32 months 2 days

Day 975. Last night I went to bed just before 1 am. Tammy joined us pretty early. I woke up at 3:30 and saw her sleeping next to me and took her back to her bed. Next time I woke up, she was sleeping next to me again. Emmy also came at one point, I held him a few minutes, and then he walked back to his bed. He came again in the early morning, and fell asleep next to me. It was very unusual, when I woke up at 8 am and had Tammy sleeping on my left and Emmy sleeping on my right. Emmy never sleeps this late! Sammy was the only awake and crying. It was 8:10, when I asked Randy to go get him and bring him to us. He put him on my chest - the only room left - and first Emmy, then Tammy woke up. It's a shame that it's always on the days we have something going on that they want to sleep late. The Mobile Support lady was coming at 9 am, so getting up at 8:15 was already pretty late.

I made breakfast, and we sat down to eat. They ate some oatmeal but not much else. However, Tammy and Emmy both had two squeezies each after. The lady was supposed to arrive any second, so we quickly cleaned them up and dressed them. They were all ready, but no doorbell. In fact, she came 10 minutes late today. Sammy had already been lying by the door the whole time to welcome her. When the doorbell finally rang, he was all excited, and then excited to see her. All three were at the door, when she arrived. She immediately noticed their haircut, and Emmy showed her his spiderman socks. Then we all went downstairs. Emmy and Tammy each got a drum and showed off their skill, while Sammy was playing his beloved drumset. The lady said that we had a band here. Then I went upstairs to work.

At 11:30 I went to the kitchen to cook. Just before noon they came upstairs, and we sat down to eat. After they'd had pudding - except for Emmy who would not stay at the table as I had told him to - we cleaned them up and dressed them. By 12:35 the boys were in bed, and Randy went downstairs with Tammy. I sat down by the boys who were wide awake and having fun. Sammy just loves it to get attention, that is me telling him to sleep. He just plays around even more, when I do that, which is why it works best for him, when I walk away. But Emmy won't let me walk away. Today, however, he pushed my patience to its very limits, when he would not go to sleep for a whole hour. Sammy was asleep by 1:05, which was late enough, but Emmy kept playing around and testing my limits. I was getting pretty annoyed. When Randy and Tammy came upstairs at 1:35, I'd had enough. I put Tammy to bed, tucked her in, gave her her rabbit and milk, and asked Randy to sit down with them. Emmy wanted to be rocked, and Daddy was acceptable, so that helped get him to sleep finally. I was FINALLY able to return to work, my nerves on edge.

At 2:55 Emmy walked into the room, and then I already heard Sammy. I got him out of bed and walked with them into the kitchen. It was not worth going downstairs. Instead we started dressing them, and at 3:10 Tammy woke up from the noise and came running to us. We got her ready too, even though she was very cranky, as she often is after waking up, and throwing fits, which made it very hard to dress her.

We left the house at 3:35 pm, took the subway for two stops, and then had quite a walk ahead of us to get to the school. It was raining a little bit, and not very warm. We got to the school a few minutes before the class was to start.

The other kids were already in the classroom. We took our kids' coats and shoes off and went inside. It was the same room as before Easter, but a different day and time and teacher, and I was hoping to improve on all of that. Unfortunately I was rather disappointed with the teacher and appreciated the last teacher all the more today. First she had us all introduce ourselves and our kids. Then she also did a greeting song, but without inserting the kids' names. Instead each kid had to say what they wanted everyone to do - clap, stomp, jump, etc. Sammy was with me, and I said jump for him. Then it was Tammy's turn, then Emmy's. She did the "itsy bitsy spider" in German, and actually used the spider for several things. One time we had to put the children on our lap, and so I asked whether Tammy could be on her lap, like we did in the last class, but Emmy actually ran to the teacher, then Tammy ran too, and they both ended up with her. However, she did not do a song moving her legs which was disappointing. She just moved her hands like a spider over her backs.

She also got fabric out, but didn't do much with it. She did a song, where she asked the kids what they could see in the room every time the music stopped. That was not easy for a class of 2 and 3-year-olds. She had a keyboard and a ukulele she was playing, and let them play around on the keyboard one time, which they enjoyed. I was really surprised, when she handed out papers to draw on. It was a music class and not a painting class! Tammy loves drawing and puts her all into it. Sammy tore the paper apart, and Emmy put a few lines on the paper. Then they proudly showed their papers to the teacher. She then did a good-bye song that we had never heard before, and that was the end of the class.

It was 4:50, and Sammy had to be at his therapy center just around the corner at 5 pm. We put their coats and shoes back on, and I headed out with Sammy, while Randy was supposed to go to a nearby playground with the other two. However, it was cold and not quite raining yet, but it started a little later. And then it turned out that there was no public playground, and so Randy went to the grocery store right there with them. As for Sammy and I, we got to the center just before 5 pm and were let inside into the warmer waiting area. We had only waited a minute or two, when we were led into a room. Sammy had fear on his face, not knowing what was going on, where he was, who the people were, and what was gonna happen. He had never been in that room and had never seen those ladies before. There was a table with a toy on it, and I stood him by that table so he could play with it. The ladies were really kind and came over to interact with him, just one at the time. He soon warmed up to them and lost his fear. As I was talking with the one lady and the walkers Sammy had tried out, it turned out that what she was asking Randy would be better able to answer, as he had worked with Sammy and those walkers. They said it was okay for him to come with the other two kids, and so I called him and told him to come. He arrived a few minutes later. By that time the actual orthopedic doctor had already joined us. I had to take Sammy's pants and stockings off, and he examined his legs. He was shocked at how tense they were and asked whether we had ever considered Botox to relax his muscles. I told him that Sammy always gets tense, when he's afraid or nervous, which was clearly the case, and that he was not usually this tense. But the guy was dismissive the whole time. The physiotherapist had made videos of Sammy walking with both walkers to show to him and get his opinion of what would be best for Sammy, but he didn't even want to look a them. In the end he did, but still didn't want to recommend anything. He ended up writing the prescription for a walker for Sammy. We still have an appointment with Sammy's physiotherapist to talk about options and whether that's what we really want to do. The lady today also talked about a wheelchair or kind of bike instead, but I explained to her why we didn't think that was smart and why the walker was best.

Tammy and Emmy were having fun, playing with the toys there, and being rather wild, and one of the ladies interacted with them as well, while we were busy with Sammy. Once we were done, we went into the waiting area to put their coats back on. There were birds and fish, and as they had never been there before, they were really interested in both. At 5:45 we left the center to walk back to the subway, then take it home. They wanted to eat chestnuts, and I had a pack with me, so I split it between them.

By 6:10 pm we were back home. Tammy was pretty cranky again, making it hard to take her coat and shoes off, then we took them all downstairs. I left them there and went to the kitchen to make their dinner. At 6:45 they came upstairs to eat. They ate some at the table, excited that they had found watermelon again at the grocery store today, then we took the rest of the food to the bathtub. Tammy was throwing another fit at the table. I was amazed, when Tammy and Emmy finished their food in the bathtub. It was an hour later than usual, and they hadn't eaten much in the afternoon. Sammy also nearly finished his food. They had fun in the water, then came out one after another, and we got them ready for bed. It was 8:10 pm before they were in bed, so rather late, an hour later than usual. I sat down by them but my hopes of them falling asleep fast never materialized. Tammy was on my chest for a short time, as usual, and we talked, then she went to bed, and I sang over them. It was Emmy who was giving me a really hard time. It was getting late, I was hungry, and I had work to do, and my patience was running out. Randy took my place one time but Emmy was screaming for me to come back. So I stopped making my dinner and came back, and a few minutes later he was asleep. It was 8:55 before I was able to walk away and continue making my dinner. I took it downstairs, ate, and then went back to work, and time just flies sometimes.