Day 1104. Emmy was up early as usual, but it took me until close to 8:30 before I was able to make myself crawl out of bed - with Emmy pulling on my legs to get me up. After breakfast I took them downstairs, where we read a Bible story together. Then I went upstairs. I had about half an hour until I had to teach my first lesson at 10 am. And then I had an 11 am lesson, which I try to avoid. Today I just had to warm up the soup, so it was alright. They came upstairs just as I was finishing my lesson at 11:50. At noon we sat down at the table to eat. They all ate their soup - but only after some drama because they wanted us to feed them. Usually only Tammy wants to be fed, but today Emmy wanted the same, and so I fed him, while Randy fed Tammy. I was also feeding Sammy. They all had icecream, then I cleaned them up and they stood in Emmy's bed to watch some videos. Just after1 pm I put them to bed for their nap and sat down by them. It did not take them long to fall asleep, just Tammy needed a bit longer. At 1:20 I walked away from them.
Normally I return to my computer to work and often I can get a little nap in. I was sure tired enough to need one. But today was different. One of my students has an important exam next Friday, and so I made an exception to do a 1:30 lesson with him. And so I took my computer and went downstairs with it so as not to disturb the kids. At 2:20 I was done with my lesson and returned upstairs. I've taught 11 hours in 2.5 days, which is a lot and definitely not what I usually do. I went straight to bed. I had closed my eyes for about 2 minutes, when Emmy walked into the room. I would have liked at least 10 minutes and maybe even sleep, but it was not supposed to be. Within minutes all three were up, and so we dressed them and got ready to leave, which we did at 3 pm.
We had been seeing the posters for Tram Day everywhere for weeks, and the kids had been saying that they wanted to go there. Today was the day. Had I not had the lessons, we could have gone there in the morning, but in the end it all worked out just fine. We took the subway, and then another subway, to get to the location where the blow-up castle was to jump on. We saw it right away. I had been telling the kids that there was a possibility they were still too small to go jump, as that had been the case once before, and when we got there, I saw the sign right away that the kids had to be 4 year old. They were really disappointed. As there was nothing else at that location, we took another subway for one stop to go to the other location, where most of the action was.
We had to walk a bit to get there; it was a garage for trams where they had set up a lot of stuff and activities. It was nearly 4 pm, and there were lots of people everywhere. They immediately saw the blow-up car filled with balls and wanted to go there. And so Randy stood in line for the tram simulator, while I took all three kids to the balls. It wasn't very big, and so there was a line of kids waiting to get in, as only 4 kids at the time were allowed in. Tammy got in first, but she was the fourth kid. She wasn't too happy, when her playmate Emmy was not allowed in and basically waited with playing until another kid left and he could join her. Sammy couldn't really go in anyway, and so he knelt on the side and was reaching inside to get balls and then threw them. After some time they had to get out to let other kids in. They didn't really want to leave yet.
We returned to Randy who had moved up in the line, but not really as much as I had expected. Waiting is not something the kids enjoy very much, especially Emmy. He kept saying he wanted to go inside, as he couldn't wait to be the "captain" and steer the tram. Finally it was our turn. There were two set-ups, and so I sat on one chair with Tammy and Emmy, and Randy on the other with Sammy. Emmy went first of course. The new trams are steered with a joystick, and so Emmy pushed the stick to pick up speed. Then it was Tammy's turn. However, she must have taken it too seriously, as she refused to touch the joystick, and so I did it. It was pretty cool, but also very short. We left the tram and were allowed to pull the emergency lever outside, which they enjoyed. Many times the kids have wanted to pull that lever on a tram or train.
Then it was time to go inside the building, where lots of stuff was set up. We first stopped at a table with stamps. Every stamp was another letter in sign language (hands), and the kids started stamping on their papers, including Sammy. We walked on to where they had ticket machines, and a guy helped them get tickets, telling them where to push on the screen. He also gave them a coin each to put into the machine to pay, and I lifted them up to be able to put the coins in. Then they got their tickets out and walked over to the machines to put them in. I lifted them up again, and they put it into the slot until they heard the loud click.
We walked on and came to a corner, where they had set up tram rails. People were allowed to unscrew one of the huge screws in them, and so the kids moved the lever up and down until the screw came out. Emmy picked it up and handed it back to the guy.
We continued walking and reached an information booth about the new subway line they are building. It will run without a driver, and there'll be automatic doors on the platform so that no one can fall on the rails. They had those doors set up, so you could push the button and they opened, which the kids did.
Just before leaving the building there was a food stand. We ended up buying one corn on the cob that Emmy and Sammy shared; it wasn't very good. We sat down by one of the tables outside to eat it. Tammy wanted fries, but it was already 5 pm, which was when the day ended, and so the place where the buy fries had already closed up. I told her we'd get some fries elsewhere.
Once they were done with the corn, we left to walk back to the subway. I had looked up on the map where there was a playground, and there was one right there. On the way there, there was a fountain, and the kids immediately ran to play with the water. I told them not to get wet, but Tammy ended up being soaked anyway. Thankfully it was a sunny and hot day (25 C). We got to the playground, which was for younger kids, so just perfect for them. I had Sammy who enjoyed the horse on a spring, and then the slide. I helped him up, and then he'd crawl to the slide and let himself slide down on his belly face first. There was also another slide, where we did the same. The second time he went down he lifted his head and put it back down. I don't exactly know what had happened, even though I had watched him, but he had hurt his head and was crying. It was time to go anyway, and so we walked back to the stroller and tricycle, while I was comforting him.
We got on the subway, rode the one stop back, then four stops on the other subway. We got off and went up to the street level to go to an icecream shop, one of my favorite ones I hadn't been to yet this year. But first we got some fries at McDonald's. We were eating them while walking to the icecream shop. There were lots of benches set up in front of it, where we wall sat down. Then Tammy and Emmy came with me to buy the icecream. Emmy wanted banana, and Tammy strawberry. I got them a small cup, and go bigger ones for me and Randy to share with Sammy. Then we rejoined them and sat down to eat our icecream. After they were done, Tammy and Emmy started running around, playing and having lots of fun. I had to get up and stay close to them to always keep an eye on them, as there were lots of people and lots of blind spots. They were sure having lots of fun. After we were all done eating our icecream, we loaded back up and walked back to the subway. We rode one stop to our subway, and then rode it all the way home, with them watching Sam, the firefighter.
It was 7 pm, when we got back home. I was extremely exhausted not having had a nap. We turned the water on in the bathtub and put them all in. They were having fun playing, but then were asking for bread and fruit, and so they had some more food. Then we got them ready for bed, and they were in bed as their usual time of about 7:50 pm. I sat down by them and closed my eyes and fell asleep a little, until Tammy woke me up. I fell asleep a second time, and again Tammy woke me up. Emmy was already asleep by then, and surprisingly Sammy was not. At 8:30 I could not go on and wait for her to sleep and left. Randy sat down on the chair in my place. I went straight to bed and ended up sleeping for nearly two hours. That's very unusual for me, but shows you to what degree I was exhausted and tired. After I woke up, I started working on today's pictures, did some other stuff, and somehow it took me until 2 pm to finish today's report. I've already cleaned up the kitchen, so it's high time to go to bed now. I'm glad it's Sunday tomorrow, so no teaching.
