Day 1208. The last night was short and rough. While Tammy is getting better, Emmy had started coughing and his body was a little hot, and he came to me and left again quite a few times. I was just so very tired, when the alarm went off at 8 am. After breakfast we cleaned them up and dressed them and left the house just after 9 am.
We took the subway and then a bus. We ran to still make the bus, and that way it was pretty early that we arrived at the neighborhood center. We were meeting with my Mom there at 9:45, but we were 10 minutes early, and as it was cold, we went inside. We were the first ones there. In fact, the center had called us two days earlier because so many people had canceled because of sickness that they were not sure if they had enough children coming. Thankfully it had worked out. It was advertised as an hour of singing Christmas songs and doing crafts. We parked the strollers and took their coats off. They discovered a flea market and the toys that were there and started looking at them. Then we went inside where the event was taking place. They had lots of toys there, and so the kids started pulling them out and playing with them. Sammy was the most interested in the toy kitchen, of course. The lady organizing the event said that she wanted to give the other registered kids a few minutes to arrive. My Mom then was the first one to arrive. I then found out that she was not coming to our house for Christmas or on any of the days around Christmas, which was devastating news for me. I guess the five of us is all the family we have near us, as Randy's family is far away, and my family does not want us to be a part.
After a few more minutes another girl arrived and we all sat down on the floor for the singing part. It was a lot like the music class the kids are doing. There were rattles and bells, we did songs with actions, and songs with them sitting on our legs. I had Sammy and Tammy for most of the time, while Emmy ended up with Grandma.
After the singing part we all went to the tables to do the crafts. She had papers with drawn outlines of Christmas treets and stars in different colors. The kids started tearing paper of and sticking it onto their stars. Then they wanted to use the scissors and cut, and then Emmy wanted to glue some of the cotton balls on. I never realized how hard it is to use scissors, and Tammy does not listen to anything anyone says to her. I tried to tell her how to hold the scissors correctly, but to no avail. It makes me wonder how I'm ever gonna homeschool them.
Then the lady said it was time to return to the other room and finish our time together with some songs. We went over there, but Tammy was unhappy because she wanted to continue cutting, and so I went with her. The teacher then handed fabric out, did a song, and then a good-bye song. Then they all came out to where we were. We said good-bye to Grandma and also walked back to the strollers to put their coats back on and go home.
We left just before 11:30, walked back to the bus stop, got on the bus and rode back to the stadium, where we had gotten on. Tammy and Emmy were watching Paw Patrol. Before we got on the subway, we stopped where they were selling Christmas trees. I had seen them earlier, and considering our busy schedule, I figured we had to get it right there and then. I saw one right away that I liked, and we bought it. The kids were watching the vendor put the tree into a machine to pull a net over it and then put a wooden cross on it so it stands by itself. Tammy said she was gonna carry it and tried. The vendor said to her that she would have to eat a lot more dumplings before she'd be able to do that.
Now that we had the tree, I was pushing both strollers, while Randy was carrying the tree. We got on the subway and only had three stops to go. Then he decided to put the tree on his shoulder, and that way he was able to push a stroller as well. That is how we walked to our building from the subway.
It was already 12:15, when we got home. We still had a family-size pizza that was expiring that we had to eat, and so I put it into the oven. Around 12:30 we were able to sit down to eat. Emmy ate a whole piece, while Tammy only ate a little bit, and Sammy a little more than that. Only Sammy had icecream. At 1:15 I put them all to bed. I was so very tired and just wanted to sleep myself, but it took them some time to fall asleep. Then I went to my bed, set a 50-minute timer and closed my eyes. Before the alarm could go off, Emmy was already the one to wake me up, as usual. He lay down next to me for a moment, but then got back up. I finally forced myself up as well, as I had a new student at 3 pm and still needed a few minutes to prepare. And suddenly the time was too short for everything, but it all worked out. The new girl said she liked triplets and so I let Emmy say hello. Emmy came upstairs and into my room a few times.
When I finished my first lesson at 4 pm, I was surprised to find Tammy still in bed. I thought she had gone downstairs with the others a long time ago. But now she was up and did just that. I then taught two more students until 6 pm. Today I finished before Randy and the kids came upstairs. I was just so very tired. I went to the kitchen to start making their dinner, while Tammy and Emmy started watching Superbook and Sammy was playing in his bed. At 6:30 we sat down to eat at the table, then they went into the bathtub where they continued eating. After we got them out and ready for bed, we opened two advent calendars with story booklets that I read to them. Then I prayed for them and flew them into bed. Thankfully I did not have to watch the time today. It was about 8:15 pm by the time they were all in bed today. I sat down by them and held hands with all three at different times. They fell asleep surprisingly fast tonight. The boys were asleep, when a sleep Tammy asked for Daddy to come and sit with her, which he did. As for me, I did not make my salad as usual, but lay down in bed, where I stayed for about an hour being busy on my phone without moving any other parts of my body. I was just so exhausted. Even though I was getting hungry, I did not want to get up. Eventually I did get up and grabbed something quick to eat. Then I started working on the pictures of today. Now it's approaching 2 am, and I'm dead-tired. It's time to clean up the kitchen and go to bed. I once again have to set an alarm for tomorrow morning.
