Day 1169. Originally we had planned to go to church last night, the second day in a row, but then I was so exhausted and needed to catch up on office work, so that we stayed at home. I really needed that day at home, the way life has been busy.
Last night I went to bed earlier, but it was not meant to be. Sammy was crying and wanted me, and in that case all I can do is to sit by his bed. In the end it was around 2 am before I could fall asleep. Of course Emmy was up early this morning. Us adults, we got up at around 8:45, earlier than necessary. I still was very tired. After breakfast we dressed them and got ready to leave at 10 am. Suddenly we had little time left, but we made it alright.
We took the subway and then had to walk and got to the school before the class started. We took their shoes and jackets off and went inside. Last week the class had not taken place, and two weeks ago Grandma had helped out, as we had a meeting at the center, where Sammy goes for his therapies. Today our kids did pretty well in terms of participating, Tammy more than Emmy. Throughout the class they ask me regularly if their behavior is alright as the consequence of a no would be no videos after.
After the greeting song, the teacher did the song where the child sits on our legs and then falls off at the end of the song. Tammy immediately walked over to her to be the one to do it with the teacher. After the first song Emmy suddenly sat down on her legs as well. When Grandma was alone with them last time, that's the way they had done it. The teacher was alright with it and did the song with both of them.
She brought instruments out at different times, and also had something like two xylophone parts that went around the room, from child to child. Emmy wanted to be first, but she told him that it was going around the circle from child to child. Sammy was also impatiently waiting for his turn and enjoyed playing it. He was with me the whole class.
We also did some walking songs. In the end Sammy was rather tired and just wanted to lie on me. After the good-bye song, it was time for their weekly stamp. I put Sammy on his knees so he could take the card from Daddy and crawl to the teacher with it, but suddenly he fell forward and on his head. He started crying hard, and I comforted him.
After the class we put their coats and shoes back on and left to go back home, where we arrived just before noon. I made a quick lunch, then we sat down to eat. It was hard to get them to eat, but in the end they all had icecream. They were watching videos until it was time for them to lie down for their nap at 1:15 pm. I was really tired, but exceptionally I already had to start teaching at 2 pm, all the way until 6 pm, followed by an 8 pm session, so it was a long day. I sat down by the kids, but not for very long. Then Randy took my place. I tried to close my eyes for a few minutes, but it was too short to actually sleep. Just before 2 pm I went downstairs for my first lesson. However, it turned out that that teenage girl who doesn't really want to take lessons had forgotten about our lesson. And so I went back upstairs and closed my eyes again before my 3 pm lesson. However, Emmy soon walked into the room, having slept less than an hour. Randy then went downstairs with him, and before my lesson started I also took Sammy downstairs to them. At 3 pm my lesson was supposed to start, but my student had thought it was at 4 pm, and she wasn't home yet. I opened the curtains in the kids' room, and soon Tammy was up and also went downstairs. At 3:30 my student finally showed up, and I did a short lesson with her. Then I had two regular lessons from 4 to 6 pm. By then my 8 pm lesson was canceled, but that was fine with me at that point.
And I also had good news. We applied for some short-term help from the Caritas again. You can get help for up to 2 months per year, and we hadn't had any since the beginning of 2021. Christine, who had first come, when they were a few months old, had become a friend, and today she told me that she was coming Friday afternoon. Praise God! We're gonna have help again for the next few weeks! This is a payable service.
Randy and the kids came upstairs. Sammy went into his bed to play, and Tammy and Emmy started watching Superbook. I went to the kitchen to start making their dinner. After a while Sammy joined me there in his chair. I gave him food, while he was playing right next to me. At about 6:45 we sat down to eat, and then they continued eating in the bathtub, while playing. Once they were out and in their pj's, they were impatient to hear their bedtime story. Then I prayed for them, and they went to bed. It was around 8 pm. I sat down by them. All three kids were awake for quite some time and giving me a hard time. After a while they started asking for Daddy. Once he was done eating, he took my place, while I went to the kitchen to make my salad, which takes a while. After having eaten, I started working on today's pictures. Now it's going on 1 am, and I still have to clean up the kitchen before going to bed.
