Day 1272. This morning Emmy was up extra early. When I looked at the time at 7 am, he had already been up for a while. They kept coming to me for different things, so that I was only able to fall back into restful sleep until they had sat down at the table for breakfast. Once they were done, they came to me again, Tammy to let me know she had eaten everything. When I saw that it was 9:30, I forced myself to get up, as we needed to leave at 10 am. I cleaned up and dressed the kids, and we were able to leave on time.
We walked to the subway. It was the warmest day yet, but it was extremely windy. We took the subway to downtown, then had to walk a little to get to the kids' music school. They started going there in November, I believe, and they used to go on Tuesday afternoon. Today it was the start of the spring semester, and now they go to the 10:30 class on Saturday. That's a better fit, as they're not as tired as at 5 pm. And I really liked the teacher today.
We got there just before 10:30, so a little late. There were a lot of people there, a lot more than on Tuesday afternoon. We took their coats and shoes off and went to the classroom. The teacher had already started the class. The kids stayed back at first, looking at all the people sitting on the floor that they didn't know. I sat down in the back, and the teacher encouraged the kids to come join her in the front, which they did. Randy sat down with them, while I stayed in the back with Sammy. She did the greeting song, but Tammy got left out, so she was a bit disappointed. Then the teacher did an action song, and the kids did really well, making the movements, and Tammy even knew some of the words and sang along. Then the teacher got two hand puppets out and told a story, followed by a song. The lion is actually what they call the left hand, and the mouse is the right hand. After the song, she stamped their hands with those.
Then they were supposed to sit down by the pianos. She then had them play low tones for the lion (left hand), and high tones for the mouse (right hand). I sat between them and helped them a little. They were doing really well. They also had to play middle tones. Then she gave them little finger puppets, one each, that they had to put on specific fingers, following along her song, going from finger 1 to finger 5. I had to help them with that quite a bit, especially Emmy.
Then she called them back to the floor, drew a half-note on the board and had every kid draw one as well. Tammy already holds pens the correct way, while Emmy doesn't yet, but they both did well. She also clapped the note. Then she had the kids wipe the board. Next she gave them percussion instruments. Emmy had the drum at first, but after some time a parent switched it with her son's tambourine, as Emmy played too loud. Tammy had rattles. The teacher did a song with all the kids playing the instruments they had in hand.
And suddenly the class was already over. All the kids got stickers for their sticker books, then we left to put their coats and shoes back on. I was really happy with the way the class had gone. The kids had been more attentive, had participated more, and it had not been as demanding as with the other teacher.
We left the school to walk back to the subway and go back home, where we arrived at noon. The kids were watching videos, while I made lunch. Just before 12:30 we sat down to eat. They all ate well, then they had dessert. Originally we were gonna leave at 1:30 pm, but when I looked at the program again, I decided it was more important for them to get a nap than to be there at 2 pm. And it was a very good decision. It was 1 pm, when we put them to bed, and Randy sat down by them. I was really surprised how fast Tammy and Sammy fell asleep, and surprised that Emmy didn't. He had a dirty diaper at 1:30, and I invited him to lie down with me. I was even more surprised, when he got up after 2 minutes, saying he was going to sleep in his own bed. And again I was surprised, when I didn't hear him after that because he actually fell asleep.
It was 2:50, when I woke up because of the kids all having woken up. I had wanted to take the 2:50 train, so now the goal was to make the 3:20 train. We put their costumes on and left at 3:10 and made the train. After we got off, we took the subway for one stop to where the carnival parade had ended around 3 pm. At least the schedule said that the parade was going on from 2 to 3 pm and ending there. When we reached the street level, there were lots of people everywhere and we could still see the parade going on with loud music playing. We started walking in that direction and looking at the floats going by. Then we started moving towards the square, where the parade was gonna end. A boy in a duck costume was handing out candy to children, and Randy walked up to thim with the kids so they'd get some. The parade was about to end.
We crossed the street to walk to the caroussel that they had set up for the even. There were so many people everywhere that it was hard to get through, especially with the stroller. And Emmy does not like it when there are that many people. We reached the caroussel, I paid for the kids, and all three got on. Randy put Sammy into a car and stayed with him, while Tammy and Emmy always want the rotating tea cup. There were a lot of children getting on, and a girl got into the cup before them, but they simply joined her. Then they started going round and round and having lots of fun.
After it ended, we continued walking. One of the bands from a float was packing up there and one lady musician was letting kids play her huge drum. Emmy was very excited about the opportunity. Then Tammy also got her turn, followed by Sammy. Then we walked on a little, but there was nothing else in that direction. In fact, everything else there was food and drink. That was a little disappointing. I was wondering what we should do; it was still early and we hadn't done much. So I decided we'd go to the amusement park so they could do a few more rides. I looked up how to get there, and we started walking to get to another train station. Our wait time wasn't too bad; Tammy and Emmy started climbing up a pipe and walking along it to the other end. Then we got on the train. It was a level train, but there was a big gap between the train and the platform. When we got off by the amusement park, Randy was first with the stroller with Sammy in it, while I was behind him holding Emmy's and Tammy's hands. Suddenly the back wheels of the stroller went into the gap and Sammy fell forward onto the pavement. I actually screamed, as it looked like Sammy was falling onto the rails. Randy had fallen as well in the process. The kids next to me also panicked and started crying, and so was Sammy on the pavement. There were lots of people around who helped Randy up and to get the stroller out of the gap. I picked up Sammy who was mainly startled to comfort him and carried him for some time, until he had calmed down and could be put back into the stroller.
We walked out of the train station and walked into the amusement park. We kept walking straight until we got to the little train that was our goal. Unfortunately Sammy could not ride it by himself, even though I think he'd be fine sitting inside a vehicle. Tammy and Emmy both got on the firetruck and then enjoyed the train going up and down in circles.
After they were done, we continued walking straight, our goal being to cross the park and get on the subway on the other end, which we did. And I was surprised at how many rides for little kids there were in between. Next the kids saw another ride on tracks, but with individual cars. Again they got into a car together, and the car went round and round, including through a short tunnel. They were having lots of fun, especially with the horn that Tammy was pushing the whole time.
We continued walking until they saw another ride they wanted to do. Again, it was vehicles on tracks. This time they got into different ones. Emmy was in the very first one, a locomotive, while Tammy got into a car further in the back. And again they went in circles and up and down. They greatly enjoyed it. While I was helping then in and taking pictures, Randy put Sammy into a race car that moves right there, and he also enjoyed it.
Sammy had not done a lot of rides, so I wanted to give him another caroussel ride, but it never came to that. It was enough, and we left the park to walk to the subway. There's a playground just before, and the kids wanted to go slide. They also said they were hungry, as it was already going on 5:30 and they had not really had any food in the afternoon. And so Randy took them to the playground, while I made a quick run to McDonald's to get a Happy Meal for them, then I joined them at the playground. It was already dark, and there was no light there. They started eating fries, and we soon left to walk to the subway and go home.
We got home just after 6 pm. The kids were watching videos, while I was making their dinner. At 6:30 we sat down to eat, and then they continued eating in the bathtub. Then we got them ready for bed, and I read some Bible stories to them before praying for them and putting them to bed. It wasn't even quite 8 pm yet. I didn't sit there long. Randy sat down by them, while I went to the kitchen to start cutting up vegetables for my salad. I was really surprised by how quickly they fell asleep tonight. Randy returned to the kitchen before I was done making my salad.
Then I sat down to eat, followed by working on today's pictures. Even though we have to leave the house an hour earlier than today tomorrow, it is going on 2 am now. I'm not sure how I'm gonna make it through the long day tomorrow.
