delivery; technical issues had kept me from doing so before leaving. Then I was free to play with them.  They watched "Barbapapa" for some time, especially Tammy, and we did the sticker books together. Then Randy had Alexa play Scooby Doo, and they were dancing to the song, while a cranky Sammy was in the swing. Then I figured out that our Alexa device with video screen can also play anything from Amazon Prime, and suddenly there was Paw Patrol, and so they started watching it. I took the opportunity to go upstairs to make dinner without them there, and I took Sammy with me who was calling my name and is not interested in watching stuff. I put him in the baby swing so he could watch me in the kitchen. I was surprised, when Randy and the others already came upstairs a few minutes later, long before I was done, and so they once again pulled two chairs up to the kitchen counter to stand on, and I put food in front of them that they could choose from what they wanted to eat. Then they all sat down at the table, and I added their soup. Alexa played some songs, mainly to cheer up a cranky Sammy. Once they were done, Tammy and Emmy wanted to go potty again, and both of them succeeded in pooping a little - enough to get a gummy bear. They were really excited. Then they went into the bathtub, where even Sammy was perfectly happy (again). He didn't even complain, when it was time to come out, and then the other two followed. They were in bed before it was 7 pm.

I sat down by their beds, with Tammy wanting to be on my chest from the start. We talked about all kinds of things, and Tammy returned to her bed at some point. After 7 pm it started getting quieter. Even Sammy was still awake, even though Randy had said he was so very tired because of his crankiness. After half an hour I finally left them and let Randy sit down there, as he had already eaten, and now it was my turn to get myself something to eat. Just after 7:30 they were all asleep. I went downstairs with my food, and continued working after having eaten. Now it's nearly midnight, and I have not heard or seen Emmy yet.