3 years 4 months 16 days

Day 1233. This morning I had set an alarm for 8 am, but Randy had a hard time getting up, and so it took us a while. And that's why it was 9:30 before I was ready to leave the house with Emmy. This time Tammy was also unhappy to stay behind but was not crying hard like last time.

Emmy and I were taking the subway for two stops, then crossed the street to the hospital. Emmy was upbeat in light of an adventure with just him and his Mommy. And I told him they'd just take the bandage off today. However, I thought that that was the case last time, and it wasn't, so maybe he wasn't so sure whether he was right.

When we got to the kids' emergency waiting room, there were more kids there than we had ever seen before. It was 9:45, when we got there. We registered and took a seat. Emmy started watching videos, and I had come prepared today. I got my computer out and started working. Thank God I did! We waited for 2 hours and 15 minutes today, so longer than last week. I was able to get a lot done. Sometimes people couldn't even find seats, but by the time it was our turn, there were already considerably fewer people. Emmy had amazing patience again, watching, then playing, then watching again.

When they called his name at noon, Emmy started screaming and resisted going into the room. He was so traumatized, when they cut open his skin last week! I had to carry him into the room, kicking and screaming. Nothing I said made a difference. The doctor cut off the bandage and put some creme on his hand, and that was eat. She said his hand was looking good, but all Emmy could see was the cut-away skin. For the rest of his day he acted as if his hand was unusable, usually holding it against his body. All my trying to convince him his hand was fine was to no avail.

I had to carry him out of the room again, with him still screaming, and he continued a few more minutes. Only once we started walking away did he calm down. I put him on my shoulders and carried him to the subway. We then went into the grocery store togather to get some animal cookies. Emmy was pulling a little basket with wheels for the groceries. We got a few items, paid, and walked to the subway across the street. He'd been looking forward to taking the escalator again.

By 12:30 pm we were back home. Randy had put a lasagna into the oven and was waiting for our return to eat. I dished it out, and we sat down. Tammy surprised me, getting seconds twice. It was a positive surprise, as she sometimes hardly eats anything, and all three need to eat more. Sammy also had seconds, while Emmy didn't finish his plate, but then he'd had more snacks than his siblings. He and his sister then left to watch videos, while Sammy still had icecream.

At 1:15 I put them to bed, but it was another one of those days, where I could not get them to sleep. Except for Sammy who did fall asleep early on. When Christine (Caritas) arrived at 2 pm, the other two were still not sleeping. They understood that she had arrived, and Christine sat down with them. I could hardly believe it, when they fell asleep right away!

I myself never got to take a nap; I had too much to do. And so I was working, while they were sleeping. Sammy woke up first, and I took him downstairs to Christine. Tammy woke up next, and Emmy last, and they all ended up downstairs. Randy had picked up some drums last night, and since Emmy had not been home in the morning, he was eager to try them out. Of course he only used his left hand because of his belief that his right hand was still "damaged". Sammy also enjoyed the drums, and so had Tammy in the morning.

I left them there after a few minutes and returned upstairs to work. Just before 4:30 Randy left with Tammy and Emmy to take them to their piano class for the first time in a month. Just before 6 pm Christine came upstairs with Sammy. They'd had a great time together. We chitchatted a little bit, while I started making the kids' dinner. Then she left, and it was only Sammy and me, and we were having fun. Randy and the others returned at 6:30, and dinner was ready for them. We sat down at the table, and Sammy surprised me with his appetite for the leftover noodles from yesterday. He's got a lot of catching up to do!

Then it was bathtub time, and it was the first time in over a week that Emmy was allowed into the water. Everyone was having fun in the water, while eating some more. Then we got them ready for bed. It was already pretty late, so that I could not read a story to them nor pray for them, which I do every night. I grabbed my computer and went downstairs for my 8 pm lesson. When I was done at 8:50, I returned upstairs to pray for them and tuck them in, then went back downstairs for a 9 pm lesson.

It was my first time teaching this late at night, but I'm a night person, so I don't mind. And it was a new student I taught for the first time, and she's now my only German student. It's a refugee needing to learn German, and we had a great time. I was done just before 10 pm and returned upstairs. The kids were all asleep. I'd already eaten a little, so I had another small bite and then went to work. Now 1 am is approaching, and I need to clean up the kitchen before going to bed.