3 years 1 month 22 days

Day 1148. I did not set an alartm this morning as we had plenty of time until leaving at 10 am. Still, I was surprised, when it was already 9 am, when we woke up for good. Of course the kids had already been up for a while, and I had already opened squeezies for them. And Tammy and Emmy ate none of their oatmeal for breakfast. Then we dressed them and left on time.
It was a sunny and unusally warm day. We took the subway and then started our long walk to the school. When we passed one of the tram stops, a new one was just arriving, and so we got on, saving ourselves a big part of the walk. On the tram we met one of the mothers from our class who was already on the way there. While we were walking to the school, Randy was talking with her, and we found out that she had seen me at the mission conference before as she and her husband were heading up Teen Challenge Austria. Wow! What were the chances to have another Christian in our class, and one that even knew me!

We got to the school, took their shoes off and went into the classroom. At first there were only two other kids there, but two more arrived late. Today our kids did well and participated most of the time. A few times I had to encourage Emmy to participate if he wanted to watch videos today. The teacher started with the greeting song, then did a few songs with them sitting on our laps, where they fall off at the end of the song, making them laugh. Today it was Tammy who did it with the teacher. We did a few songs with different instruments, did a few songs with fabric, and a few songs walking around. There's one song, when the teacher sings a kid's name, and that kid then has to turn around and around, and they both did it today, while I had Sammy and turned with him. In the end she did a goodbye song, then she has a new stamp for each kid's card. However, Randy left the diaper bag at the dancing school last week (he thinks), and the cards were in there. She gave them their stamps on post-it notes, which was nice.

We put their shoes back on and left to return home. This time we walked all the way to the subway. I then let them watch videos on the short trip home. We got home before noon, and I immediately started getting lunch ready. We sat down to eat after noon. Emmy was throwing a fit, not wanting to eat soup again, while Tammy ate most of it. It took Emmy a long time to calm down and return to the table and eat because I agreed to feed him, after I was done feeding Sammy and myself. In the end all three had icecream after all.

I cleaned them up and dressed them, but no more videos before nap time. They had me change their bedding, so that's what I did. At around 1 pm they all lay down to sleep, and they all fell asleep eventually. I even fell asleep sitting in the chair by their beds, but Tammy woke me up. I then walked away, and shortly after she fell asleep as well. I lay down in bed to sleep myself and got some good rest. I did not have a 3 pm class, so I did not set an alarm. Sammy woke up first, and I heard him whine for quite some time before Randy picked him up and went downstairs with him. A little while later Emmy walked into the room. He stayed upstairs for quite some time. Then Tammy woke up, and while I was getting ready for my 4 pm class, they finally both went downstairs. Randy ended up going outside with them, where they ran their scooters, while Sammy walked with his walker. As for me, I taught from 4 to 6 pm.  I also got a new student today and found out around 6 pm that we were doing an 8 pm class as he had a test tomorrow.

At 6 pm I started making their dinner, and just after 6:30 we sat down to eat. They continued eating in the bathtub. We were having so much fun, that I was surprised at how late it was by the time they were all out. It was 7:45 before they were all in bed, and I had rushed to get them ready, and so I could not sit down by them tonight. I grabbed my computer and went downstairs to get ready for my 8 pm class. And I had a very good time with the new student. I came back upstairs right away after I was done, and Emmy immediately asked me to come to his side. Tammy was the only one asleep at 9 pm. I sat by Emmy for a few minutes until he gave me permission to go to the kitchen and cut my salad. Sammy was not as happy about that and started calling me, after I'd left. I came back a few times, but in the end they were asleep by the time my salad was ready to be eaten. I sat down to eat quite late, and then went to work after I was done eating. Now it's midnight, and I've already cleaned up the kitchen. We have a long day tomorrow and have to get up earlier, so it's time to go to bed as well.