Day 1228. This morning we had to set an alarm for 8:15, which is early for us right now. We hadn't seen Grandma in a few weeks, since she didn't come during the holidays, but she arrived ten minutes to nine this morning. The kids were looking forward to seeing her. Tammy had been asking about her a lot, and so had Sammy. Sammy now even ask about his uncle Ronnie regularly, even though we only saw him one time.
We were having breakfast, when Grandma arrived. The kids were eager to give her the gift they had made for her. They had made Christmas gifts for Mommy and Daddy with Christine, when Tammy said she wanted to make one for Grandma as well. And so she was impatient to give it to her. They were so excited to see Grandma open the gift and to see her reaction! Then I cleaned them up and dressed them, and we all went downstairs. Grandma had brought a book to read to them, and both Tammy and Emmy sat with her while she was reading it to them, while I was on the floor with Sammy. Once 10 am was approaching, I went upstairs to get ready for my lesson. I then taught from 10 to 12 pm, and Grandma left just before 11 am, when I was just in between two lessons. As it was nearly noon by the time I was done teaching, I made a quick meal, and it was already 12:15 by the time we sat down to eat. Everyone had some icecream after the meal, and I was glad that they did not cry because there was no video, like there had been none before eating. It was nearly 1 pm, and I had to teach at 2 pm already, and then we were going to leave at 3 pm. And so I put them to bed at 1 pm and pleaded with them to fall asleep quickly. The boys did fall asleep quickly; as for Tammy, it was 1:45 by the time she was asleep and I could walk away.
The last night had been really short, and the kids had been up early, and so I was very tired. However, there simply was not any time to lie down even for 5 minutes. At 2 pm I started teaching. Sammy woke up at 2:15 after having slept just over an hour, and I ended up getting him and putting him on the floor to play. However, he came to me, and it was a little disruptive. Finally Randy took him downstairs, together with Tammy who had also woken up, but Emmy came to me, sat down on my lap, and watched me teach until the end of my lesson at 2:50 pm. The teenage student didn't mind.
Then the others came back upstairs, and we dressed everyone so we could leave the house, which was the case later than planned, at 3:20 pm. We needed to be at our destination for a 4 pm event, so it was high time for us to get going. We rode the subway to the end, then took a tram for one stop, then we had to walk a bit. It was a three-day game event in town hall. We found the entrance, found where to put the strollers, and walked up the stairs to get to where the one-hour theater performance was. When we finally reached it, we were told that you needed to have tickets you could have picked up half an hour earlier. As we didn't have any, we were turned away.
The kids were really disappointed, and Emmy crying briefly. We then headed to the line to get tickets for the Kasperl performance, but the line was so long that they already told us there was no point in lining up. So much for the performances. The other thing we had wanted to do was to go to the play area for little kids. We made our way there, only to be disappointed at how little there was. However, there was a little toy house, and our kids surely enjoyed playing with it. Even Sammy was eager to crawl to it, but there were too many kids for him to have any chance of getting inside. I took him to the window, where he had fun kneeling and looking inside. He had so much fun that he was not happy, when Randy took him so we could move on. As for Tammy and Emmy, they were also having lots of fun, and Emmy didn't let his burned hand keep him from climbing around inside the house. They also had some small see-saws that they were enjoying.
We left the room to look at all the different crafts stations in the room nextdoor. Tammy wanted to do some crafts. We ended up at the table with cardboard cutouts, glue, scissors, fabric and strings, and they started cutting and gluing on top of their cut out heads. Sammy, however, was not happy at all and pretty cranky. It really was time for us to go.
We walked on, back to the entrance. There were hundreds of tables set up in the big hall and two stations where you could go to pick up a board game to take to one of the tables to play. The kids suddenly said they wanted to play a game. There are not a lot of games for 3-year-olds but thankfully they gave us the perfect game. We took it to a table, where I started playing it with Tammy and Emmy. Randy tried to keep cranky Sammy happy, while we were playing. We played two rounds, and the kids did a great job, and they really enjoyed it. Awesome! Randy was eager to leave, and so we returned the game and made our way to the exit.
It was 5:30 pm, when we left town hall to walk back to where the subway was, as well as a McDonald's. We don't have a set weekly McDonald's visit any more, so it was great to get to go there for dinner tonight. The kids sure were excited. We sat down at our usual spot, and I left to order on the electronic board. We always have a great time eating there, and tonight Sammy was especially hungry and eating a lot. Tammy has finally found something she likes other than fries and is eating chicken nuggets now. Once we were all done, after 45 minutes there, there were suddenly 3 balloons sitting there to be taken, and of course our kids were excited to get them.
We walked to the subway, got on, and rode it straight home, while the kids were watching videos. By 6:40 we were back home. We turned the water on in the bathtub, and everyone except for Emmy got in. However, he also stays in the bathroom and plays with his siblings while standing next to the bathtub. As for Sammy, he loves the water, and I don't know what was going on tonight, but he constantly dove into the water with his head down. He enjoys diving, I guess, and couldn't get enough of it tonight. It was a lot of fun watching him have so much fun.
After they were all out and ready for bed, we sat down for a bedtime story. I now use a book with short Bible stories to read to them, and they love them. Then I prayed for them and flew them into bed. It was 7:45 by the time they were all in bed, and I started getting ready to go downstairs for my 8 pm lesson. Randy sat down by their beds in my place. I then taught until 9 pm, and by the time I came back upstairs just after that time, they were all asleep. I was thankful that I did not need to make a salad but could use my time for more important things. It's still just after 1 am now and high time for me to go to bed after having cleaned up the kitchen. Tomorrow morning Emmy and I are once again going to the hospital, where they'll take his bandages off.
