3 years 5 months 21 days

Day 1269. I did not set an alarm this morning as I knew that Emmy was gonna be up bright and early as usual, and I was right. I was really tired and stayed in bed as long as possible. Randy made oatmeal and changed their diapers and fed them. Then I got up to clean up and dress the kids. The Mobile Support lady was running late, which was a good thing, as it gave us more time to get them ready. When she ran the bell quite a lot of time after 9 am, the kids greeted her at the door, including Sammy who I had picked up. They then all went downstairs to play together, while I sat down at the computer to work.

At 10:30 she left, and at 11:15 I went to the kitchen to cook. Soon Randy and the kids came upstairs, and they started watching various videos. Just after noon we sat down to eat. It was the first time I had made mashed potatoes for them, so Emmy and Tammy were very skeptical at first and wouldn't even try then. When they finally did, they said they liked them. Sammy ate them right from the start. Only Sammy had dessert, as the other two were eager to return to their video. I was getting very tired but continued working until it was nap time at 1:15. I then asked Randy to sit in the chair by them and went to bed. However, it wasn't working, and so I took my place in the chair. Soon Tammy and Emmy were asleep, which was pretty astounding. But while it was Emmy yesterday who just wouldn't fall asleep, it was Sammy today. As tired as I was, it was extremely frustrating. I switched back and forth with Randy a few times. One time Sammy was nearly asleep but was immediately up again once I got up to leave.  I sat back down and had to comfort him, and at some point he finally did fall asleep, thank God.

I went straight to bed, and looking at the clock, I did not have that much time left to sleep. With 2:30 approaching I was also concerned that Emmy was about to wake up and end my trying to get some sleep, like it had been the case yesterday, just reverse. I finally did fall asleep - and was woken up by my timer going off. It was already 3:20, and there was not much time for us to get ready to leave at 3:30, and we didn't. We got them all ready as quickly as possible and left to walk to the subway. It was already way too late, when the subway came, and it was obvious that we were gonna be late. We rode it for a few stops and then started the long walk to the French institute. We only had one stroller with us, with Emmy walking or on the board, and Tammy walking or on my shoulders.

As expected we got there late. I went straight in with Tammy and Emmy and up the stairs and to the classroom, and Randy and Sammy joined us not long after. The teacher had already done the greeting song with the kids that were there, but more kids were still arriving with us. She then did the song for those kids. For each kid she sings the song, and it ends with asking the kid in French what their name is. Tammy didn't react, while Emmy said his name. But then he answered the next question with no, which was whether he was doing well.

Next she tried to do an action song and had everyone stand up and hold hands. It was obvious that she was coming up with the words on the fly. Tammy and Emmy were just standing there watching her and not doing any movements. Tammy kept saying that she wanted to draw. The teacher then tried to teach them the body parts, but to no avail. There were two kids, especially one, that were really misbehaving the whole time, keeping her from teaching. For once our kids were the well-behaved ones. She gave up on the body parts and got out the flashcards with objects in different colors to try to teach them the colors again. She had papers representing each color on the floor and handed flashcards to kids to put them on the right color. Of course you don't need to know the French language to do that correctly. And so Emmy put down several flashcards on the right papers.

Then she finally got out papers to hand out to each one - what Tammy had been waiting for. Instead of crayons she had stickers in different colors and asked them to put the stickers on the lines/members of the man on the paper. Tammy immediately went to work with much earnestness, and her brothers also started putting stickers on paper. It was a good exercise for Sammy to hone his fine motor skills, as it's not easy for him to pick up a little sticker. And he had a hard time getting it on paper with the right side down. As you can see on the picture, Tammy did a great job putting the stickers where they were supposed to go.

Then the teacher got a book out again and tried to read it to the kids. However, the one boy sat down right in front of the book, blocking the view for most everyone else. She asked him to move to the side, but he wouldn't do it, and his Mom didn't help. And so she finally gave up and said that time was up anyway, so no story today. She had the kids clean up and did not even do a good-bye song but said good-bye to each kid individually. Tammy and Emmy were playing with a spheric pillow at that point.

We then put their shoes and coats back on and left. We walked to the subway, rode it for one stop, then switched to the other subway that would take us home. I ended up letting them watch videos.

We got home at around 5:20 pm, which was just enough time for me to get ready for my 5:30 student. I shut the door behind me and turned my computer on, while Randy was trying to get them all to go downstairs with him. I then taught until 6:25 pm; the kids had already come back upstairs and walked into my lesson. Once I was done, all three started watching something different each, while I went to the kitchen to make their dinner. Just before 7 pm we sat down to eat, they then continued eating in the bathtub, where they were also having fun. Then we got them ready for bed. I read some Bible stories to them, prayed for them and flew them into bed. It was about 8:15 pm, maybe later. I sat down by them, but soon Randy came to take my place, while I returned to my computer to work. Somehow time goes by so fast. Now it's 1:30 am and time to clean up the kitchen and go to bed.