3 years 9 months 25 days

Day 1393. It seems that Emmy gets up earlier and earlier, while they go to bed later, usually they don't sleep before 9 pm any more. This morning he and then the others were up really early again and, of course, Emmy would not let me sleep. After breakfast, they did pretty well dressing themselves; they are able to do so more and more.

At 9:30 the doorbell rang. Randy had bought a second-hand drumset at the other end of Austria, and friends of friends had just driven to Vienna and brought it with them. It was really kind of them to bring it to our house. We talked to them briefly, then they left again, and we went back to our regular routine. Randy went downstairs with the kids after having put the drums up, and so it was 10:30 before I was able to start working at the computer. I was able to finish the German translation of the newsletter, then went to the kitchen to make lunch. Just after noon we all sat down to eat.

Everyone ate well, then they were eager to watch or play on their tablets again. Randy left on a grocery store run.  I started putting things up in preparation of the kids' new bed arriving. We'll have to move around things quite a bit for that purpose. I also took this opportunity to throw out some expired baby food that Randy had wanted me to keep up to this point in case of a blackout. Tammy helped me with that, and in the end Emmy came as well to help. It was great to work together with them.

And for that reason they went to bed a bit later than usual today. It was about 1:45 pm. I sat down by them, and soon the boys were asleep and Tammy was on her way and allowed me to leave. I did not stay up long but soon lay down myself. Before I could fall asleep, Emmy already came into the room at 2:15. He had peed in his sleep, so his clothes and bed were wet. He put new clothes on and lay down next to me, where he fell asleep again, at least for a short time. Then he got up to get his tablet and returned with it. I asked him to turn the sound way down so I could try to sleep lying next to him, and I think I did fall asleep for a short time.

But then it was already 3:10 pm, and my alarm went off. I was very tired but had no choice but to get up. I opened the curtains in the kids' room and turned the ocean waves off, and Sammy was up immediately, while Tammy took a little longer. I then asked Randy to take them downstairs instead of them being on their tablets again, and he did while I sat down to teach at 3:30 pm. I then taught two lessons, until 5:20 pm. When I finished, I had to get up and put my shoes on right away so we'd make the 5:32 train.

We left the house and walked as fast as possible to the train station, where we made the train. After we got off, we stil had a nice walk ahead of us to the school, where the exercise class was taking place. It was extremely hot; they are saying that this is the first heat wave of this summer this week. We got to the school and carried the wheelchair up a staircase and down another to get to the gym. We were pretty early as the previous class hadn't even finished yet. We already knew we had to wait for the teacher to arrive before we were allowed to go inside the gym, and he arrived exactly at 6 pm. The kids went into the gym right away.

Sammy was eager to play ball with me and kept saying "balls". However, first we got hoops to put around the kids so they'd be our horses to race to the other end of the room and back. I had hurt my knee a week ago but was fine again, but today it acted up again. I could not run at full speed with Sammy, and when I did at the end of the class, I paid a price by my knee hurting pretty bad. When it was time to be pulled on the floor, I was surprised that Sammy did not want to do it. He used to love that part of the class, but today he just wanted to play ball. Maybe it's also that he got hurt one time (burning his skin). And so we sat it out, while Randy pulled the other two kids.

Then Sammy finally got his ball, and we started playing together. He was having so much fun, and tried to make the ball jump as high as possible. He was also doing a really great job catching the ball. When Tammy needed to go to the bathroom, and I left with her, Randy took over playing with him, but as soon as I was back, he wanted to play with me again. Then it was Emmy's turn to go to the bathroom, and it was the same reaction again.

While Sammy was enyoing playing ball, he did want to go swing in the rings eventually. I put him in there, and then he wanted me to spin him in a circle, and I did. I kept changing direction to not get dizzy but I still did a little bit. I finally got him out, which he did not appreciate at all. I took him to the thick mat and had him to do some somersaults; that way he got his joy back and was laughing again. He then also got to "jump off" the vaulting box a few times, just like his siblings.

They jumped down over and over again. Today Emmy had no fear of heights and never asked for my hand to get up to the top of the vaulting box. He told the teacher he was Bibleman, which made no sense to him, so I had to explain it. From then on he called Emmy Bibleman and Tammy superwoman. Emmy always does a somersault after jumping off, but then it looked like he was jumping head-first, landing on his head, before doing the somersault. It looked dangerous, and both I and the teacher told him to land on his feet and then do the somersault, which he then did.

And then the teacher already started putting everything back up. The kids were eager to get on the top of the vaulting box and ride it into the storage room. They were giggling the whole time. Then they got onto the cart with the mats, and in the end also onto the big map that the teacher and Randy pulled to the wall where it was stored. They were clearly having fun. Today there was only one other child in the class, and it was the last session before the summer break.

We ended the class with the race to the other end of the gym and back. I pushed Sammy once and overdid it, Randy pushed him the other two times. Then the class was over.

We returned to the locker room, put their shoes back on, and left the school building. We walked back to the train station and then waited the few minutes until the 7:23 train arrived. By 7:40 pm we were back home. It was late, so I immediately started making their food and taking it to them at the table, while Sammy was in the kitchen with me, and I fed him there. Then we put them into the empty bathtub where we turned the showerhead on. They enjoyed the water while eating more of their food, then we got them out one after another and ready for bed. It was nearly 8 pm, so I told them no story tonight, which made Tammy cry. Instead I took her into my arms like I do, when I pray for her every night, and told her the story of a little girl and her amazing future. Of course it was her I was talking about, and she knew it, and therefore said she'd enjoyed the story. Then Emmy wanted his own story as well, then Tammy said Sammy should also get his own story, so I told a third one. Then it was really time for bed as it was after 9 pm. I sat down by them, and Sammy asked me to sing to them, so I did. Soon the other two were falling asleep, but not Sammy. He started asking for Daddy. It was 9:30, so I left, but he was close enough to sleeping that Daddy never had to come.

I got myself something to eat, then went back to work. Now it's nearly 2 am and time to get some sleep.