Day 1070. Once again I had to check my phone to see what the best way to get to church was as our S-train is not running until September. There was a regular train just before 4 pm, which meant leaving 75 minutes before church started. In any case, for the first time in a long time Emmy had slept together with me in our bed, and it was after 3 pm before I got up. There simply was not enough time or me to get their food ready as well as everyhing else.
We left the house a few minutes after 4 pm. As we've been doing recently, Sammy was in the stroller, Emmy on the tricycle and Tammy walking. The subway came right away, which was great. We got off the first one and got on another one. Sammy wanted to come out of the stroller as well and join us on the seats. And he wanted to sit by himself, so I put him in the chair. However, he cannot sit by himself like that for long as he falls over, so I was vigilant to make sure I'd catch him. He was also sliding off.
After we got off the subway we still had a tram to take that arrived right away as well. It was only two stops on there, then we walked up the hill to church. Emmy was actually pedaling on the tricycle and moving it all by himself which made him proud.
A few minutes before the service started we arrived at church and walked to our usual spot in the front. Sammy was rather cranky, so he kept me pretty busy making him happy. Emmy likes the streamers a lot and showed me what he could do with them. Tammy was running around, and together they walked up the staircase that was there. Sammy then wanted to go up there as well. I held his arms, while he moved his legs, and he was able to lift his legs high enough to get to the next step. After a few steps I took him back downstairs, as it was really hard on my back to do that with him. Of course he was upset as he wanted to go up the stairs.
Tammy and Emmy already asked to go upstairs after 15 minutes and were not happy, when I said soon. In the end we left just before it was 5:30 and were the first ones in the toddler room. The kids immediately started playing. I put Sammy by the cars, as I did not want to hold him up the whole time while he was playing in the kitchen, but he was not happy. It took me a while to get him to get over it. Eventually he crawled over to the kitchen anyway, and I sat down on a stool next to him, so I could hold him up. Emmy was having fun playing with a Dad, Tammy was playing with the toy strollers and dolls, and then also came to the kitchen. Then it was time for the program.
I sat on the floor and had Sammy on his feet, which allowed him to participate in the greeting song, and he did. Then came the individual greeting song, then the Bible song, holding their Bibles up. Then a Mom did the teaching, teaching Psalm 23. She had a big stick, a shepherd's rod, and Sammy enjoyed exploring it, while it was on the floor. She put a blanket over the kids so they'd be in the dark, where God also is. In the end she handed out papers to color. All the kids ran to the table to start coloring, and I was surprised that it was Emmy who stayed longer than his sister today and put a lot of effort into the coloring, which is not typical for him. In the meantime I was feeding Sammy, who then wanted to explore the contents of the box in the shelf, so he knelt by it and was pretty stable.
Randy then returned and took over watching and feeding Sammy, while I ran to the bathroom. Then we tidied up and put their shoes on and returned to the sanctuary. Before we even left Sammy kept already saying Anna's name over and over. And I'm sure his was the first voice she heard, when we came down the stairs. Sammy was shouting her name, and so were the others. Sammy reached her first, and Anna picked him up. He was so happy to see her, even though they haven't even spent that much time together. The other two also ended up playing with her, crawling through her legs. But most of all they were interested in the mobile scaffolding sitting in the corner and started climbing up on it. We had to keep bringing them back down. We slowly made our way to the exit and left at 7:20 pm.
We had to walk back down the hill to the tram stop. Tammy wanted to push Sammy's stroller, and I let her. The tram came right away, we got on, and I let them watch Peppa Pig. After we got off, we took the elevator to the train platform, where we still had a good 20 minutes to wait for the train. The kids continued watching while eating. Once the train came, we stopped and got them and everything on the train, over the steps. We've all gotten pretty good at it by now. The kids continued watching on the train, while Sammy started crying hard. Finally Randy remembered that he had a pacifier in the pocket and that stopped him from crying. We got off, and I put Tammy on my shoulders. She's become pretty heavy though, with her nearly 14 kilos, and eventually I had to get her back down. She was excited to be pushing Sammy's stroller again.
We got home at about 8:10 pm. They were tired, but still had cake. We got them ready for bed, and by about 8:50 they were all in bed. As always Tammy was the last one to fall asleep, but I was able to walk away at around 9:15. I got myself something to eat and then went to work. Now it's after midnight, and I need to go to bed. Tomorrow another busy work week starts.
