Day 1342. This has been a weird day, for reasons I can't all share with you. It was a typical morning. After the kids had finished eating, I cleaned them up and dressed them. We had to leave at 10 am and still had some time until then. All three kids ended up in Emmy's bed having fun there, and I took advantage of the opportunity to take cute pictures of the three of them together.
At 10 am we left the house together. It wasn't raining, but they were expecting rain a little later, and it did rain on the way home. Half-way on the way to the subway, we realized we didn't have the kids' music books, and so Randy turned around to go get them, while I continued on with the three kids. Given the time, I decided to get on the subway with the kids and let Randy catch up with us.
We got on the subway, then walked the rest of the way to the kids' music school. Sammy kept asking for Daddy, and Tammy wasn't too happy about him not being there either. Once at the school, we took our coats and shoes off and walked into the classroom, with most of the other kids already in there. The teacher then started with the greeting song right away. Before she was done doing the song for each child, Randy walked through the door, much to Sammy's delight.
Then the teacher asked the kids to come sit in the front. She drew a spider on the whiteboard, asking the kids how many feet it has. I had just taken a picture, when one of the girls' Mom suddenly blurted out in my direction that she didn't want her child on my pictures. A short exchange followed, where she said she'd seen my pictures online, and I assured her I erased the other kids' pictures, when I know the parents don't want their kids' faces seen. It was an unpleasant exchange, and the teacher ended it by saying to respect the other Mom's request. That's why this class is now also one, where I'll erase the other kids' faces from my pictures. Still, I won't be able to take group pictures any more like before, I assume.
The teacher did the "Itsy bitsy spider" song with the kids, then she put the three colors representing low, middle and high tones on the board. She got out three sound bars and gave the stick to one child after another to play the sequence she asked for, and it was different for every child. Our kids had no problem playing it. Emmy hit them harder than most other kids.
Then it was time for them to sit down at the piano. They got to choose a finger puppet, and they did the song, where they put the puppet on the finger she asks them to put it on, going from 1 to 5. Then they got these little animals that make a clicking sound and they tapped them with those same fingers, from 1 to 5. Then she gave the kids a green, red and yellow sticker, and they had to put them in the right area on the piano keys. Then she asked them to play either low, middle or high tones with the song she was doing.
Then we did a dance up front. I had Emmy to my left and Tammy to my right. It was to practice what their lion and mouse hand and foot are, as they had to put them into the middle and shake them etc. Then we sat back down, and they got their books out. Thank God Randy had gone back to get them! They had to show where the low, middle and high tones were. Tammy kept saying that she wanted to draw, and then the time had come. We went to another page, where they had to draw a few quarter notes. Then they continued coloring those pages.
Today Randy kept Sammy busy the whole time, and he either played the piano or played with Daddy's phone. Tammy and Emmy went up front again for the final story, then the teacher did a good-bye song, and the kids got stickers in their sticker books. The class was over, and we went outside to put our shoes and coats back on.
We walked back to the subway, then rode it home, where we arrived just before noon.
Two pizzas were already in the oven waiting for us, so that I only turned it on to get them cooked. At 12:15 we sat down to eat, then they started watching videos or listening to music. At 1:15 I put them to bed for their nap, which sometimes takes a few minutes. Now that they don't wear diapers during the day any more, we encourage them to go to the toilet before lying down for a nap or before leaving the house. They had no diapers on all day today, and there were no accidents.
Even though it took some time, I was able to leave them by 1:30 pm, just before Tammy was also asleep. I needed a nap bad myself, and by 1:50 I was able to lie down as well and close my eyes, after having set my timer to 65 minutes. When it went off, I turned it off immediately and fell back asleep. Just after 3 pm I woke up again, realizing we could not make the 3:20 train we had planned to take. Thank God there was one at 3:30 that would still take us to church on time. We got into high gear getting everyone and everything ready and left the house on time.
When we got to the train platform, there was an announcement that our train was canceled. Just great! The next one was nearly 20 minutes later, meaning we were going to be late. Not only that, I found out that Randy wanted to leave extra early in the evening for his pickup, so that we would not be able to stay at church until the end of the service. Because I had some birthday invitations I wanted to hand out, I wanted to go anyway.
The kids were playing, while we were waiting, and again putting their play tickets they had received into the validation machines, which they enjoy doing. We got on the 3:50 train. Sammy has been holding hands with Emmy a lot, when we walk on the sidewalk. Sammy often calls Emmy to his side. Emmy then hugged him and gave him a kiss on the train, and Sammy did the same. Tammy is still said that Sammy doesn't say her name, even though he's said it a few times now.
Afer the train we got on the subway and arrived at church before it was even 4:30. Worship was in full swing, and we walked to our typical spots on the first row to the side. People had given fabric to the kids to dance with, but they weren't interesting for long. Emmy preferred to throw around Daddy's hat, when he was gone with Sammy to give him a new diaper. But first it was Emmy who needed to go to the bathroom, and so we went together. After we'd returned, Tammy said she needed to go, when she had turned me down earlier, and so we left. By the time Randy and Sammy were back, all they wanted was to go to the baby room. I had hoped to make it to the end of worship to be able to hand my invitations to someone. The kids were becoming a distraction to others, and so we decided to get moving. Before we left the sanctuary, I handed my invitations to a friend, asking him to hand them out as we needed to leave early.
It was nearly 5 pm, when we got to the baby room. We did some calculations and figured out that we needed to leave soon and make the 5:30 train so that Randy could then take the 6:20 train for his pickup. That did not leave us much time in the baby room. The kids played for some time, then we packed up to go home. I was happy to see that the livestream from the sanctuary was finally working again after many months and will enjoy it next time we're back.
We walked through the mall again and to the subway, which came right away, so that we had no trouble making the 5:32 train. We got on and were home before 6 pm. The kids sat down to watch, play or listen, while Randy got his little cart and left a few minutes later. I went to the kitchen to start making their dinner, and took it to them one item after another. Sammy was rather cranky and did not really want to eat at the table, but then ate everything in the bathtub. The other two also ate well.
We were having fun in the bathtub, then I got them out and ready for bed. There was still some time until 8 pm, and I ended up putting new bedding on Emmy's bed, bedding he had just received (fireman Sam). The other kids then also got fresh bedding. They're still wearing winter pajamas, and so we then looked at their summer pj's together. Tammy was missing her tops, but there were a few for Emmy that should still fit him. Still, we looked at some on Amazon. Emmy wants everything to be "fireman Sam", and Tammy "princesses".
Then we sat down and read a few Bible stories. Then I prayed for them and flew them into bed. Somehow it had gotten really late, as it was after 8:30 pm. I encouraged them to quiet down and told them that Daddy had written he was waiting for the train and would soon be home. Sammy especially kept asking for Daddy, while I encouraged them all to go to sleep. I didn't think they would before he returned, but Tammy and Sammy were asleep by the time Randy returned at about 9:15 pm. Emmy got up to see Daddy, and Randy then sat down in the chair by their beds until he was asleep. As for me, I got myself something to eat and then started working on today's pictures. Now it's 1:30 am and time to clean up the kitchen and go to bed.
