4 years 10 months 23 days

Day 1788. On Tuesday, the second day of their tennis camp, Randy was supposed to take Tammy and Emmy to their camp. However, Tammy had a big fit, when it was time to leave the house. She was screaming and holding on to me, trying to stay home. I forced her out the door, and Randy tried to carry her. I could hear her even on the street, through my window. I thought she'd calm down, but a few minutes later, Randy returned with the kids. He couldn't take her like that. That was just great! I had no choice but to be the one to take them to their camp. Because of the trains not running, that meant nearly one hour to go there, and then an hour to return home. I left the house with them, and we had our scooters with us to be faster. Randy then ended up taking Sammy to his kindergarten.

Tammy then calmed down, and on the long tram ride I talked to her and told her that I could not stay there with her today at all, as Daddy had that important appointment to renew his permit to stay in Austria, and I needed to turn around right away so we'd be on time. She seemed to understand. When we got to the tennis hall, I helped them put their indoor shoes on, we said good-bye, and she was fine, walking onto the court with the others. We had only been 5 minutes late, which was remarkable and still okay.

Yesterday morning Tammy woke up next to me and was crying right away, saying she wanted to stay with me. Not again! She cried and cried and did not want to get up and have breakfast. I had a student at 10 am, so I thought about it and finally gave in, telling her I'd take them there, as I should have been able to make it back just in time for my student. But I also told her this was going to be very hard for me, as I'd had a short night, and as I had students all day and that I didn't really know how I was able to work all day having to take them as well. She went to have breakfast, having calmed down, and when she returned, she suddenly said to me that Daddy could take them and I could stay home. I was very surprised to hear that! She then left with Randy and her brother, no problem at all, and did not cry there either, when Randy said good-bye and left. As for me, I took Sammy to his nearby kindergarten and still had time to lie down for a short nap before teaching at 10 am.

As for today, I'd made a deal with Tammy. I told her yesterday that if she never cried and had a fit and whined today, she'd get a lollipop. And alas, she was fine this morning, and Randy dropped them off for their fourth day at the camp, and she never whined or cried.

In spite of all this drama, she's really been enjoying this week, just like her brother. They play tennis in the morning, as well as many games with their rackets and with balls, and after lunch, they get to play soccer, badminton, ping pong of volleyball. At 2 pm they already get picked up, while most of the other kids stay until 4 pm. Tuesday and Wednesday Randy was the one to pick them up, much to Sammy's delight who was excited to have 2 hours of Mommy time with me every day.

On Tuesday Randy and I went to his immigration appointment as his permit to be in Austria expires next month. Last time we did this, three years ago, there was Covid and everything was done online, but this time he had to come in person. I had not had expected that and was taken by surprise a month ago, when we wanted to start the process. So a whole month was lost. We went to the first waiting room with our number. There were no people there. After some time, we were called to the counter where I handed over all the documents. Then we were given another number and sent to another waiting room. That's where all the people were. We had a hard time finding two available seats next to each other. And then the waiting began. We had waited for a long time before we were called into a room. It was a nice, young man, though, who took us to his office. Men are usually nicer than women. Because of our experience, when I was pregnant and Randy needed a permit to stay in Austria and they said he needed to leave the country, and everything we went through back then, I'm still a little traumatized when it comes to immigration. Having such a nice man was a blessing. Randy had to give his fingerprints, and then it was the man and I who did all the talking. He gave me a paper with a list of all the documents they still need from us. He saw that we had triplets and was amazed and told us he had twins. Then we said our good-byes and left. Now I have to work on getting all those documents and email them to them, and Randy also has to get a new passport.

In the afternoon Grandma came who the kids hadn't seen in a very long time. Sammy and I had about half an hour alone with her before Randy returned with the other two. Then Randy went shopping, finally having an opportunity to do so, while the kids were enjoying Grandma, as was I. I happened to not have any students that afternoon. She read to the kids, and she played Hide & seek with them. She never stays longer than two hours, though. As she was leaving, Randy returned from the store.

Yesterday, I had quite a few students again. I had one at 3:10 pm and was hoping Randy would be back with Tammy and Emmy by then, which should have been possible. I cannot teach while I'm home alone with Sammy, as he constantly needs my attention. I figured they were coming home just minutes after I started teaching, and so I talked to Sammy and told him I had a student and asked him to play on his own and told him I couldn't respond to him. He said okay. I was then absolutely blown away that he occupied himself for 25 minutes, as Randy only returned at 3:35. He had been fine the whole time! What progress! The reason Randy had returned so late was that Emmy had lost his water bottle, and they were looking for it everywhere - without success.

Today was a little different. Their afternoon program was to go to the swimming pool, and so we said we'd also go and meet up with them there, bringing all the swimming equipment. I only taught from 10 to 11, moving my 11 am student to another day, so that I had time to cook lunch, and the three of us ate before we had to leave just after noon. Randy picked up Sammy an hour earlier than usual.

We had just reached the subway platform, when Randy realized he had left the bag with the swimming equipment at home. So he turned around to get it, and we lost valuable time, already having left later than I had planned. We took two subways, then had to walk a bit. On the subway I realized I had forgotten to pack the sunscreen, which was an absolute must. Thankfully there was a shopping centre right where we got off the subway. Randy gave me some money, and I ran to the store to buy some. When I tried to check out, I discovered I had not brought enough money. So I ran back to the entrance of the mall, where Randy and Sammy were waiting, got more money, and ran back to buy it. More valuable time was lost.

And so it was already 1:20 by the time we got to the swimming pool. Tammy and Emmy were standing right inside with one of their two teachers, waiting for us.  She said they'd been waiting for 20 minutes, which is the time we had lost. We paid and walked in. The teacher was able to rejoin the group, while we went to the changing room to put swimsuits on everyone. Then we rejoined the teachers with the other kids. I got to talk to one teacher for a few minutes.

The other kids had been in the water since arrinving and were all coming out just as we were coming and going in. I had Sammy and was having fun with him, while the other two were having fun by themselves. Randy didn't come in. After a while they left the water to rejoin the other kids. When they got icecream, they wanted some too, and Randy took them to buy some.

And then they opened the water slide. Randy went up with Emmy and they slid down together. Tammy, Sammy and I were in the water to be there, when they came down. Emmy wanted to go again, and this time it was me who went up the tower with him. It was a long but rather slow slide. Tammy didn't want to go down.

The water was a little cold for them, but we all went in again, and this time at the same time as the other kids. They had a ball and were playing in the water, and Emmy tried to join in. He was the only one not able to stand in the water, as he was the shortest, which made it harder to play, but the others were considerate of that. Tammy then also played for a short time.

And then the teacher said they were getting ready to leave. They had to return to the tennis school with the other kids where their parents would pick them up. Our kids were also ready to leave, and so we already left the pool at 3:30 pm, which was much earlier than I had expected.

It was a rather long walk to the subway, but we got home in about 45 minutes, which was pretty good. I was extremely tired and walked straight to my bed to lie down. Randy then took the kids downstairs to play which I was thankful for. I actually slept for nearly 2 hours, with one interruption, when Tammy came, and I really needed it. I hadn't moved once this whole time. At 6:30 pm it was high time to get up and go to the kitchen to make dinner for the kids. It was the beginning of our evening routine.