3 years 3 months 7 days

Day 1194. This morning my alarm was set for 7 am, so terribly early. While Emmy had already joined me in bed, he had fallen asleep again, and so the alarm woke everybody up. Well, Tammy continued sleeping until Randy got her to change her diaper. We had breakfast, and then got them ready to leave the house at 8 am, as our appointment was at 9 am.

We took the subway, then the tram, and then had to walk to the children's clinic of the university hospital. We showed our Covid test and appointment and were allowed in, where we gave them the kids' insurance cards. Then we were told where to go. As soon as we got there, somebody was already there calling us inside the room for the kids to be measured. Emmy went first. He sat down on a chair that was a scale, then they measured his head's circumference, then his height. Tammy came next, then Sammy.  He was able to sit in the chair, but then he was put on a flat surface for his height to be measured, which he didn't like very much. Then we returned to the waiting room.

But as soon as we were out there, we were already called into another room for their 2-hour examination. The kids were really shy at first and stayed close to us, not talking at all, but with time they got over it. I sat down by the leading physician who started asking me questions about Emmy. In the meantime the kids were playing with what was in the room and also drawing. Once we were done with Emmy, two other doctors went to the room nextdoors with Emmy and Tammy and Randy to start the testing. I stayed with Sammy and answered the questions about Tammy, and then about Sammy. As Sammy had just had a psychological evaluation, they decided not to do another one. He only got his lungs listened to and his reflexes checked, which she had done with the other two as well. Sammy sat on one of the cars for quite some time and he was really stable on it, able to play with the toys that way. At some point I went to the other room and got to see some of the testing there. They had books with pictures and asked them all kinds of questions about them. Emmy didn't get it all right. Then they took them to a staircase and wanted them to walk up and down without holding on to anything, and they did that just fine. They also wanted them to jump, walk on a line, walk backwards, and walk on their toys and heels, which they could all do. They had done really well being tested for two hours. Once it was all done, the doctors gave us feedback, and they said that they had done really well, scoring very high on everything.

Before we left the hospital, we decided to try to see the physiotherapist that worked with Sammy there for the first two years of his life. We found out that she was on leave and not there. Too bad. It was time for us to go home, so we put their coats on and went back outside. While inside the hospital, it was the kids who had noticed first that it had started snowing outside. That's the second snow this winter. We walked back to the tram, took the tram and then the subway. When we got off to walk to our house, it was still snowing quite a bit, but not quite cold enough to stay on the ground.

It was noon by the time we got home. I made a quick meal, and we sat down to eat. However, all the kids ate hardly anything. I guess they must have had too many snacks too late. In any case they were extremely tired, especially Tammy. She had a fit for no good reason which showed how tired they were. After cleaning them up and dressing them, I put them straight to bed. It was 1 pm. I had to hold Tammy to calm her down, then she went to her bed, and they all fell asleep quickly.

I myself was extremely tired after an even shorter night than usual. At 1:45 pm I also got to close my eyes and fall asleep. And I was somewhat thankful to not have any students until 5 pm, so that I did not have to set an alarm. I did wake up, when Emmy walked into the room, and then Tammy, but I was so tired that I went straight back to sleep. It was 4:15 pm, when I woke up for good, so I had slept for quite some time, but I had sure needed it. Randy and the kids were downstairs playing. I got up and slowly got ready for my 5 pm lesson. It was ending at 5:50, but Randy and the kids already came upstairs before then and they walked into the room. I ended my lesson, and then went to the kitchen to start making their dinner, while the kids were watching Superbook. At 6:30 we sat down to eat. They ate some, then continued eating in the bathtub. Then we got them ready for bed. The kids were eager to open the advent calendars, so I sat down with the three of them, we opened them, and read the little books inside them. Then I prayed for them and put them to bed. It was time for me to leave, as I had an 8 pm lesson and there was not much time left. Randy sat down with the kids, and I went downstairs for my lesson. By the time I was done at 9 pm, the kids were fast asleep. I went to the kitchen to make my salad, then sat down to eat it. Once I was done I started working on today's pictures. Now it's midnight and time to clean up the kitchen and go to bed. We have a long day tomorrow, and do need to set an alarm in the morning.