Day 1351. I think today we all felt how busy the weekend had been. However, we expected a plumber to come and fix our heating that stopped working early in December - just 6 months ago. I'm not sure what time it was, when he actually arrived. Randy and the kids were all up by then, but not me. The guy went downstairs to go to work, while Randy and the kids were having breakfast. After he was done and came upstairs, he wanted a word with me, but I was still waking up from deep sleep, so he was shouting to me, and I was shouting to him. He said it should be fixed now but that there could still be another broken part, so to watch whether it stopped heating now.
A few minutes later the kids were done eating, and I got up to dress them. Then they all went downstairs. It was already going on 10 am, and it was high time to sit down at my computer to work. It was still pretty tired all morning. Thankfully I didn't have to cook. At 11:30 Randy and the kids already came upstairs, and I turned the stove on to warm it up. And so it was just before noon, when we sat down to eat. Both Tammy and Emmy ate it all, and all three had dessert. Then the kids started watching another one of the DVDs we had gotten out at the library, and Sammy went to his bed to listen to children's songs, which he loves doing. Randy left on a grocery store run, and I sat down at my computer to work. It then was closer to 1:30, when I put them to bed for their nap. By 1:45 I was able to leave them and return to my computer.
My only student of the afternoon had just moved our lesson to Wednesday. It seems that the likelyhood of me taking a nap, when I don't teach, is much lower. I ended up working and working and not lying down to sleep. And the kids slept really long today. After two hours, at 3:30, we opened the curtains and turned the ocean sounds off which was enough to wake all three up. It's very rare that we have to do that, especially with all three. They stayed upstairs for some time, and by 4 pm they all went downstairs to play. I made good use of the time by doing office work for the ministry. It was only 4:30, when Randy and the kids already came back upstairs. I took my time and put appropriate clothes for their exercise class on them. At 5:15 pm we left the house to go to the train station.
It was still warm enough to be short-sleeved. We got on the 5:32 pm train, then walked the rest of the way to the school.
There is a little wall along the sidewalk, and the kids always want to walk on it to the school. Today Tammy did not want any help but showed that she could do it without holding my hand. Not so Emmy who wanted my hand; he's not as courageous as his sister. There were lots of dandelions, and they both picked a few to blow the seeds off.
We reached the school, had to get the wheelchair up a staircase and then down another one before reaching the locker room. Then we took their shoes off and were ready to go inside the gym, but still waited for the teacher. Tammy and Emmy were already running around and having fun. Once the teacher had arrived, they went inside. Tammy headed straight to the ladder on the wall and climbed it up to the top, which her Daddy didn't like that much.
Then the teacher started the class. The kids got to pick which color hoop they wanted, then we put them around them so they could be the horse. I had Sammy in his chair, while Randy had the other two. We then did three rounds of running to the other end and back. Then we put them on the floor and pulled them to the other end and back, also three times. I was done running by then. The teacher told everyone to play with the hoops and also handed out balls to use to hit the parents.
I was playing ball with Sammy who actually did pretty well catching it, but not so much throwing it. Then the other kids started attacking me with their balls, having lots of fun, and I started throwing them back at them. We were all having fun. And then all the equipment was set up, so that the kids started walking up to the vaulting box and jumping down. Emmy had told me in advance that he was not gonna be scared today, but he was and needed someone's hand to walk up to the box. Once there, no hand was needed to jump off.
Sammy was eager to go swing in the rings, and so I was the first in line with him, waiting for them to be ready. I put him into the rings, and he had the time of his life. He wanted me to turn him, and so I made him go in circles. When it was time to come out, he started crying really hard. The teacher tried to talk to him, then Randy came to pick him up. I put Tammy into the rings next. And then I stayed with the rings pretty much to the end. After Tammy, it was Emmy's turn, then Sammy got to swing again and cry again. Then both sets of ring were free, and Tammy and Emmy both swung at the same time. Tammy wanted me to push her as high as possible, but not so Emmy. After they had put everything else up, I quickly put Sammy into the rings one last time, and once again he cried, when it was time to come out. Again the teacher came to him to explain that we needed to go home and that we'd be back next week. He calmed down a little bit temporarily.
There was one last race before the class was over, and I was able to distract Sammy enough to get him to stop crying. Three times I pushed him to the other end of the gym and back, and he won against his siblings. One time Tammy and Emmy crashed into each other, when they turned around at the other end, and Tammy came to me crying.
The class was over. Tammy and Emmy wanted to go to the bathroom, and that took some time. By the time we came back, everyone but the teacher was gone. We then left as well. Once again Tammy and Emmy walked on top of the low wall along the sidewalk.
Once we got to the train station, there was no time left to lose. Then we found out that neither one of the two elevators was working. It was our first time taking the escalator with Sammy's wheelchair, I believe, and it was no problem at all. The train was already sitting there, and so we ran to got on. It was the 7:23 train.
Just after 7:30 pm we were back home. I quickly cut up some fruit, and the kids went straight into the bathtub, where they were eating the fruit while playing. Then we got them ready for bed, I read a Bible story to them and prayed for them. It was about 8:30, when I sat down by them. Randy was still making his dinner, and he then took my place once he was done. I went to the kitchen to also get myself something to eat. After having eaten, I went back to work. Now it's 1:15 and time to go to bed.
