6 years 9 months 29 days

Day 2493. After an intense weekend, it was back to school on Monday morning. I went back to bed after having made their snacks for school, and Randy took them to school. My third alarm went off at 9:30 already as I had a 10 am student. I taught until 11 am, then from 11:10 to noon. Then I had an online meeting from noon to 1 pm. Thankfully there were leftovers that Randy could warm up for himself.

I was tired at 1 pm; just before 1:30 pm I left to go pick up Sammy. Randy was already on the way to get the other two. By 2 pm we were back home, and I made myself a salad to finally have lunch. After that, I prepared for my 3:30 pm student. Randy and the kids got home at 2:30 pm I wanted to go downstairs to do piano practice to get it done before the busy evening but it never came to that. 

At 3:30 pm I started teaching, and at 3:45 pm Randy left with Tammy and Emmy to take them to their last programming class of the year. Sammy was doing well with his tablet. At 4:20 pm - just before I was done with my lesson - the doorbell rang. It was the visitor we had been expecting - a doctor who was going to assess Sammy to see whether we'll continue getting money from the government for him and how much, whether he has improved or just as much time is spent taking care of him as before. It was a shame that Randy wasn't back yet.

The three of us went downstairs, to our living room, where I gave the doctor all the forms I'd had to fill out. They wanted to know absolutely everything about Sammy and our life with him. She then asked more questions and wrote everything down, and also interacted with Sammy. She was rather young and very nice and friendly. At 4:45 pm she was done and said her good-byes - five minutes before Randy returned. It will be up to two months before we get the letter from the government to let us know of their decision; it will be when we get back from America. 

At 5 pm I left the house to be at their programming club by 5:30 pm. It was the last day, and the parents were invited to be there for a report. When I got there, I was told it's 5:45 pm, not 5:30 pm, so I sat down. That gave me valuable time with the administrator to talk to her about my impressions and about next year. I'm very glad I had that opportunity.

Then it was finally time to go inside. They have a very young teacher right now. They had been programming Minecraft. They had to shut down their computers, then the teacher simply gave them their certificates and told us what they've done this past year. It's nice to have it written down on the certificates.

We then left and walked to the subway with them eating their sandwiches and were back home by 6:30 pm. We went straight downstairs to do piano practice but only had until 7 pm because of the important soccer world championship game Austria against Argentina that started at 7 pm. I had some issues to get it going but after a few minutes it was finally on on my own computer where Emmy watched it. My 8 pm student had canceled tonight's lesson because of it. I went to the kitchen to cut up fruit for the kids and gave it to them. 

The game went much longer than expected but Emmy was allowed to stay up for it. Sammy went into the bathtub, and all three got ready for bed. Sammy was long asleep by the time the game was over at 8:45 pm or so, and Tammy was already asleep as well. Then it was finally time for Emmy to go to bed. Austria had lost 0:2. 

And for me it was time to get something to eat and sit down and have a break. Later I went back to work.

This morning was my only morning without teaching this week so I enjoyed being able to go back to bed at 7 am and then sleep as long as I wanted. It was after 12 pm by the time I looked at my clock. Randy was already eating leftovers he had warmed up. I was in no rush to eat, and time went by really fast. Just before 1:30 pm I left to go pick up Sammy, and together we were back home by 2 pm. They had baked croissants at school today, and I hope to get the pictures soon.

At 2:30 pm Randy and the other kids got home. I was still eating my salad at that time and finished it, then I asked Emmy to go downstairs for piano practice with me. The big concert is on Friday so time is short. He then had a good number of anger fits again as he gets so angry when he makes mistakes but we were able to finish practicing but there was not time for Tammy. I went upstairs and made their dinner sandwiches, then Tammy and I left the house at 3:45 pm.

It had been a long time since I had taken Tammy to her dance school as I always had students on Tuesday afternoon. I didn't today, and I needed to talk to her teachers because of the dance show on Saturday. We got to the dance school pretty early and went upstairs. She put her dance shoes on, then we waited for her teacher to arrive. Once she came, I introduced myself and asked my questions. She was really nice. She also told me that her passion was to work with children with special needs and that she wanted to give Sammy dance lessons. Intriguing!

I asked whether I could stay in the back of the dance hall for a few minutes and sat down on a chair there. Then I watched for about 10 minutes. There were a lot of kids in the class, including one boy, and it was obvious that it wasn't very easy for Tammy, but she gave her all. 

After the class was over, we went one level down for the second class - ballet - that started at 5:30 pm. Tammy put her ballet clothes on, then introduced me to her teacher that was new. I then went into the courtyard and sat down right on the other side of the window to where she was dancing. In fact, she did all the stuff at the bar right in front of me so I was able to take some pictures. I had my computer out and was doing some office work, just like during the first hour, but could see Tammy well, at least for part of the time. 

At 6:20 pm the class was over, and Tammy got changed again, and we left. We walked to the bus stop, rode it to the subway, picked up some cheap bread, and got on the subway home where we arrived just before 7 pm. Randy and the boys were home. Randy had left with them at 4:30 pm to take them to their music school where Emmy had another rehearsal for the song they are doing as a group at the concert on Friday. While Emmy was singing, Randy was playing with Sammy in the hallway; he was enjoying the foam blocks you can play really well with. 

We only had one hour before I had to teach at 8 pm. I went straight to the kitchen to cut up their fruit and gave it to them. Then I sat down to prepare my lesson. After that, I went downstairs with Tammy to do piano practice with her. Even though Emmy had already done piano practice, he did a trial run of the concert on Friday and played all four pieces for me as if it was show time. Back upstairs, he quickly did his reading practice that Tammy had already done on the bus, then I had to start teaching. The kids were getting ready for bed and both came to my room to lie down in our bed but it usually doesn't work for both of them to be there. I had to interrupt my lesson several times and finally kicked them out. 

By 9 pm I was done teaching and went to the kitchen to get myself something to eat. I enjoyed my break, then went back to work. Now it's 1:30 am and time to take care of the dishes. Tomorrow I have to get up early.