Day 2077. After a way too short night, I was not happy this morning, when the kids wouldn't let me sleep. As most mornings, they were fighting with each other and then running to me crying and asking for help. At 9:30 am my alarm went off, and I had no choice but to get up, tired or not. I got ready to leave the house, made sure the kids were ready, and at 10 am we left. This time it was not just Tammy, Emmy and me, but Randy decided to also come with Sammy and go to the playground with him while we're in class.
And so the five of us walked to the subway and took it downtown, then we walked to the music school. It was the hottest day of the year yet, and so we were all dressed accordingly. Their class started at 10:30 am with the greeting song. The teacher then asked the kids what they were going to do the rest of the day, but Tammy answered with "story time" which is at the end of their class, and that was the end of that.
They did the finger warmups, then she had them get ready for "Brother John" which was a new song for everyone except our kids as they can already play it. Then they played "Twinkle Twinkle", slowly, step by step. She then asked who could play the song, and our kids raised their hands. She had Tammy and Emmy play it together. Tammy played it perfectly, while Emmy made a lot of mistakes. Why, I don't know, as he can play it perfectly at home. They then got a stamp on their hands for having played it. Two of the other three kids tried it but didn't get a stamp. The third kid was there for the first time and way behind the others.
They then went to the board, where each kid got to draw something from the song she was teaching them. Then she had them get up and sang the song, showing them the actions and asking them to sing along. It's a song that's a little harder and will be what we'll have to work on this week. And then it was already story time. After the story, the class was over and they got their stickers for the sticker books and stamps for every time they had practiced during the week.
We left the building and found Randy and Sammy right outside waiting for us. We walked to the tram and rode it for two stops, then we got on the subway. After getting off the subway, we walked to the McDonald's by the swimming pool. We had a good time eating there, then we left to cross the square and go to the swimming pool.
As we were crossing the square, the kids saw the water feature there that had water come out of some concrete, and it moved up and down that bench. They ran there and started playing hard with the water, chasing it and getting wet through and through. Sammy wanted to be a part as well and Randy moved him closer - until he got wet. Thankfully Sammy wasn't completely soaked like his siblings. And it was okay as it was such a hot day - more like a July day than May day.
We went to the pool, paid and walked around the building to the wheelchair entrance. We got changed, then went inside and to the hot water baby pool. We still had half an hour until their class was to start. Sammy was so very excited to be swimming again. We all had lots of fun, and I was spending most of my time with Sammy who was laughing a lot. When we saw that the teacher was done with her class, we got out of the water and walked over as it was time for their class to start.
The water was very cold, as usual, but you do get used to it after a while. We did the greeting song, then she handed out swim noodles to the kids or put swim rings inside their swimsuits if they could already swim well. Tammy was the only one with nothing as she already swims well. They then had to swim up and down, getting balls or bringing back stuff to make it more interesting. Emmy wasn't happy he had to use the noodle but his leg movements are not good enough yet. Before the class was over, she pulled the kids through the water with a rope which was really fun for them. Then she did the goodbye song. As we were getting out of the water, she told me how impressed she was with how well Tammy can swim.
We went back into the baby pool whose water seemed really hot after the cold pool. We spent some more time having fun in there, then got out and walked to the changing room. Once the kids were dressed, they went to the hairdryer, and before I knew it, Emmy was hanging off like a bat. Of course Tammy then also had to climb up. Their clothes were still very wet, but soon dried for the most part once we were out in the sun again.
After we were all done, we walked to the playground right there, and the kids started playing. Tammy and Emmy went straight for the spinning wheel and talked to the boys there. After a while, Tammy left to climb, then she went on the see-saw where I helped her to go up and down as she didn't have a second person. Sammy was in the swing. When I looked over to where Emmy had been, he was gone. Randy then went to look for him, and we made it very clear to him that he had to tell us when he was going to another part of the playground. We then soon left to go home.
We were walking to the subway and decided to stop at the best icecream shop in town on the way home. However, Sammy was tired and wanted to go straight home. He started crying and wouldn't stop, making everyone's heads turn in the subway. I told him he could go home with Daddy, and we'd come after having eaten our icecream, but he didn't want that either. He wanted us to stay together. And so we all got off at the icecream shop, with Sammy crying. He was still crying while we were in line there to buy our icecream.
We got our icecream cups and walked over to the benches where we found some room to sit. Sammy had finally stopped crying and was actually enjoying his icecream, as were his siblings. Unfortunately Emmy dropped his cup and lost half of his icecream. Once were all done eating, we got on the tram right there that took us to the subway that we rode home.
By 4:30 pm we were back home, and I went straight to bed, while the kids got on their tablets. Unfortunately it was not quiet all the time, so I got woken up quite often, as they never went downstairs. By 6 pm I was up for good but rested in bed a little longer before going to the kitchen to make their dinner.
As we'd had enough water today, we decided not to do the bathtub tonight. They put their pj's on, and I read them a few stories and prayed for them all. It was about 8:30 pm before they made it to bed.
I was still very tired and stayed in bed for a while, on my computer, until I got too hungry and went to the kitchen to get something to eat. I was hurting all over, probably because of our tennis session yesterday, plus all we'd done today. After having eaten, I started working on the pictures. Now it's going on 1:30, and I have yet to take care of the kitchen.
