3 years 19 days

Day 1114. It was one of those mornings, when you try to postpone getting out of bed as long as possible, and I was still extremely tired all day, especially because I did not get to take a nap at lunch time.  At 8:45 I eventually got up. After breakfast I took them downstairs, where we read a Bible story. Then they wanted to draw, and I gave them paper and crayons. They wanted me to draw Peppa Pig for them, so I did. But then I really had to leave, as it was late, and I had work to do.

I did not have much time to work. At 11:15 I went to the kitchen to cook, but there was so much drama downstairs that I went there to help out. That delayed me enough so that it was nearly 12:30 before the food was ready, wich was unusually late. They all finished the food on their plates and then had icecream. Usually they then go to watch videos from Emmy's bed, after having been cleaned up. Yesterday they were watching a compilation of different versions of "Baby Shark" endlessly; I couldn't even hear it any more. But today they were eager to do the new Paw Patrol sticker book with me. I sat down on the floor upstairs - with all three kids - and they started picking out stickers to stick into the book. At 1:15 we stopped, and they went to bed. Tammy was more restless than usual and fell asleep later than usual, and so it was later for me to get to leave them and return to my computer. I still had lessons to prepare, which I did until Sammy woke up at 2:30. Emmy woke up as a result as well, and I took them both downstairs. At 3 pm they came back upstairs, and I woke up Tammy. It was time to get ready to leave.

At 3:15 we left the house with both strollers, Tammy and Emmy sharing one. We took the subway and then walked to the bus stop. While we were waiting, three firetrucks suddenly arrived. Emmy has been very interested in the fire department recently, often playing he was a fireman and watching "Sam, the Firefighter". And so he was very interested. A bunch of firefighters got off and walked into the street there, but we never found out what was going on. We got on the bus and continued on our way to dancing school.

We walked into the room a few minutes before the class started. It was the first of three times with a different teacher, and we were surprised to see four other girls there, while there had only been one last week. The lady did the class a little differently, but much was the same. A few songs were new to us, but it was also a nice change. I had Sammy for much of the time, always passing him to Randy, when my back was hurting too much to continue with him, and then getting him back a few minutes later. He was having fun.

I was taking pictures, as always, and one time I was doing a video, as it was just too cute how Tammy and Emmy were dancing. Just after I had started filming them, they stopped dancing. I filmed on a little longer, panning to the teacher, who then jumped up to tell me that she did not want to be filmed. What a reaction!

Emmy was participating the whole time, while Tammy was getting tired towards the end and did not want to participate any more. It was a jam-packed 50 minutes that sure felt longer today. I was also glad, when it was over.

We put their shoes back on and left, walking to the bus stop. There was a grocery store righ there that we went into to see whether they had what we had not found at the other store. But this store as well did not have much fruit at all. We still bought a few items. Emmy and Tammy had wanted to get a kids' grocery cart, and so they pushed them through the store, putting the items into them, and then on the conveyor belt. After having paid, we continued on to the bus stop, where we just missed a bus. We rode the bus, and then got on the subway to go home. They were watching "Paw Patrol" the whole time. Just after 6 pm we were back home.

I let them watch Peppa Pig, while I started making their dinner. Then we sat down at the table to eat. They continued eating in the bathtub, where they were having fun, then we got them ready for bed. By about 7:35 they were all in bed, and I sat down by them. But at 7:45 I left them, and Randy took my place. Tammy protested for quite some time. I went downstairs with my computer and could hear her for quite some time. At 8 pm I started teaching the business English class I do two evenings per week (I have another business English student also twice a week), which lasted until just before  9 pm. I spent a few more minutes preparing tomorrow morning's lesson, then went upstairs to get something to eat. After having eaten, I went back to work. And while I've been so tired, I somehow ended up needing until nearly 1 am to get everything done. Time for bed.