35 months 8 days

Day 1072. Yesterday morning we had to set an alarm, as Sammy had an early appointment with the speech therapist. The kids were all still asleep, when it went off at 7:30. This morning I had to set the alarm for even earlier, for 7:15 am. As was the case yesterday, both Tammy and Emmy were in bed with us. It was hard getting up so early.

We were having breakfast, when the doorbell rang quite a few minutes before it was 8 am. Grandma had arrived early, thanks to no traffic on the roads. None of the kids wanted to eat this morning, and so we dressed them and took them downstairs, together with Grandma. I got the piano out for Sammy, showed her a few things, and said goodbye to them. It was gonna be the very first time for Grandma to be alone with them, and I was a little concerned about how that was gonna work out, especially with Sammy.

Randy and I left the house just after 8:15 am to go to the center, where he gets all his therapies. We had a first-time appointment with the psychologist at 8:45 am. It was the first of 4 or 5 appointments, and the first and last with his parents only, without Sammy. Thank God my Mom was available to stay with the children. We got to the center a few minutes before the appointment and were let in after showing our Covid recovery paper. Then we went to a room with the psychologist who proceeded to ask us questions about Sammy for one hour. She must have felt like she knew him personally by the end of that hour. We said our goodbyes and left. A week from today she'll meet Sammy for the first time.

Just after 10 am we were back home. Sammy had asked for us a few times and got a little cranky, but didn't cry. Still, he was really happy to see us, especially Daddy. And "miraculously" not one of them had a dirty diaper. They'd had fun playing with Grandma, while we were gone. I sat down by her and got to spend a few minutes with her as well, which is way too rare anyway. In the meantime Randy got a box with play tools out, where they could hammer nails into holes, which they really enjoyed. After a few minutes I went upstairs to get to work. Another few minutes later Grandma had to leave as well. I worked a little more, then went to the kitchen to cook.

At noon we sat down to eat, then they had icecream, then we cleaned them up and dressed them. We stayed upstairs, and they were watching kids' songs for a few minutes before lying down to sleep. I figured they were pretty tired from the early morning, but it took them surprisingly long to fall asleep. As for me, I was beat and eager to lie down for a nap, which I did as soon as I was able to walk away from them.

It didn't take long for me to put everything aside and lie down to sleep. When I woke up with the kids walking into the room, it was just before 3 pm. They soon went downstairs with Randy, while I was getting ready for my 4 pm online lesson. Today they did not go outside. The outside pictures are from yesterday, when I had a 3 pm lesson, and they did go outside. After a lesson, it takes me a little time to wrap it all up, then I went on to do other work. At 6 pm I went to the kitchen to start making their dinner.

They came upstairs just after 6 pm, even though we eat dinner at 6:30. They love eating corn on the cob, and so we have it quite frequently at night. Then they went into the bathtub. While in there, I remembered that Randy was supposed to go pick up a stick and two books we were buying second-hand. And I had remembered just in time. Randy dropped everything and left right away, and so I had to handle the three whirlwinds all by myself. What a sight it would have been had you been there! They were all three wild and gave me a run for my money. By 8 pm I had them all in bed and sat down by them.

It took them a little while, and Tammy and Emmy both wanted to hold my hand. It was after 8:30 before I was able to walk away. I got myself something to eat and sat down to eat. But first I called Randy to find out, where he was. He usually does not pick up his phone, but he did today. It took him a long time to come back home. After having eaten, I went back to work. I now have 1-2 lessons I'm doing every day, and I'm enjoying it very much.