Day 1207. I had not set an alarm this morning; it was my only free morning this week, though I had little time to work in the end. When I finally looked at the clock this morning, I was surprised to find that it was already around 8:30 am. A few minutes before 9 am the doorbell rang - it was Christine from Caritas coming one last time for this year. The kids were excited to see her; all three really like her. After breakfast we cleaned them up and dressed them. Then I looked outside and saw that it was snowing hard. The kids were excited and wanted to go outside. Randy was getting Sammy ready to leave with him for his physiotherapy session. And so they left at 9:45, while I got the snowsuits out for the other two to take them outside.
We just went right outside our building. I was the first one to make a snowball and throw it at Emmy who thought that was great. The snow was really sticky, so that it was easy to make balls with it. And so we started throwing snowballs at each other. Tammy then left to get the sand toys and startled shoveling snow into the bucket that she then turned over. Christine was making a snow man, and so Emmy and I left to find something for its eyes, nose and arms. I got two leaves for its eyes and sticks for the nose and arms. I thought it looked great for the little time we'd put in. Later Emmy kicked it over.
We went back to throwing snowballs, I watched and filmed them for a few minutes, then I went back inside to work. Christine stayed outside with them a little while longer. When they came in, we were amazed that their underwear was still dry. Because it was the first time that they did not have diapers on, only underwear. They had gone potty after breakfast and then put the panties on. So far, they'd go potty at meal times or at bedtime, but would rarely say they needed to go. Since Randy is with them while I work, he's just not wanted to have to deal with dirty underwear. He's mostly focused on Sammy. When we took their clothes off after lunch, Emmy did have wet panties which must have happened while eating lunch.
Once they had come back inside, Christine went downstairs with them. They still had a project to complete. Christine was helping them make a Christmas present for Mom and Dad. They also wrapped it so that we won't see it until Christmas. They proudly handed the wrapped presents over to me.
At 11:15 I started cooking. Randy and Sammy returned at noon, and a few minutes later we sat down to eat. Christine was feeding Sammy. Nobody wanted to have icecream, instead they all went into the bathtub to rinse the green spinach off. Of course they love going into the bathtub, and I let them play a little bit before getting them out and dressing them again. When I asked them, I was amazed that Emmy said he wanted to go downstairs to play with Christine instead of watching videos. I told Christine that that was quite an honor. They hadn't watched anything before lunch either. When they came back upstairs at 1:15 to go to bed, it was Tammy who came to me running, asking to watch videos, and when I said no, she started crying, but not for long. It was definitely bed time, and I was glad when they fell asleep relatively quickly. I did a few things and then set my timer for 30 minutes and closed my eyes. It was 2 pm, and Christine was leaving.
When the alarm went off at 2:30, I did not want to get up at all. I was just so tired. But I got up and got ready and woke the kids up and dressed them. We left the house just after 2:45 to go to dance class. It had been two weeks since last time, since last week Thursday was a holiday. We had started going there at the beginning of the year, and until the summer it was all great. But since the class started up again in September, it's been terrible. Constantly substitute teachers, and always different ones, or classes canceled or an unfit teacher. When we got there today, it was once again a substitute teacher and one that did not know what she was doing. She said right at the beginning that she had listened to all the songs but didn't know any movements, and so the kids needed to teach her. Just great. And so all the kids did pretty much what they wanted. Emmy and Tammy were not participating much at all, even when they did know what to do. Instead Tammy and Emmy were holding hands and running around and dancing with each other and having lots of fun together at one point. I tried to encourage them to participate quite a lot, but usually to no avail.
Emmy's backpack he'd been impatiently waiting for had arrived at lunch time. I told him he needed to behave in dance class to keep it. And he had in fact taken the backpack with him. He was not happy, when I told him he had not fulfilled our deal, but in the end we worked it out so that he got to keep his backpack, much to his relief.
I had Sammy for most of the dance class, and he also seemed pretty quiet today. At the end of the class, it was really funny, when suddenly all the kids were on the floor together and robbing to the exit and out of the room. I have no idea how that came about. Sammy was happy to join them, as they were moving the way he does.
We then went back downstairs, dressed them, and left the dance school. We walked to the grocery store just before the bus stop and went inside. The kids wanted to have kids' carts, so we got them one each, then got our list out and went through the store, putting the items into the kids' carts. We paid, put everything and everyone into the strollers, and continued on to the bus stop. We didn't have to wait very long before the bus arrived. Tammy and Emmy were watching Paw Patrol, while Sammy kept asking to push buttons but that was not possible, and so he got more and more upset. I started interacting with him to distract him, and it worked. After we got off the bus, we stopped at the pharmacy to pick up my prescription, then we took the subway home.
It was already 5:45 pm, when we got home. I started making their dinner right away, even though it was still a few minutes earlier than usual. The kids continued watching their videos. We also sat down at the table to eat earlier than usual. I was glad about that as I had an 8 pm lesson to teach. They then continued eating in the bathtub, then we got them out and ready for bed. We opened the advent calendars, and I read them a bedtime story. Then I prayed for them and flew them into bed. I really needed to leave by that time. I grabbed my computer and went downstairs, even though they had gotten out of bed again and Tammy was crying. I did come back up for a moment and tucked her in and comforted her.
Just after 8 pm I started my lesson and ended it at 9 pm. A few minutes later I returned upstairs and started cutting up my salad. It was about 10 pm before I got to start eating, and therefore late before I started working on the pictures. Now it's nearly 2 am and time to clean up the kitchen and go to bed. Tomorrow we have to get up early.
