5 years 9 months 5 days

Day 2104. Randy left with the kids to take them to kindergarten, while I stayed in bed and got some more sleep. At 10:30 am my alarm woke me up, and I got up to get ready for my 11:15 am student. Randy was just getting home from picking up a special therapy bike for Sammy. He had really been looking forward to it, and I was looking forward to when he'd see it for the first time. 

I taught until 12:30 pm, and Randy left just before I was done teaching. He took two buses to get to their kindergarten by 1 pm, then took Emmy and Tammy to their tennis class, once again taking two buses. As they were a little early, they got to play at the playground there for a few minutes. Today, Tammy was wearing a tiara all day long.

I had just finished teaching, when our doorbell rang. I answered it and found a distressed neighbor who had locked herself out of her apartment. I looked up a service online and called them to come and open the door for her. They said they'd be there in 20 minutes. She thanked me, and I quickly got ready to go and get Sammy. Because of the delay, I got there at 1 pm, later than usual, but he was not the last kid in the classroom. We said our good-byes and walked to the subway to go home.

Back home, Sammy sat down to watch Peppa with the projector, while I needed to eat. After I had eaten, I asked him whether he wanted to go see his bike, and it was a resounding yes. And so we went downstairs, where he was in awe of his bike. I then put him on top, and he was very happy. It still has to be cleaned and the seat lowered.

We went back upstairs, where Sammy played with the door and also had his headset, and then watched Peppa and a Christian song he likes in a concert setting - over and over again. I never rested but got everything ready for us to leave the house. Time went by so very fast. Before I knew it it was after 3:10 pm and time to get going.

Sammy and I walked to the subway, rode it to the train station and then got on another subway. After we got off, we still had quite a walk to get to the dance school. We arrived there at 3:50 pm. I called Randy and found out they were already there. Their tennis class had finished at 3 pm, and they had taken the train and then the bus to the dance school where Tammy's ballet class was starting at 4 pm. We went inside the dance school, and then Randy, Tammy and Emmy came downstairs to meet up with us. Sammy stayed with Daddy and sister, while Emmy left with me.

Emmy and I walked to the bus stop, which was a little bit of a walk. We then took the bus to the tram stop, where we had to wait a bit for our tram. We then got on and rode it for a while. The tiredness had finally caught up with me, and so I kept my eyes closed. After we got off, we still had a long walk to get to the tennis center - the place Emmy had left less than two hours earlier. He needed the bathroom urgently, and once inside it, he didn't quite make it and got his pants wet. He was crying hard, thinking he couldn't play tennis with me any more. He had been so much looking forward to playing with me - for the second time - as he enjoys it just as much as I do. He had been talking about this day a lot, looking forward to it, as there was no soccer class today, which made it possible for us to participate in the parent-child tennis sessions. I comforted him, and as he had taken his long pants off at the tram stop, he put those after taking the wet pants off. It was all good.

We still had a few minutes, and again I closed my eyes sitting on the couch and waiting for 5 pm. Then we walked on the court. There was one other parent-child team, a father-daughter team. The tennis trainer spent half the time with us and the other half with them. 

Emmy and I were playing balls back and forth. When the teacher was with us, she'd be the one to throw the ball to either Emmy or me and shout out some advice. We had a good time playing, and I noticed that he had improved in the past few weeks. A few times we were able to get the ball going back and forth a few times, but Emmy often gets the ball flying too high. After 40 minutes we were both tired. I couldn't really run any more and had a harder and harder time picking up balls. After an hour the class was over. We paid and said our good-byes.

It was 6 pm and time to go home. We had a long walk to get back to the tram stop, and my feet were hurting. I was very much looking forward to sitting on the tram, which we both did. After we got off the tram, we had another tram to take, and it came soon enough. While we were riding it, I noticed that the final stop on the sign was wrong and was wondering about it. It was about the half-way point to getting home, but still a long way from home. When we reached that stop, the driver in fact told everyone to get off. What were we going to do? How were we going to get home?

I had made sandwiches for the cuts and had cut apples for them. By that point Emmy had eaten his two small sandwiches and most of his apples. But I hadn't eaten since lunch and was very hungry. I needed something bad and bought a hotdog at a little kiosk there - something I hadn't done in many years. But it fulfilled its purpose.

I looked up on my phone how to get home and found out that there was a bus leaving from there that was going to the train station by our house. It soon came, we got on, and we rode it all the way home. After getting off, we still had to walk to our house - another relatively long walk when you're hurting.

It was 7:15 pm by the time we were back home, so pretty late. Randy and the other kids had been home for over an hour. I went downstairs with Tammy and Emmy right away for their final piano practice before their class tomorrow morning. Back upstairs, it was bathtub time. I quickly cut up some fruit for them to eat in the water. Back out, I put Sammy to bed with a prayer, then I prayed for the other two. I closed my doors and sat down by my computer to teach from  8:10 to 9 pm.

After I was done, I took a break, watching a show, then I continued working. At 11 pm I ate some soup. Randy had been sleeping in the chair by the kids' beds all night, so I got his pictures late and got my pictures done late. He went to bed at 12:30 am, while I was still working. Now it's just after 2 am and time for me to go to bed as well.