Day 931. Last night I went to bed at 1 am. This morning I found Tammy in bed with us, and then Emmy came as well, but they were both up at 6 am, which was just way too early. They would come and go and be active. Sammy had cried earlier and after some milk he was quiet again. We got up at 7 am, and he was not crying at that time.
I made breakfast, and we sat down to eat. As always, Tammy and Emmy didn't really want to eat; Sammy ate the most. Then we cleaned them up and dressed them. It was exercise and music class day, and we needed to leave the house at 8:30 am. They were all in their strollers, ready to go, we were just waiting for Randy, and so I glanced at my phone. I found a message from the school, saying that the exercise class teacher was sick and the class therefore canceled. Good thing I had looked at my phone! I got the kids back out of the stroller, which made them start crying as they wanted to go to their class. I told them that their teacher was sick, and that they'd get to play until we'd leave for the second class. They were still crying and did not want to go downstairs. I just grabbed one kid to carry it downstairs and then came back for the other. I got their big Bible out, and we read two Bible stories together at their insistence. They were both listenting intently. Then I left them with Randy and went upstairs. Instead of turning the computer on I started doing housework and getting some stuff for our trip tomorrow ready. At 9:30 they came upstairs, we put their coats and shoes on, and at 9:45 we left the house to go to their music class.
We rode the subway for two stops and then had quite a walk ahead of us. Still, it was only just after 10 am as we were approaching the school building. I remembered the grocery store right there and suggested we'd use the time to buy some much-needed groceries. Randy and Sammy stayed outside, while I took the stroller with Tammy and Emmy inside with me. I handed to them what I picked up, we paid and left to go to their music class around the corner.
We were still earlier, but it was fine. We took their coats and shoes off and by that time the previous class was ending, and so we could go inside. It gave us a few minutes to do small talk with the teacher before the class started.
We did the two greeting songs, then the songs where they sit on our moving legs. Tammy once again went to do it with the teacher. I had Emmy who was giggling every time he fell to the floor at the end of the song. He was wearing his new Paw Patrol cap in class today, at least part of the time.
Next she got out the sticks with bells on the end and did a few songs with them. I had Sammy for part of the time, and Tammy and Emmy were running around quite a bit today, but still participated most of the time. The teacher then got a drum out that she did a song with doing different movements on it with her hands. The drum then went around to each kid to do the song. I had Sammy who wanted to have the drum really bad. He was very unhappy, when Tammy and Emmy had it and after he had done the song, when it was passed on to the next kid. He threw a fit!
We did some songs walking around the room, and there was a time for "free dancing". Tammy and Emmy ended up dancing with each other, while I had Sammy. I was filming them and therefore asked Randy to take Sammy, but he was very unhappy about that. I took him back as soon as I had stopped filming, and he was happy to dance with Mommy again.
The teacher got the fabric out again today and did some songs with them moving it around. With one song they put it over their head as if we couldn't see them that way and then take it off. All the kids love it.
It wasn't long until we sang the goodbye songs again, and then they got their fifth stamp into their card. Emmy has really been practicing the colors, saying them all the time, and blue is his favorite color and the one he knows best. He always points out blue things, including the blue stamp in his card.
We put their coats and shoes back on and started the long walk back to the subway. At 11:50 we were back home. I immediately warmed up the food, and we took their clothes off and sat down to eat. Once again they ate little, but Emmy more than Tammy, and Sammy the most. Emmy and Sammy also had some pudding. Then I cleaned them up and dressed them, and the boys went to bed, while Tammy went downstairs with Randy. It was 12:45. By 1:05 Emmy was asleep, but Sammy was still awake. I walked away; usually Sammy falls asleep as soon as I'm gone, but not today. Tammy came upstairs at 1:10, and Sammy was still wide awake. I sat down by them, and by 1:20 Tammy was asleep. Sammy was still wide awake. I walked away and lay down in bed. I was already falling asleep in the chair and was quickly asleep in bed. For once I didn't care that I had to work, I just needed to sleep. Sammy was still awake and cranky until I dozed off. I figured Randy got him out of bed at some point and went downstairs with him, as I heard crying from downstairs at some point while sleeping.
At 3:50 Randy and Emmy came upstairs. Emmy had slept less than an hour, already getting up before 2 pm. He had already spent nearly two hours alone with Daddy downstairs. As soon as they came up, making noise, Tammy was up, and then Sammy woke up as well. Both of them were still sleeping!!! Randy had never picked Sammy up, so he eventually fell asleep and had slept that long. For Tammy it was even 2.5 hours! And so she was cranky, as she usually is after her nap.
Our biggest task of the afternoon was to go pick up the rental car for our trip. Sonja was supposed to come this afternoon, so Randy and I could go get it. However, she had just spent the weekend with a friend who tested positive, and now she was waiting for her test results while starting to feel sick. She was not able to come. How in the world were we gonna go get the car?!? Randy suggested he'd put the 3 car seats on the double stroller, and we'd put the 3 kids all in the single stroller. In fact Emmy was supposed to stand on the board in the back, with Tammy and Sammy sitting inside, but instead Emmy either walked or sat on the stroller handle. We had to leave the house at 4:30, so time was short to get everything ready. The kids kept talking about getting the car and started crying, when I said we needed to take the train to get to the car.
But we were ready on time, walked to the subway and then on to the platform the train was leaving from. They all seemed pretty content in their spots. We got on the train, and Tammy and Emmy came out of the stroller to stand/sit on a seat and look out the window. We got off at the main train station and walked to the rental car agency. We were doing all the paperwork, while the Tammy and Sammy were in the stroller and Emmy out. They kept saying "let's get to the car", and I kept saying that we were about to. We finally got our keys and took the elevator to the garage to go find our car. Randy then started to put the car seats in, while the kids sat inside. And then Tammy started her long crying episode. I don't really know what was wrong with her. Suddenly she wanted to get rid of the car and take the subway or the train. She cried and cried and cried, throwing a fit. Emmy enjoyed sitting in the car, and so did Sammy. They all had their hands on the wheel at some point. Tammy was in her car seat in the back, once Randy had put it in. Sammy was gonna go in the front, but for that Randy had to turn off the passenger seat airbag. And to do that he had to get the car key flipped out, and he simply could not figure out how to. He finally left to go back to the office to ask them, which didn't make Tammy's fit any better. He was gone a long time, only to come back without answers, as the office had already been closed. And so he insisted Sammy was sitting in the back, in the middle seat, which meant I had to sit in the front. All this just took forever. In total we spent a whole hour at the train station before leaving there. And Tammy pretty much cried the whole time. It was a little stressful. I just wanted to get home. We FINALLY pulled out of the garage and were on our way.
And now it was Sammy who was crying instead of Tammy. He wasn't sitting in his seat properly and sliding, which I didn't like as much. I finally found his pacifier and that calmed him down. Now that I had internet again, the kids were able to watch Peppa Pig on my phone that I was holding up; I'd had no reception in the garage, unfortunately. But Sammy didn't care about Peppa Pig. I was glad, when we parked the car at 6:20 pm. At least traffic had not been bad. There was no proper parking spot, but I just wanted to get out and get the kids into the apartment. And so Randy let us out, and I walked into the building and to our apartment with them, while Randy left to find a proper parking spot.
We had missed an Amazon delivery, mostly our monthly standing order of squeezies and bars. Our neighbors were so kind to take them for us, and so we rang their bell to get them. Suddenly the kids were all excited and laughing again, when they saw the packages. They wanted to open them immediately, and so I cut them open for them to empty them out. In the meantime I started making their dinner. By the time Randy returned, the floor was already covered in squeezies. They had opened every single box and gotten every single one of them out! What a mess! Randy took their clothes off, and then we sat down to eat. They didn't want to at first, as they wanted to put the squeezies on the shelf. They ate a little but not much, then left the table to go into the bathtub. They did quite a bit of eating there, though Tammy not so much, while having fun. Then we got them out one after another and got them ready for bed. By 7:45 they were all in bed. Tammy still wanted to lie on my chest. Emmy was pretty tired and fell asleep first. Tammy was next, and Sammy needed the longest to fall asleep. It was 8:05 when I walked away. Instead of eating I really wanted to get some much-needed work done that I had not been able to do today with all the craziness going on. And so it was 9:30 before I headed to the kitchen to grab a bite. After having eaten, I went back to work to get things ready for our departure tomorrow.
