3 years 5 months

Day 1248. It was a good bit after 2 am before I made it to bed last night, and so I had slept less than 5 hours, when the alarm woke us all up at 7:15 am. I let Emmy turn it off again. Nobody wanted to get up, but we had no choice. We got up slowly, and so I had to pull Sammy away from breakfast in the end, as it was time to get dressed and leave the house. Tammy and Emmy also wanted to come with us, and I was annoyed later to find out they could have come as well.

We left the house at 8:10 and walked to the subway. We rode it to the end, then had to take a tram. Sammy was very talkative on the whole trip, though I didn't understand most of it, and he was clearly enjoying his alone-time with Mommy. We got off at the same place as yesterday, and the only elevator was still not fixed. So I had to take the escalator with Sammy in the stroller. Then we took a tram that we had to ride for 15 minutes. We got off and walked a little to reach our destination. I walked into the building, knew that I had to go one floor up, then went through one door to try to find where I was supposed to go. Somebody then showed me the way and led me to the lady we were meeting.

At the big 3-year-check up two months ago at the hospital where they were born, they had asked again about the kids going to kindergarten and recommended one special kindergarten for Sammy that is particularly focused on kids with cerebral palsy. Because of Mali, we had ruled out a kindergarten, but now we can't go there, plus Sammy needs his therapies, and in that particular kindergarten he would get everything he needs. Randy is against kindergarten, but after having gone there today I'm convinced that it would be criminal to withhold all the support he'd get there from him. The lady told me that they had 600 kids with special needs on their waiting list that was supposed to be closed, but somehow my email went through, which was already a miracle. She then said that they prioritize CP kids because so much progress can be made in the early years, and that in reality she'd want to take them in at 2.5 years of age. She said that she'd do everything in her power to find a spot for Sammy in their kindergarten, which would start in fall at the earliest.

We sat down in an exercise room, where Sammy got to play, while she interacted with him and looked at what he could and couldn't do, and where she could talk to me and explain everything. She was a very sweet lady with a lot of experience, and she knew Sammy's physiotherapist. After having talked for a while, she wanted to show us the different kindergarten groups. First we went to a classroom with mainly kids that had autism, but we only went in there for a minute. Then we went to a room, where half the kids had CP, but a milder form. One girl with CP was walking up to us. We didn't stay there either but walked on to the next room where most kids had a more severe case of CP, some quite a bit more severe than Sammy. About 5 teachers were taking care of about 10 kids. They were just sitting at a table for a mid-morning snack. The lady explained how they teach the kids all the basics of independent living from eating to going to the bathroom to getting dressed. She introduced me to the lady in charge of that group and told me we could come another time to stay with them for an hour to see what they were doing. So we made an appointment. I'm glad that all five of us can come that day. Then we returned to the room, where we had started, and talked a bit more. She also wanted to see Sammy crawl and walk, and that's what she's doing in the second picture, having Sammy walk to me. We then said our good-byes and left at 10:20 after 1.5 hours.

We walked back to the tram and rode it to the end. Sammy was as talkative going home as he had been coming. The elevator was still out of order, and so we had to go down the escalator, which was a little more challenging than going up, but we did it. Then we got on the subway to go home, where we arrived at 10:50 am. I took Sammy downstairs to his siblings who were excited to see us, then went back upstairs to work a little.

At 11:15 I already had to stop to go to the kitchen and make lunch. We've been so busy that this was the first time I had the chance to cook lunch! The kids soon came upstairs and started watching videos. It was a few minutes after noon before we sat down at the table to eat. Everyone had icecream after their meal, then they continued watching until 1:15. I was so extremely tired that my eyes were falling shut while I was trying to work a little. I was impatiently waiting for them to go to bed and fall asleep, so I could walk away and lie down myself. Thankfully they've been falling asleep quickly and easily since our return. I soon returned to my computer, spent a few minutes preparing for classes, and then lay down for a nap. I set my timer for 70 minutes.

I woke up from a deep sleep five minutes before the timer went off, and just as Emmy was walking into the room. It was going on 3 pm, and we had to leave the house at 3:15. And so we started getting ready and all left the house on time at 3:15 pm.

Normally today was the day of their last exercise class at 2:30 pm, and while we could have gone there and then straight to the 4 pm class, I felt like that was too much for them to just get half an hour of sleep and then do two classes. And I myself was not up for that today after such a short night last night. And so we got on the subway to go to our new class. After we got off, we still had quite a long walk to get there, and it was pretty cold tonight. We got to the French Institute 15 minutes before the start of their class. We parked the strollers in front of the entrance, and then walked in and up the long staircase.

The kids were pretty excited about a new adventure. The class had actually started last week, while were on vacation. We found the room and were the first ones there. The kids were looking at the pillows and animals on the floor and started exploring them. I already told them what the word for "rabbit" was in French. Other kids started arriving, and then the teacher, a friendly, young lady. She had emailed us and asked for a picture of the kids, and she had pictures of every child in the class. In her email she had also asked the parents to stay outside and not be in the class, and I had told her about Sammy. And so Randy stayed outside. However, all the parents were in the room, so I soon left to bring Randy into the room as well, which was a good decision. At the end of the class she said something about being glad that the parents had stayed in the room. I said to her (in French) that I could not imagine her having done the class without parents, and she laughed in agreement saying neither could she.

She started the class with a song, going from child to child, including their names. She asked them whether this or that was their name, and each child shook their head until she said the right name. Then every child got to take a book or toy out of a bag. There was also a box with pictures of every child, and each child got to put their picture on the whiteboard. Tammy put a picture of all three of them on the board.

She then had cards with different objects in different colors and tried to teach them the colors in French. The kids had to match them. Then she got out papers with trees and gave them cotton balls to glue on them. All three did that and enjoyed it. She also gave them a paper, where they had to draw lines from an object of one color to the object of the same color on the other side, and Tammy did that particularly well. She already holds the crayon correctly, which Emmy does not do yet, but he was also able to connect the objects. She tried one more time to get a book and flashcards out to teach them something, but the kids were not listening any more, so she gave up. She had the kids take all the animals to a drawer and then stack the pillows. Then she said good-bye and the class was over.

We put their coats and shoes back on and walked back down the staircase to the strollers. It was 5 pm. The class is right in the middle of the afternoon, which makes it impossible for me to have any students before or after. This time we got on the subway right there, rode it for one stop, and then took our subway that takes us home. Tammy and Emmy were watching videos. At 5:25 pm we were back home.

I sat down at the computer to work at least for a short time, while all kids were watching videos and Randy did some work and then left to go pick something up for Sammy that someone was selling second hand. Just after 6 pm I went to the kitchen to start making their dinner, and just after 6:30 we sat down at the table to eat. I was on my own. They ate some, then continued in the bathtub, where they were also having fun. I had put the clock in the bathroom to watch the time, as I was teaching from 8 to 10 pm. At around 7:30 Randy returned, and so he could help with getting them out of the water and ready for bed. We still had enough time to read a Bible story, and the kids made me read two again. I love that they love Bible stories. Then I prayed for them and flew them into bed. I sat down by them briefly, then Randy took my place, and I got ready for my 8 pm class. I'd decided to stay upstairs instead of going downstairs to teach, as it had worked out yesterday. However, Tammy was crying and shouting I should go downstairs for some reason, and I was wondering whether I'd be able to concentrate. Thankfully she soon stopped, and it was all good. I taught Business English until 9 pm, then had a refugee I'm teaching German. Of all people it was with her that I had to use the company's new self-created software for my class, and it was a disaster, just like all the other tutors had said. It made our lesson extra-difficult.

I was glad when I was done just before 10 pm. It was time to work on today's pictures and then write my report. I was hoping to make it to bed earlier today. Now it's nearly 1 am, and I still have to clean up the kitchen.