Day 2099. Yesterday I left the house with Tammy and Emmy at 10 am to take them to their piano class. Randy had already left with Sammy an hour earlier to go pick up a second-hand kid's bike. They then took it home before taking the subway to meet us at the music school after class.
The three of us rode the subway downtown and then walked to the school. Their class started at 10:30 with the greeting song, then the teacher asked about their breakfast again. Next it was time for their finger warmup. I was surprised when she then had them play "Twinkle twinkle" as I thought we were done with that but they played it. Then they did "Brother John" which they had practiced during the week. She then asked them to come to the front to play a song for everyone. Tammy went first, and I was surprised when she played the easy song "Twinkle Twinkle" when she could have played the harder song just as well. Emmy went next and played "Brother John" perfectly. Then the only other kid there played "Twinkle" as well, and not well.
It was time for a new song. And time to play chords for the very first time. We had already worked ahead at home and played it a little. There were just two chords for the left hand in the song, and she taught them the names of the two chords and had them recognize them when she played them. And then it was already story time.
When we left the building, we were surprised to see Daddy and Sammy. We walked back to the subway and took two subways, then walked to the McDonald's right opposite the swimming pool. We had a good time eating there, then went to the swimming pool, paid, and walked around the building to the wheelchair entrance. We were quite early and all enjoyed the baby pool with the warm water. Sammy and I were role-playing together again. He'd tell me where we were going and what public transportation we were taking to get there. His siblings constantly came to us, but he wanted to just play with me. We had a good time.
At 1:45 pm the swim class started. Tammy, Emmy and I left the baby pool and walked over to the big, cold pool. I had no desire to go into the cold water and stayed on the stairs, just over knee-deep in water. I did the greeting song there and then let them swim by themselves. They both had a swim noodle, and the teacher was working on getting them to do the leg movements right, and they both did much better by the end of the class. I asked the teacher whether they are going to take the swim exam "seahorse" at the end of this class, and she said that that was possible.
After the class was over, Tammy and Emmy quickly went into the warm-water pool to warm up, but only for a moment, as we didn't have time to stay. We got changed, then walked to the subway and rode the two subways home.
It was going on 3:30 pm by the time we were home. I was very tired but had to get ready for my 4 pm student - a new student. Randy took the kids downstairs, while I sat down at the computer. I taught until 5 pm. Then I rested for a few minutes before going to the kitchen to make the kids' dinner. I gave them their plates, then I had another student at 6:30 pm. Once I was done with him, we got them ready for bed, and for once we had plenty of time for stories and went pretty long. After they had gone to bed, I got myself something to eat, and then went back to work on the computer.
I always look forward to sleeping on Sunday morning, but they usually come to me a lot, constantly waking up, and they did so for a while this morning as well. Then they finally left me alone and I got to sleep until 11:30 am. I got up and got ready for us to leave the house. Just after noon we did.
We took the subway downtown, then got on a tram that we rode to the end, all the way to the other end of town. We still had a little bit of walking to do, then we reached our friends' house. The Mom is a good, long-time friend of mine, but we hadn't seen each other since September or so. Today we were invited to their house for a barbecue.
It was a warm and cloudy day, and we sat in the garden where the barbecue was going. It didn't take long before we were able to sit down and start eating. They had prepared lots of great food. Tammy and Emmy had their own little table, while their son wanted to sit with the adults. Sammy sat with Daddy. Emmy never eats much, and he was soon up again to play. He was playing soccer, of course. Tammy ate well, then got up to play. Sammy stayed at the table the longest. He was the most interested in the cat that would come by from time to time, and he got to pet her as well.
Emmy also went up the staircase with their boy, as well as Tammy, and they played a little at the little pond there. And Tammy watered the plant and played with the sand a little. She also found a few snail houses that she took home with her. Their family's boy likes digging in the ground, and Tammy and Emmy joined in for a while. After that, the boys were covered in soil; Tammy just a little. So they all had to go wash up and change their clothes. Thankfully my friend had some too-small clothes from her son that she could give them to wear home. They did some more playing, and both Tammy and Emmy did some drawing at the table. With 5 pm approaching we decided it was time to get going. And it had just started to sprinkle. We wanted to make it to the tram stop without getting too wet.
We said our good-byes after a wonderful afternoon and walked to the tram stop in the rain. It wasn't too bad, though. We had a long tram ride, then a subway ride, then walked home. It was windy and a lot cooler, and Tammy was cold. Just before 6 pm we were back home.
I went to the kitchen to make dinner for them. They all ate, then we went downstairs for piano practice. Back upstairs, we did the songs for their street concert in two weeks, then they went into the bathtub. After that they got ready for bed. Sammy wanted to call his Grandma in America, so they all got to talk to her. Then I put him to bed with a prayer, and sat down with Tammy and Emmy for story time. We had a good time, I prayed for them, and they went to bed. Then I went to the kitchen to make myself something to eat. After having eaten, I went back to work. Now it's going on 2 am, and I still have to take care of the kitchen.
