Day 1818. Yesterday was Friday. Randy took Tammy and Emmy to kindergarten, while Sammy was home with me. After Randy returned, I taught for an hour from 10 to 11, then I cooked lunch and Randy had to leave again to go pick them up. Sammy and I ate, then our Caritas helper for the time being and our friend came at 1 pm and went downstairs with Sammy. I then had two more hours of teaching in the afternoon. After Tammy and Emmy returned, they also went downstairs to play with our friend. They played in the sandbox again, and Tammy made some jewellery with Christine. As for Emmy, he was not behaving very well. It worries me, when I hear that.
This morning I was hoping to sleep in, but no such luck. All three kids were up very early, and then they kept coming to me for stuff. Sammy's skin was raw from the sand in his diaper yesterday, and he was crying hard because of it. He didn't want to eat, and I held him to comfort him. He kept crying and crying. Last night I had wrapped the birthday gifts that they were gonna get early, before their camps start on Monday. I was gonna give them to them on Sunday night, and I had also wrapped one of Sammy's gifts to give to him early. I thought it might be a good distraction, and so I asked him whether he wanted a gift. He finally agreed, and of course his siblings were eager to get their gifts.
And so they sat down on my bed and unwrapped their gifts. Tammy got a dance dress and a rain poncho, Emmy a soccer outfit with his name and the number 1 as well as a pair of soccer shoes. Unfortunately the outfit was too big. He can wear the shirt, but he'll have to wear different pants. Tammy really liked her dress. Sammy got a MIckey Mouse bottle and really liked it. My plan to distract him had worked. He wanted his bottle near him all day.
Randy was gonna take them all to the playground, but in the end they all stayed home and went downstairs. I finally got some more sleep. My alarm woke me up earlier than I would have wanted. I needed to go to the kitchen and cook, so we'd eat at noon, as I had to teach at 12:40 pm. And that's what we did. I only taught for one hour, then I did some more office work, while they were downstairs. I was pretty tired, so I finally lay down, when there was about 15 minutes left to do so, and they all came upstairs. Then we got ready to leave the house.
We took the 4:30 pm train and reached the shopping mall by 5 pm. We went to McDonald's, where we had a good time eating and the kids got some nice Smurfs with their Happy Meals. Sammy was eager to go to church to see his friend Janos, but the service was only starting at 6 pm, so we still had some time. He was not happy, as he does not have any patience. His siblings then succeeded in distracting him, when they started playing.
Randy had taken Emmy to the restrooms in the mall, and when they returned, they were talking about a ball they wanted to buy. Randy explained how two balls had just been destroyed. And so we headed to the shop together. Randy ended up buying two balls - actually three because they were playing with the balls, and Emmy shot it behind a machine where it was impossible to retrieve it. We also bought two place mats for the kids. Then we finally walked in the direction of the church.
The service had just started, when we got there right after 6 pm. We sat down to worship God. Unfortunately, we could not see Janos anywhere. The kids sat on the chairs for a while, then they got up. Tammy started dancing, Emmy was nearly falling asleep on the chair. Sammy was having fun on the floor after having moved to the rhythm of the music on the chair. I made a few videos. Tammy also joined him on the floor again, where they were having fun together. Later Emmy was the one joining his brother on the floor.
When they started talking, we decided to leave. It was getting late, and Randy does not speak German, nor can the kids stay in there during the preaching. We walked through the mall and to the subway station. I was so extremely tired that I couldn't even keep my eyes open. We took the 7:23 pm train home, then started getting them ready for bed right away. It was later than usual, and so they fell asleep quickly.
