6 years 4 months 26 days

Day 2339. Yesterday Sammy stayed home after his fall and hospital visit Sunday night. Randy left at 7 am to take the other two kids to their school, then returned and spent the morning with Sammy. As for me, I got up at 10:15 to get ready for my 10:45 student, then I taught until noon. Thankfully we still had leftovers to eat. At 1 pm Randy left to go pick up Tammy and Emmy and returned at 2:30 pm, which is when I started teaching my next student. Emmy still opened the door to show me that his second tooth in the front on top had finally come out.

I finished at 3:20 pm, then made their sandwiches and got ready to leave the house with the kids at 3:50 pm. Tammy, Emmy and I took two subways doing reading practice, then walked to the premises of their computer club. It was extremely cold. I dropped them off and walked to the McDonald's at the nearby train station. Unfortunately the room with the door was occupied by a group that had reserved it for themselves but I found another table in a corner that worked well. I got my computer and equipment out and started teaching at 4:45. At 5:35 pm I was done, packed up and walked back to the computer club. Ten minutes before the end I went into the classroom to find out what they had done. They had built an electric circuit again, this time it was a light sensor with a lamp that turned on when it got dark in the room. Pretty cool. They took it apart again to put the pieces into the box, then we left to go home.

The icy wind froze our fingers and faces. We were glad when we reached the subway, together with their friend and her Mom. We rode the subway for two stops, then it was time for us to get off to take another subway home where we arrived around 6:30 pm. I went straight to the kitchen to cut up their fruit and gave it to them to eat, then sat down at the computer to prepare for my 8 pm student. Sammy is not allowed to come in touch with water for a week (at least his wound) so he's not going into the bathtub. I went downstairs with Tammy and Emmy for piano practice, then they went into the bathtub. Back out, Emmy still had some schoolwork to finish that he hadn't finished in school. I prayed for the kids and sat down to teach, while they were getting ready to go to bed.

Sammy was doing so well yesterday that we decided to let him go back to school today, and he was very excited about it. When my third alarm went off at 8 am, I got up to get him dressed and put into the wheelchair with his coat on so that Randy could leave with him immediately to take him to school. On some days I'm too tired to get up, then Randy dresses him and then takes him to school. Today he could take him right away which was needed as Randy had to make his eye doctor appointment at 9:20 am on the other side of town. As for me, I went back to bed and got up at 10:30 am to teach, as my first student had canceled. I taught from 11 to 12, then went to the kitchen to cook. I was surprised that Randy was still not back but then he soon arrived. He said that this eye doctor had said that he does NOT have cataracts but macular degeneration. He had said that Randy was fit to drive and gave him a paper to go to the university hospital to be looked at. It's strange to me that one eye doctor says one thing and another one something different.

We ate, then it was me who left first at 1 pm. Today I was the one to pick up Tammy and Emmy, while Randy picked up Sammy at 1:30 pm. Because the bus doesn't run very often, I arrive at their school 15 minutes too early. Today I went inside through the kindergarten door and waited there. It was way too cold outside. At 1:50 I was back at their door as this is when they're supposed to come out. Unfortunately it took another 3 minutes before Emmy was the first one to come out. I had told them we had to be fast today to make it to Emmy's soccer class on time. Emmy had not liked his soccer class this semester very much, and so we wanted to try out another class somewhere else which is why I was the one picking them up. It took another minute or two before Tammy finally came out as well. We quickly walked to the bus stop, rode the bus for a few stops and then got on the subway to go downtown. Tammy was having a really bad day again (just like yesterday), being really mean and ugly and not listening to anything I was saying. After we got off the subway, we went up to the street level and were right at the bus stop. Not every bus goes all the way to the end, and the bus we got on did not. I thought we could just wait for the next bus after getting off, but the bus stop was actually somewhere else. That was annoying. We then decided to walk the two bus stops instead of going to the other bus stop.

It was not easy in the extreme cold and with the icy wind. After a few minutes I could barely feel my fingers any more. I had my phone in my hand, following the directions to the school where Emmy's class was to take place. I was glad when we finally reached it.

We went inside and down the stairs to where the locker room and the gym was. Kids were getting changed, and the trainer was right there. He guessed right away that it was Emmy who had arrived as he had been informed about him coming for the first time. At the school where Emmy had had his class this semester, parents were not allowed to stay inside but had to wait in the cold. I was thankful that we could stay inside in this school and go upstairs to watch Emmy play. Unfortunately there were no stairs so Tammy and I sat down on the floor to watch. Tammy still had her reading practice to do but she refused to do it today. And she continued being really mean. I tried to take some pictures of Emmy, and she did everything possible to keep me from doing so and simply would not stop. I'd really had enough.

I could tell that Emmy was having fun in this group, and that's what he told me after. He liked the trainers and the other kids. At the other school some kids had been mean to him. When his class ended, we went back to the locker room. Emmy was getting changed and was one of the last ones to leave there.

We went back into the cold winter air and walked a bit to the next subway stop and the stadium. That's where Randy and Sammy met us. I was glad that Randy was now taking Tammy to get on the bus there that would take them straight to her dance school for her ballroom dancing class at 4:30 and then ballet class at 5:30 pm. I took Emmy and Sammy, and together we went into the mall to go to the big grocery store there. We needed some fruit, and Emmy wanted some candy he picked out. I paid, then we walked back to the subway and rode it for three stops to get home.

We were glad to finally be inside our warm apartment again; at least upstairs as we only have 18 degrees Celsius downstairs. For years we've been trying to get them to fix the heating downstairs but to no avail. It was nearly 4:30 pm already, and I had a student at 5 pm. I made their sandwiches and gave them to them, then cut up half the fruit. I taught from 5 to 6 pm, then cut up the rest of the fruit. I knew it would be 7 pm before Tammy was gonna come home to eat. Before she did, I went downstairs with Emmy to do piano practice. Back upstairs I started preparing for my 8 pm student. After Tammy had eaten some fruit, I went downstairs with her for piano practice. But she was still being mean and ugly so there was no way to practice. I gave up and went back upstairs. Time was too precious. Emmy had schoolwork to finish again so I helped him with that a little. Then they went into the bathtub. Back out, I prayed for them and sat down to teach, while they were getting ready for bed. After I was done teaching at 9 pm, I had something to eat, then I went back to work.