4 years 1 month 11 days

Day 1502. At 7:15 am the alarm went off, and Emmy was up around that time, and Sammy was up right away as well. I was very tired but forced myself up to give them food and prepare Sammy's snackbox to take with him to kindergarten. At 8:15 Randy and he left the house. What I really wanted to do was to lie back down and sleep, but I knew I needed to do "school" with the kids so they would not spend hours in front of their tablets. Instead of getting out papers with tasks for them to do today, I decided to get some games out, and so we ended up playing 3 different games during the following two hours. That was more time than I had wanted to invest, but we were having fun.

And so it was 10:15, when I finally sat down at the computer to work, while the kids were on their tablets. Randy and Sammy already returned at 11 am. Randy said that Sammy had said "home" since the moment they had arrived at kindergarten.

At noon we sat Idown to eat leftovers from yesterday. Then Randy left right away to go to the grocery store, while I cleaned them up. They were able to play a little longer, but at 1 pm I already put them to bed, half an hour earlier than usual, as they needed to get back up at 2 pm. However, it took them quite a long time to fall asleep, even though I lay down next to Sammy. And then Randy returned just as they were getting close to falling asleep. And so it was nearly 1:30 pm before I walked away and lay down in my bed. I fell asleep and was woken up by my alarm just before 2 pm.

I was mighty tired as it was mighty early, but I got up and got ready and got the kids ready to leave the house. Tammy was fast asleep and not happy, when I woke her up. We left the house at 2:15 and walked to the train station. We took the 2:30 train, then the subway. Sammy kept saying "neue U-Bahn" (new subway), and when the subway train was an old one, he started crying. Only the new subway trains have the buttons he loves pushing so much.

We only rode the subway for one stop, then walked to the school. It was supposed to be the second session of Tammy's and Emmy's dance class. All five of us took the elevator up to the school and then stood in front of the gym to wait for the teacher to arrive. There was one other parent waiting with us, but nobody was coming. Just after 3 pm the other Mom looked at her phone and discovered that there was no class today. As it was a regular day, it had not occurred to us that there could not be a class today. I was annoyed with myself because of all the trouble we had gone through to get here this early, plus I'd had a student wanting a lesson that I could have done after all.

Randy, Sammy and I would have gone to the library on the ground floor to wait for the kids' class to end, and so Sammy wanted to go look at books, and we all ended up going there. I sat on a chair with Sammy standing in front of me, bent over the box of books and pulling one book after another one out for me to read to him. But he never wanted to go beyond the first two pages or so, so we never actually finished a book. And so Emmy and Tammy were looking at other books by themselves.

Then Emmy said he wanted to go to the nearby playground, but Tammy and Sammy preferred staying in the library. We finally all left the library to go there for a short time. Tammy and Emmy enjoyed the slide at first, while I took Sammy to the round swing that rotates, which he enjoyed, and then put him on the caroussel. He was able to sit well on it and hold on well, so that I could make him go round and round without having to hold Sammy. I was impressed by his endurance, and that he never got tired or asked for help because he was losing his grip.

Tammy and Emmy also came over to our side of the playground and started climbing up the ropes to the top of the slide. Daddy helped a little bit, and then Tammy made it up there all by herself.

It was 3:35 and time to get moving, as I needed to take the 4 pm train to be home in time for my students. We started walking to the subway, and again Sammy kept saying "neue U-Bahn" (new subway). I told him that we don't know whether a new or old one is coming. When it was an old one again, he again started crying hard. We rode it for one stop, then got some chestnuts, as the kids (especially Tammy) love eating them so much, and still made the 3:57 pm train.

By 4:15 we were back home, and Randy went downstairs with the kids, while I got ready for my 4:30 pm student. I then taught two students for the following two hours, and both students were ones that were draining. The same time I finished at 6:20 pm is also when Randy left the house to go pick up used ice-skating shoes for Tammy. As for me, I went to the kitchen to start making their food, and Sammy followed me there. They were eating, then went into the bathtub, where they continued eating, while having fun. Then I got them out and ready for bed. They all had their pj's on and were playing, waiting for Daddy to come through the door, which was gonna happen any second. They were really happy, when he returned. I then read them their bedtime story, prayed for them, and put them to bed. It was close to 8:30 pm already. Sammy wanted me to lie down next to him, and as Randy was only just making his dinner, I lay down for a few minutes, then left. After Randy had finished eating, he sat down in the chair by them, where he got his nap in.

I myself got something to eat and continued working on the computer. Now it's 12:30 am and time for bed.