Day 952. Last night I went to bed just before 1:30 am. Some time during the night we woke up and had two children in bed with us. We ended up moving them both to their own beds. At 7 am the alarm went off, and I was the only one woken up by it. I went to the kitchen, emptied the dishwasher, then started making their food. Then Tammy and Emmy walked into the room. Randy also got up and started with Sammy to change diapers. After they were all changed, we sat down at the table to eat.
They didn't really eat very much. Then we cleaned them up and dressed them, and for the first time on this 8th morning we had to get up at 7 am, we were ready early. We took our time and still left the house before 8:30. We took the subway to the end, then walked to the school. Once again it was not only cold, but really windy. We were glad to get into the building. We were early and the first ones there, except for the teacher. We sat in the exercise hall, waiting for it to start. Only one other child showed up. The teacher started with the same song she always uses, where they have to run, then bow down, stretch, turn around, clap, stomp their feet, and run again. Both Tammy and Emmy participated, and Tammy is getting quite good at it.
Next the teacher got fabric out. They each took one and were supposed to throw it up into the air and then catch it. For some reason Tammy simply would not catch it, even though the teacher tried so hard to get her to. Then she got the balls out that they love so much. They were supposed to roll them, stop them, and hit on them. Then they went to jump on them. She set up cones, and they rolled their balls agains them to make them fall.
She got the big, thick mat and the trampolin out, and I helped all three jump really high on it. Tammy made up her own exercise, lying on two cones and trying to roll over them onto the mat. All three ended up on the mat together, and it was too cute to see all three like that. What was even cuter was when Tammy and Sammy were both lying on the trampolin together and laughing and then holding hands.
The teacher got the rolling boards out again and put the box on top, and all three went inside right away. Randy ended up pushing them throughout the room and kicking the big balls with it, much to their delight. In the meantime the teacher had made a slide out of the big mat, and they went up to the top, got a ball there, slid down and put it in the box on the bottom.
Randy had put Sammy on the rolling board, and then Tammy tried to join him there. Emmy was sitting on a turned over box and drumming on it like a professional. It's too bad I turned my video on too late to record it.
The teacher had them roll under the mattress on the board, and they loved doing it. Sammy enjoyed sliding down the benches. And then it was already time for the final song with the drums. They all enjoyed hitting the drums, to the point you couldn't really hear the music to even try staying in rhythm. We said good-bye and went outside to put our shoes and coats back on. This was the 7th and last class. After Easter we'll be going to this same class with the same teacher in the afternoon. The music class we'd always go to right after already ended last week, and the new class also starts after Easter and also in the afternoon, but with a different teacher. And so we were free to go home.
We left the building and heard lots of kids laughing and shouting and could see that there was a playground behind the wall. As we had nothing else to do, we decided to go check it out, as the kids really wanted to go to the playground. There was a school class there, having fun, at first but then they left. Emmy wanted to go on the merry-go-round, even though a lot of the kids were there, and I fit him in. It was hard to turn, but one of the other kids did it. I then put even Sammy on one of the seats. Later we returned there with all three, and I sat on it with Sammy, while Randy pushed it to go round and round.
Tammy wanted to go slide. There was a net to climb up on to get inside and to the top of the slide. They're good at climbing now, but on the top we had to help them get inside. It was pretty high. The slide itself was pretty easy, and both her and Emmy went down quite often. Randy put Sammy on the slide while standing next to it.
There was also a "beehive" that you could go into, and all three did. There was a little platform inside that they went up on, and then they wanted me to lift them out of the window. I did so with all three. Then I took Sammy to the climbing wall; it will be a while before he can use it.
It was pretty cold, even with the sun out, and we decided to go home. But then we saw the ducks in the water and on shore and went over there. We approached the water and the ducks who were not running away. The kids still had some leftover bread, and they ended up feeding it to the ducks. They were having fun doing so. Then we really left to go home. We walked back to the subway and took the train home.
It was 11:15, when we walked into the apartment. They were rather tired, which wasn't noticeable at nap time later. We took their clothes off and all went downstairs. Then I took my computer and went upstairs. I turned it on, but there wasn't much time to work. Just before noon I went to the kitchen to warm up yesterday's leftovers. They came upstairs, and we sat down to eat. Everyone but Randy ate well. It was an Austrian dish that was also the first dish I cooked for Randy, which he didn't like then and still doesn't care for very much. They all had pudding, then Randy gave them popcorn he had made for himself, and they enjoyed it. We cleaned them up and dressed them and put the boys to bed. It was already 12:55. Still, they would not go to sleep, while I was so exhausted I could not keep my eyes open. At 1:10 I'd had enough and walked away. I went to bed myself. I was glad, when the boys stayed in bed and fell asleep without me there. Tammy came upstairs at 1:15 and went to bed, and even though I heard her ask for milk and did not get up to give her any, she soon fell asleep. So did I.
At 3:15 I woke up and got up. I saw that Emmy was not in his bed; he and Randy were downstairs, and Randy said they'd been there for an hour. Emmy started beating the drums on the bottom of the staircase, and right away I heard Tammy cry as the noise had woken her up, and not just her, Sammy as well. I took them both downstairs to the boys, one after another, together with snacks, then returned upstairs to finally get working.
I had worked for a while before I heard Tammy crying for me. I went downstairs and comforted her. Emmy scratches and bites and hits her quite a bit, a lot more than she does to him. Then I left again to go get my computer and bring it downstairs to work there. As soon as I got downstairs, they started asked to watch Paw Patrol or Peppa Pig. So I turned Paw Patrol on, much to their delight, and started working. Sammy was happily playing by himself after I had spent a few minutes with him. Randy left to do some stuff. After a while I turned the video off, which upset them. Tammy got over it first and asked to do some drawing, so I got the paper and crayons out. Randy returned at 5:20, and I went upstairs to make their dinner. Emmy wanted to come with me, but I said no. Soon he was happily playing again.
After half an hour I was done with their dinner and went downstairs to tidy up with them. Though they didn't want to at first, they soon joined in and helped me, and so all three got a coin for their piggy bank tonight. It was Tammy who reminded me at dinner. We all went upstairs and sat down at the table to eat. Then we put the rest of the food into bowls that we took to the bathtub. Neither one of them wanted to go potty, and so they went straight into the water. They did well eating there, and had fun, and then came out one after another. Just after 7 pm they were all in bed; Randy had just left to run to the grocery store. Tammy lay on my chest, while Emmy was holding my hand, and we talked. Then I sang over them and got Tammy to lie down. I thought they were soon gonna fall asleep, but I was wrong. They were concernced about Daddy not being home, even though they understood that he was at the grocery store buying their food. It's been quite a while since Randy has gone to the grocery store at night time. They could not sleep without him being there. Instead they were soon both sitting in my lap, one on each leg. They wanted me to call Daddy, and so I tried, over and over again. I told them how he was busy grabbing what we needed before the store was closing and therefore unable to answer the phone. They seemed to understand, but still wanted to talk to Daddy. Even Sammy chimed in every time I tried to call. To make time pass and get them sleepy, I found good night song for kids and showed them two of them, then tried to call Daddy again. Just after 8 pm he finally walked through the door. Thank God! He came over to let them know he was back, and the kids went to bed. They soon fell asleep, and I was able to go to the kitchen to make my dinner.
I went downstairs, ate, and then went to work on the pictures from today. I had a lot of them, and so it took me a very long time, meaning it's really late by now. I'm just glad Emmy or any one of them hasn't woken up even once so far.
