35 months 14 days

Day 1078. When the alarm went off at 7:30 this morning, Emmy was lying next to me. He was awake right away, and then his sister came running. We were all tired, though. Tammy and Emmy both went back to bed, while Randy was changing the others' diapers and I was making breakfast. After breakfast, we cleaned them up and dressed them, and I left the house with Sammy at 8:30 am. Tammy and Emmy both wanted to come with us, but I told them that that was not possible.

Sammy and I took the subway, then walked. It was a cloudy, dark and chilly day. I had even put a jacket on Sammy, while I didn't need one. We got to the center a few minutes early. Every few months Sammy has a few speech therapist sessions, and this was his second one in a week. After showing my Covid-recovery certificate, we were let inside, where we waited for the therapist to come get us. They have birds and fish in the waiting room, and we looked at them both. Another therapist came for another child, and Sammy got all fearful. I guess he was afraid an unknown person was gonna do something unpleasant, as it's always Mommy that takes him places like that, while Daddy takes him to physiotherapy every week. Then the therapist came, and we followed her to her room. Even though he knows her, he was still apprehensive at first. And so he sat on my leg in the beginning, while the therapist got a book out that she went through with him. Then she peut Sammy into a beanie bag, but it didn't really work that well as he did not stay upright in it. She gave Sammy a baby to feed. She showed him how she put the water into the baby bottle and then fed it and had Sammy feed it. She did a few other things, and then she did something that startled and scared him. He reached out to me, and I took him into my arms. He then stayed with me, and after he had calmed down, she did some more stuff with him sitting by me. Then the time was up. He'll next see her in October.

When we left the center, it was raining hard. Thank God that I had taken my umbrella with me - having to put it into the stroller twice, as the kids kept taking it out. I also put Sammy's jacket back on, as it was chilly. We started our long walk back to the subway through the rain. Sammy had the stroller's roof up, while I had the umbrella, and thankfully there were lots of trees above us that minimized the rain fall. We got on the subway and arrived back home at 10:20. I put the umbrella into the bathtub to dry, and that's where Emmy and Tammy later found it, got it out, and had lots of fun playing with it until I took it away from them.

I took Sammy downstairs. He was very excited to see his Daddy again. Then I went upstairs to work a little, but time was short. At 11 I started prepping for lunch. Just before noon they came upstairs, and a few minutes later we sat down to eat. They ate more or less well, had icecream, then I cleaned them up and dressed them. They stayed upstairs and watched kids' songs for a few minutes. Randy left for the grocery store, and just after 1 pm I stopped the video to put them to bed. It had been an early morning, and I had a student at 3 pm. They fell asleep rather quickly. I left them and returned to my computer to work. I was pretty tired myself and did want to close my eyes for a few minutes as well. Just after 2 pm I set a 20 minute timer, and I had actually fallen asleep, as it seemed that it went off right away. Just as it went off, Emmy was already walking into the room.  And Sammy was awake and fussing. I opened their curtains and got Sammy out. Randy was back too. I needed them to go downstairs so I could get ready for my class, but that was easier said than done. They were sleepy, wanted milk, wanted Mommy. It took a while, but they were finally downstairs. Emmy wanted to go outside, and some time later Randy did take them outside, as it was not raining, but they needed jackets.

I taught an online lesson from 3 to 4, then saw the kids briefly, as Sammy was crying, and then had a lesson from 4:30 to 5:30. Once again the same parent canceled the lesson scheduled for 8 pm, for the 100th time in two weeks. I did some more work, responded to Sammy crying again, and ended up taking him upstairs with me, while Tammy and Emmy were watching Peppa Pig. I put Sammy into Emmy's bed, where he loves standing and put some music on. I finished up on the computer and went to the kitchen to start making their dinner.

At 6:30 we sat down to eat. I had cooked some corn on the cob that they love so much. Randy always cuts the corn off the cob for those who don't want to eat it off the cob. After he was done, he left to turn the water on in the bathtub, as he always does. Once Tammy was done eating, she just got up to go into the bathtub. Suddenly I heard her scream and then cry. What had happened? Randy had been distracted, when he turned the water on and had it on the hottest setting. Tammy stepped into the bathtub and screamed in pain from the hot water. I comforted her and put some soothing oil on her feet. She recovered pretty quickly, and not long after, played happily in the bathtub with her siblings, like she always does. They ate some more food while playing, then we got them out one after another. By 7:45 they were all in bed. I sat down by them and was able to leave by 8:20 pm.

I got myself something to eat, ate, and then went back to work. Tonight it was Sammy who suddenly started crying at 11 pm. I comforted him, then put him back to bed. Some time later he started crying again. I again picked him up, and then Daddy came to hold him a bit. That's very unusual for Sammy. After Randy returned, we filled out the questionaire on Sammy for the psychologist that he's gonna see in the morning. And now it's once again 1 am.