Day 1341. As usual Emmy was up way early. At some point Randy got up, and then he suddenly plopped Sammy down on the bed next to me. I would have appreciated a little more sleep. Instead I was helping Sammy who put a new chip into his headset to listen to about every few seconds; until Randy came to get him and put him at the table for breakfast. When I looked at the clock, I couldn't believe how late it already was and got up to get ready to leave. I quickly dressed the kids once they were done eating, and at 10 am I left the house with Sammy.
It was colder than I had expected, probably because of the wind. We rode the subway then had quite a walk ahead of us. We got to the center a few minutes early, and then his therapist was a few minutes late. She finally arrived, together with a trainee who ended up doing 90% of the whole session.
The speech therapy sessions are 45 minutes long. I sat down by the door after I had rolled Sammy's wheelchair to the table where they had already set up a couple of farm animals. Sammy was fine, and I was not needed the whole time. They were playing with him with the animals, feeding them and taking care of them, and then with food for humans. I'm always amazed at how our talkative Sammy stops talking in speech therapy, barely saying a word. I wished his therapist could see him at home.
After we were done, we said our good-byes and left to go back home, where we arrived at 11:40 am. I put the soup on the stove to warm it up, and Tammy and Emmy came upstairs to join us. They started watching a movie until the soup was ready and we sat down to eat. However, nobody was very motivated to eat again. I guess asparagus soup with mushrooms is not their thing, even though it turned out delicious. I ended up having to feed Emmy to get him to eat some, and he only did it so he could continue the movie after, which they did.
At 1:15 I put them to bed for their nap and by 1:30 I was able to leave them. Just afer 2 pm I was ready to lie down myself, setting a timer for just under an hour. After it had gone off, I got up. I was surprised that all the kids were still asleep, but then I could hear Sammy whining to come out of his bed. I picked him up, and considering what time it was, I had no problem waking up his siblings with opening the curtains. I still had to pick out some clothes for them to wear for leaving the house. And then I went to the kitchen to make sandwiches and cut up apples to take with us. Before I knew it, it was 3:30 pm and time to sit down for my lesson.
I taught until 4:20, then got ready to leave the house. The kids were all ready to get. At 4:30 we left to walk to the subway. It was still windy and a little chilly, and it was raining just a little bit. We took the subway, then walked to the tram stop. We rode it for one stop, then walked to the school, which was not far. The previous class was just finishing, and so kids were coming out of the classroom. We gave them some time to come out before going in. We took our shoes and coats off and were ready for the class.
There were a LOT of children there today, including a few new ones. She started the same way as usual again. She was playing music, and the kids were supposed to dance any way they liked. Once the music stopped, they had to stand on those foam blocks that were all over the room. I was dancing with Sammy and rolled him over the blocks. Sammy, however, wanted to dance with his brother, which he did a little bit. I also got to dance with Emmy and Tammy briefly.
Then she asked everyone to get together in pairs, and Tammy ended up pairing up with a little girl . Everyone was supposed to dance with a ball held in place between their bodies, without the ball falling. That was quite a challenge. The girls tried for a while, only having success while holding the ball with their bellies. I did it with Emmy, which he thought was fun, and Randy tried it with Sammy. I then took Sammy and held him, with the ball between us, and Randy did it with Emmy, butt to butt.
Then the teacher had everyone sit down on the ground and did the stretching she does every week. Neither Tammy nor Emmy wanted to do any of that, and Sammy had been cranky a lot. That is until that was over, and he took off crawling away. He loves it, when I shout, "what are you doing, Sammy?" which makes him laugh and do even more what he's doing.
And then it was already time for the final song, the "alarm clock" song. We walked in a circle, and I had Sammy until he was getting too heavy for me, then Randy took him, which made Sammy upset who wanted to stay with me.
The class was over. Tammy and Emmy had actually decided to come wearing underwear instead of a diaper, and they asked to go to the bathroom once during the class, and I went with them. Today they both succeeded in getting back home with clean underwear. We put their shoes and coats back on and left to go home. It was still raining, and so we walked to the tram stop. It was an old tram that came, so that we had to carry Sammy inside over a few steps. After we got off, we went inside the grocery store to get a few items before the long weekend, then walked to the subway that was just arriving. The kids never actually watched anything, even though they were asking for it.
By 6:30 pm we were back home. They sat down at the table watching a video, while I brought their food to them one item after another, as I had it ready. Then they went into the bathtub, where they continued eating while playing. Then we got them out and ready for bed. I read them some Bible stories, then prayed for them and flew them into bed. It was after 8 pm. I didn't sit down by them for long. I was hungry and wanted to eat a salad, which takes a long time to make. Randy sat down in the chair, while I went to the kitchen to start cutting up vegetables. It was nearly 9:30 before I was done and sitting down to eat. After I was done eating, I started working on today's pictures. Now it's after 1 am and time to clean up the kitchen and go to bed.
