3 years 4 months 14 days

Day 1231. Even though it's Sunday, there was no sleeping in today. The alarm rang at 8 am, as we needed to leave the house at 9 am, and it woke up everyone. We had breakfast, dressed the kids, and left the house on time.

We took the 9:20 train, then still needed to ride a tram for only 2 stops to get to the swimming pool, where the new swim class was taking place. We had never been to this swimming pool before, but it took us only half the time needed to get to the previous one. We got to the swimming pool at 9:40, parked our strollers at the entrance, paid for two adults to get in, received two keys for lockers, and walked to the family changing room, where we all changed into our bathing suits. Then we showered and went in.

We were pleasantly surprised that it was the same teacher as last semester as we had liked her a lot. She said right away, "I know you guys!". I told her that Emmy was not able to go into the water today but had to sit on the sidelines and watch us. It's been 8 days since his burn, and on Tuesday he gets his bandages off, but with them he could not go into the water. I ended up giving him my phone so he could watch videos. That way he sat there the whole time. The class was only 30 minutes long anyway.

And they had fun, even though the water was too cold. They should have heated the pool up for the classes today but forgot, and so the water was a little chilly. After a while Sammy started shivering. The swim school director later apologized and is adding another lesson because of it, even though it was not her fault. The kids had fun anyway. They had to pick up animals, swim to the edge and put the animals on a pillar. They also swam through a tunnel and then put duckies into a little pool. And then she put a kids' slide on the side of the pool and the kids slid right into the water. Tammy enjoyed it, but only went twice, then was done with it. We did the good-bye song, and the class was over. Today there had been about 4 other kids the same age as ours in the class.

We showered again and returned to the changing room to put our clothes back on. After Randy had dressed Sammy, he put him in a kneeling position next to the bench that he could put his arms on, right next to me, so he could get changed himself. Suddenly I looked over, and Sammy had pulled himself into a standing position and started walking sideways. What an achievement! I was still dressing the other two kids, when Sammy suddenly fell and hit his head. He was crying hard.

We put them and everything back into the strollers and left to walk to the tram stop. After riding it for two stops, we waited for the train and arrived back home at 11:40, earlier than expected. As I was unsure when we'd be home and that I'd have time to cook, I had ordered a pizza online. It arrived pretty much exactly at noon. The kids had been watching videos on the way home and then at home, but the time to sit down to eat had come. Everyone ate well, but only Sammy had icecream, as the others wanted to continue watching. Like yesterday, I was extremely tired and in dire need of a nap, and I again lay down at 1 pm, while they were still watching.  At 1:15 I put them to bed and sat down by them, asking them to please just fall asleep. I don't usually fall asleep in that chair, but today I either did or came close to it. Emmy was the last one to fall asleep, and it was 1:45 before he was as well, and I could walk away. I went straight to bed. It was about 2 pm, when I fell asleep.

At 3:30 pm I woke up and was surprised to find everyone still asleep. That meant Sammy had been asleep for over two hours, which is extremely rare. I went into their room and opened their curtains, which was all that was needed for them to wake up. It was obvious that we were not able to leave at 4 pm but needed to take the next train half an hour later. I still needed to make their dinner-to-go boxes and went straight to work. Then we dressed them all and left the house at 4:30.

We took the 4:50 train, bought chestnuts after getting off, and took the tram to church. Sammy wanted to push the door button, but the beeping bothers people, and so he was not very happy that we would not let him. After we got off, we walked up the hill to church, where we arrived around 5:30, just as worship was starting. They now do announcements and housekeeping first, so 5:30 is the perfect time to arrive for the kids.

We hadn't been there in two weeks, and it sure seemed like it had been even longer. There was facbric in the front for them  to use in worship, but no streamers. I tried to find one for Tammy, and in the end she got one, the only one that is still working. Sammy was sitting on the steps with me and wanted to look behind the heavy curtain on top of the stage and did a few times.

It didn't take long, just about 10 minutes, before they started asking to go upstairs to the toddler room.  At about 5:45 we headed upstairs and were the first ones in the room. I helped them get their shoes off and then left them to return to the sanctuary. I was glad it was my turn to enjoy the service.

I so enjoyed the time of worship and communion with God, then they started preaching. At 6:45 I headed back upstairs. Tammy and Emmy were building with Duplos, while Randy had Sammy who was also playing. I sat down by them, then Randy grabbed Tammy to go changer her diapers. Sammy was having fun going throug the box there that I had put him in front of, while I was also helping Emmy with his house. Just after Randy and Tammy returned, it was already time to put everything up. We put their shoes back on and left to return to the sanctuary.

Sammy was once again looking forward to seeing Anna, who was on the bottom of the stairs. He gave her a big smile and cheer of joy, as she took him out of my arms. Then we all went into the lobby, where she played a little with all three, while we put their coats on to get ready to leave. The service wasn't over, but it was 7 pm and time to leave. We had hoped to see Sonja who we haven't seen in many weeks, but we didn't want to stay any longer.

We headed back out into the cold and walked to the tram stop, where they started watching while eating, which they continued on the tram, and then on the train. Tammy and Emmy ate everything in their box, Sammy not quite. We took the 8 pm train and got home at 8:15.

We started right away to get them ready for bed. Even though they went to bed at 9 pm, an hour later than usual, they still did not fall asleep quickly. They have been getting up later in the morning, and they'd had a long nap in the afternoon today. Sammy fell asleep first, but was woken up when Randy spilled his coffee in the dark, when he was gonna sit down in the chair instead of me. After that it took quite some time for Sammy to fall asleep again, with his siblings falling asleep first.

As for me, I grabbed something to eat and started working on the pictures. Now it's 1:30 am, and I still have to clean up the kitchen before going to bed.