Day 1377. It's 1 am, and it's been a really long day, after another later than usual night last night. Emmy still does not understand that I would like him to let me sleep in the morning, though I've tried to explain that to him. He keeps coming, and so does his sister once she is up, for various reasons and asking for various things. I finally crawled out of bed at 9:30 am to get them dressed and get everyone and everything ready for us to leave at 10 am for piano class.
It had been two weeks since the last class which seemed a long time ago. When we walked to the subway, it was cooler than it had been the past two days, and so we were all a little chilly in the shade because of the wind. We took the subway, then stopped in at the bakery to buy some bread and also got some pastries for the kids, and continued walking to get to their music school. I took Emmy to the bathroom, and by the time we returned, we could already hear the teacher playing the greeting song.
There were two other kids in the room and another one arrived later. When we walked in she started the greeting song for Tammy, then did Emmy, then the parents, than herself. Today Sammy was left out. Sammy asked for Daddy's phone right away to push around on it, and so he got it out early. The teacher asked the kids to come up front, where she drew a fish on the board, then did the fish action song. She had a stuffed fish that she'd throw at kids who then threw it back at her. Then she drew a turtle and did a turtle song.
Next she did something new. She got a huge paper piano out and put it on the floor. It had a red and green sticker on it. Then she went from kid to kid and put a green sticker on their finger 2 and a red sticker on finger 3. They then had to push the right key on the paper piano with the finger with the same color sticker and switched between the two fingers and keys a few times. As far as I could see from where I was, they were doing a really good job. I sure like the way they teach at that school.
Then they were sent to their tables and pianos. She handed out the finger puppets, and being in the last row, our kids came last. Emmy was disappointed that the only blue puppet was already gone. We then did the song that teaches them what number each finger is, going from finger to finger and putting the puppet on the corresponding finger. Then she came to our kids first for the tapping animals, and Emmy was the first one to choose and got the blue whale. Tammy got the pink whale. Then we did the tapping song, going from finger to finger. Tammy did not want to participate and just tapped with her whole hand. Emmy was doing a great job. Then she had them play low, middle and high notes on the piano, in different sequences. Tammy still didn't want to participate, saying she was tired.
Then the teacher called them forward and did another new activity. They all made a circle, and the teacher went into the middle first with a red, a yellow and a green circle in her hand. They all had to walk in the circle and react to whatever color she held up - walk fast with green, slow with yellow and stop with red. Then each kid got to be in the middle and hold colors up, and everyone had to react. As you can imagine, the kids loved having that power over everyone else.
Then they all sat down on the floor, and she gave them drums to play. They were to play a sequence of three notes and then a pause, but the pause is difficult for them. Randy ended up sitting down with them, so I had Sammy at that point.
Then they returned to their tables and were giving playdoh. First they had to make whole notes with it, then half notes. I was helping them a little. And then it was already time for them to return to the front for the final story, which was Rapunzel, a story they know. The teacher did the good-bye song, and they each got to choose a sticker for their sticker book. Sammy also got a sticker that he put on his hand.
I took the kids to the bathroom, then we left to walk back to the subway. We rode it a few stops and got off to go to the McDonald's right there. They still did not have the new toys, which was annoying. I ordered the food, and Randy picked it up. We were all enjoying our meal, even though the kids ate less than usual, probably because of the pastry two hours earlier. After we were done we walked back to the subway and rode it home. No videos were being watched today, as they were not behaving very well, being loud and unruly and not listening, when we told them to quit what they were doing.
By 12:45 we were back home, and the only thing to do was to put them to bed for their nap. It was a little earlier than usual, but by 1:20 the boys were asleep and Tammy let me leave and fell asleep a little later. Unfortunately I got distracted by some stuff and lay down myself too late. Sammy was up after an hour, by about 2:20, and I got him out of bed. I lay back down, then Emmy came a few minutes later. I must have just fallen asleep, so I did not get more than maybe 10 minutes of sleep, which was way too little. I was extremely tired for the next few hours. Emmy lay down with me for a few minutes, then he was up for good. Soon we were all up, as we had to leave the house just after 3 pm, which is rather early for us.
We took the 3:20 train, then rode the subway for three stops. As usual we walked into the shopping mall to cross it and get to the church in the entertainment center. Tammy and Emmy love escalators, and so I take them with them, whenever it's possible. Randy takes Sammy on the elevator, and then we met again where they get off. We were on the top floor having taking two escalators and waiting for them by the elevator, when Randy called me that both elevators were broken. We ended up going back down and leaving the shopping mall and walking on the street to get to the entertainment building. There was another elevator there to go up to the church. And we still got to church before the service had started. We said hello to a few people, then made our way to the front on the side, where we usually sit. There are fewer people there to disturb, and the kids have plenty of room to move and dance. However, they ended up running around a lot, playing, and being rather loud, so we kept asking them to slow it down and quiet it down, but we didn't get far. It was not a good day in terms of their behavior. I had Sammy who wanted me and only me and tried to keep him happy. I was dancing with him and swinging him around until I was tired and tried to hand him to Randy. But only for seconds, as he got upset and wanted to be back with me. I then put him on my shoulders, knowing he loves being up there. However, he started punching my nose, as I'd make an oink sound every time, and he thought that that was hilarious. He ended up messing up my hair and face until I just had to stop him. I knew he was going to be upset getting him down my shoulders, but I just kept swinging him around.
And then somebody brought coloring papers and crayons to us for the kids, which was a God-sent. Emmy and Tammy started coloring, and even Sammy sat with them briefly. They had asked to go to the baby room a while back, and normally we would already have gone, but I was gonna go on stage for a brief prayer request, so I was waiting for that time. Finally they were getting too disruptive, and I told Randy to just go ahead to the room with them, that I'd follow once I was done.
And that was only moments later. I went on stage and told them how Paul had called me from Mali last night, which was unusual, and passed on his prayer request. I left the stage and walked to the door to go to the baby room, but stopped at the door to hear the prayer the pastor was praying for Mali. Then I left and rejoined the rest of the family.
The kids were already busy playing, and I was thankful that the live feed from the sanctuary was working so that we could at least follow what was going on there. However, the kids were too loud to really be able to listen to the sermon. They were excited to have the cars from the room next door. At first Sammy was on the horse, but he did so much better moving around the room on the green car. In fact, I was impressed at how well and how fast he was. Tammy was having fun with him and crashing into him, which made him laugh. Emmy wanted the white car real bad, and it was always either with him or his sister. It was the fastest vehicle in the room. They were also playing with some other stuff in the room and having lots of fun.
Sammy was on the car for a long time. While he could go fast, turning the car was difficult for him and Randy had to help him when he'd hit the wall or corner. He kept going round and coming back to me, saying hello, then he'd tell me where he was going next, and we'd say good-bye, and I'd wish him a good trip. The other kids were also saying how they were going to Mali or the zoo etc.
At some point Sammy wanted me to pick him up. I was lying on the couch, as I was really tired, and put Sammy on me. He then wanted to call Grandma on the phone, so I tried to call her, but she didn't pick up. Tammy joined us as well, also hoping to talk to Grandma. I took a selfie of us instead, which turned out really nice. On the picture you see how they were wearing coats. While it was hot everywhere outside this room, the air conditioner in this room was just running way too high, and so it was rather chilly in the room. I'm glad I had brought coats with us.
At 6:15 we noticed that the service was being wrapped up, so we tidied up and left the room to return to the sanctuary. For us it's all about connecting with people, as we really can't follow the service with the kids around.
We stood by the entrance to the sanctuary and talked to a few people, which was great. We found out that there was a baptism on the terrace after the service. We walked outside, as the kids wanted to check out the pool that was set up for that. We had once stayed for a baptism, but the kids had been scared by it, so we had left early. We had no intention of staying today. We talked for a little bit, then left to go home.
We left the same way we came. Once out on the street in the bright sun, I realized I didn't have my sunglasses, and Randy said I had left them in the sanctuary. So we stayed there, while Randy returned to get them. There was a staircase, and the kids were shouting "echo" up the stairs. Then they started jumping down from three stairs up; once Tammy took 4 stairs at once, which was too much for my comfort. We waited for some time before Randy came back with my glasses. Then we continued walking to the subway. By the time we got to the train station, we only had a few minutes to wait for our 7:23 pm train. Just after 7:30 pm we were back home.
The kids had not eaten dinner yet, just some apple. They sat down at the table, and I warmed up some leftovers for them, then made salami sandwiches for them. Thankfully I still had a full box of cut-up fruit for them. After they were done with the warm food, they went into the bathtub, where they ate their bread and fruit, while having fun. It was 8:30 before they were in bed after a brief story.
And after lots of disobedience and bad behavior. I had taken both their rabbits away as a consequence. Emmy was quick to ask forgiveness, and I gave him his rabbit back. As for Tammy, as usual, she would not apologize and ask forgiveness, and tonight she never did, so she had to fall asleep without her rabbit. And it took them long enough to fall asleep. Randy took my place just before 9 pm, then I went to the kitchen to get myself something to eat. It was 8:45 pm, when I went to them the last time, because I had heard Tammy and thought that she wanted to apologize, but that was not the case. After eating, I started working on today's pictures. We were also both working on finding a rental car for our time in the US, which took up too much time, which is why it's already 2:30 am now. Once again way too late. At least I don't have to load the dishwasher tonight. Last night I had forgotten to turn it on, so that it ran during the day today.
