3 years 6 months 13 days

Day 1292. Yesterday I was teaching in the morning, the afternoon and the evening, from 10 am to 10 pm. In the afternoon Sammy had his weekly physiotherapy session, the first one with his new wheelchair that he got last Friday. The physiotherapy used much of the time to practice using the wheelchair with him, including getting out of it.

This morning I left with Sammy at 10 am to go to his weekly speech therapy session - his fourth since it became weekly. He was excited that Mommy was going with him and was looking forward to it. He's still enjoying going places in the wheelchair and being able to see the world around him, pointing at things all the time. Today was the warmest day yet since the winter, and it was really warm while the sun was out. Unfortunately the cold will be back tomorrow. We got to the center early and waited to be called into the speech therapist's office. She then worked with him for 45 minutes. She was happy to have him in the wheelchair, as he did not have to concentrate on sitting and not falling over. And so he sat in it the whole time, right by the table, where she was playing with him. As for me, she told me to sit by the door, and Sammy was fine with that.

After the session we left to walk back to the subway. We walked by a supermarket and decided to go in to get a few items. We were having fun in there. Then we continued on our way to get to the subway. By 11:45 we were back home.

Randy had put a lasagna into the oven for us to eat, and he was getting ready to leave the house to pick up a second-hand item he had found online. The lasagna was not quite ready, and given the nice weather, I suggested to the kids we'd go on the balcony instead of them watching videos. And so I gave them bubbles, and we went outside. Sammy wanted to go on the trampoline and was able to stand on it while holding onto the handle. I then moved his body up and down as if he was jumping, which he enjoyed. Tammy and Emmy were enjoying the bubbles. However, Emmy held his bottle sideways twice, spilling much of his liquid, and that's when he was crying so hard which I captured on the pictures.

Once the food was ready, we went back inside. I got the lasagna out and portioned it and gave it to the kids who had sat down. However, when I tried it, it tasted funny. I checked the expiration date, and it had expired a week ago. I decided it was safer not to eat it and threw it away. But what could we eat now that would not take long to make? When Emmy said pizza, I told him we did not have any, but then I remembered that we had everything we needed to make our own pizzas with tortillas and that that would not take long. The kids got all excited and wanted to help make them. They pulled their chairs to the kitchen, and Sammy also wanted to be higher than the floor, so I put him in another chair. The other two kids climbed up on their chairs, and I put two tortillas in front of them, put tomato sauce on top, then they put the cheese, ham, salami and mushrooms on. I put them into the oven and 10 minutes later they were done. Then we made two more, put them in and sat down to eat the first two. They had turned out really well. While Tammy ate everything, Emmy ate little. His belly has been aching, making him eat little. Then they had the new icecream I had bought today.

All that meant that it was already after 1:30 by the time they were done, so way beyond their 1:15 bedtime. I cleaned them up and dressed them and put them to bed. However, I did not stay long, as I had a 2:30 student and still needed to prepare the lesson for him. The boys were asleep quickly, and while Tammy usually falls asleep after I walk away, she did not today. I could still hear her talking. And then Randy already returned just after 2 pm. I walked up to Tammy to encourage her to sleep, and then some noise woke up Sammy early. I had no choice but to get him out of bed, and soon Randy started playing with him and then took  him downstairs.

I returned to my computer; it was obvious that there was not gonna be any sleep for me this afternoon, even though I was very tired and needed it bad. At 2:30 I sat down to teach, and I had two students, teaching until 4:20 pm. In between the two lessons I responded to Tammy asking for something to drink, and then Emmy also woke up. However, Randy and Sammy already came back upstairs, so the other two never went downstairs. Randy started getting them ready to leave the house, which we did after I was done teaching, at 4:30 pm.

We walked to the subway, rode it a few stops, then went up to street level to get on the tram for one stop, which we did. Then we walked the rest of the way.

We were the first ones to arrive for the dance class; a few minutes later one more girl joined us. The teacher started a few minutes late, and today she said that she needed to end the class earlier. She also told us that her last two hours had been tough. I've been really disappointed about this new dance class, especially today, and hope we can still switch to another class for the second half of the semester.

Sammy stayed in his chair the whole time today, even though I asked him a few times whether he wanted out. Before the class even started Emmy pushed him around for a little bit, and Sammy also tried to move around all by himself. The teacher then started with the same activity as always. She played a song that everyone was supposed to dance to and then to freeze, whenever she stopped it. I was dancing with Sammy in the chair, twirling him around, and he was having great fun. Randy filmed us for a few seconds.

She then did another song like that, but we had to touch another person and dance with them that way until the music stopped and we froze. She'd then tell us what part of our bodies needed to touch - first our hands, then feet, and then elbows. Next she had us dance only with certain parts of our body that she'd tell us to use - our head, our legs, our arms, then Emmy said butt, and Tammy belly. Then we sat down on the floor and she did some stretching. Sammy wanted to stay in his chair. Then we got back up for the final song, where we walk in a circle. The class was over at 5:40 pm already, 35 minutes after it had started. We put their coats and shoes back on and left.

We had a long walk ahead of us, walking all the way to the subway stop. Randy carried both Emmy and Tammy at different times, one at the time. We got on the subway and rode it home, where we arrived before 6:30. I started making dinner, while the kids were watching videos. Sammy had the headset on and instead of stories, he was listening to songs, which he loves. He was moving his hand with the music at one point. Then I gave the kids food to eat, and they sat down at the table, together with their devices. After they were done, they went into the bathtub, where they continued eating while having fun. Then we got them ready for bed, and I sat down with them to read them Bible stories. At the end Tammy cried because she wanted me to keep going, and that's not the first time she's done that. It was after 8:15 pm and time to go to bed. I prayed for them and put them to bed and sat down by them. I stayed for some time, then Randy took my place, while I went to the kitchen to start making my salad. It was 9:30 pm before I sat down to eat it. After I was done, I started working on today's pictures. Now it's 1:30 and my eyes keep falling shut. I still have to clean up the kitchen before going to bed.