4 years 11 months 25 days

Day 1820. This week Tammy's and Emmy's kindergarten is closed. They pleaded with me to go to a soccer camp (Emmy) and a ballet camp (Tammy). Today they had their first day there. Sammy had horse therapy at 10:45, so one of us had to take him with us. Since I didn't know if and how many stairs there'd be to get to the dance camp, Randy took him with him, even though he knew he had a lot of walking to do. And so Randy left with the boys first, and Tammy and I left the house just before 8:30. We had made a deal that I was taking her the first day and Emmy the other days, so that Emmy and I could take our scooters for that long walk. But she wanted me there on her first day.

We took the subway, and I noticed that Tammy was unusually talkative. Probably because she was nervous. After we got off the subway, we still had a little bit of walking to do. We got there at 8:45 and they said they'd open at 8:50. There were a few other kids waiting there. When other arriving kids went straight in, we decided to follow them. It was practical that there were kids that already knew the way to the dance school, as there were several courtyards and all kinds of businesses.

Tammy's nervousness now manifested in her not talking at all any more. We walked inside the building and saw a sign that we were supposed to take our shoes off before going in, so we did. Then we waited a few more minutes before the teacher came with the keys. By then a lot of kids with parents had gathered, and quite a few kids already knew each other. Most were girls, but there were also two boys there. Going into the studio, we sat down on the sofa and waited. The two teachers had to fix what had come off the ceiling. After a few minutes, they greeted us and told us to go to the locker room. I put Tammy's backpack up there, then we went to the dance hall with her bottle that she put by the other bottles. A lot of the girls were talking with each other. Tammy was clearly the youngest there; the camp was from 5 years of age up, and Tammy is turning 5 on Sunday. There was at least one other kid that looked close to her age.

After a few more minutes the teachers asked everyone to sit in a circle on the ground. Tammy would only do so with me coming with her. She was not talking, only nodding and pulling me. I sat down with her. The teachers then did a roll call and asked each kid to say what they won't or can't eat. Tammy was one of the last kids and said the same two sentences most kids had said. She also started interacting with the girl next to her who asked about Tammy, and I told her that Tammy was nervous because it was her first time there. The girl then said that it was her first time too. A few minutes later they were friends, even though she was older than Tammy.

The teachers then said that they were doing the stop dance to start with, and Tammy knows that one well. They all dance and have to stop, when the music stops. I told her I was leaving, and she nodded. When the music started, the girl came to her and they danced together. It was great leaving her like that. I was confident she was gonna have a good day.

As for Emmy, Randy told me that he was clearly the youngest kid there, even though his camp was from 4 years of age up, and Emmy seemed a little uncomfortable at first, which is absolutely normal in a new environment. Randy then returned home with Sammy, and I happened to be in the same subway train as them. By 9:30 we were all home. I was really tired, but kept busy and never lay down before my 11 am student. Randy and Sammy left at 10 am for his horse therapy session.
They returned just after I had finished teaching at noon. I warmed up leftovers for Randy and Sammy, then lay down, as I was too tired to go on. I only took a short nap, about an hour, then ate and got ready for my 2:30 pm student. I'd done a lot of lessons with this particular student as he had his big written exam today, and the outcome of this exam was going to decide, whether he can start the next grade or have to repeat 7th grade. He told me that the written exam was really easy, then we used our time to get him ready for his oral exam tomorrow. That's when he'll find out the outcome.

Randy left the house before I finished teaching at 3:20 pm. Sammy was already making his way to me before I had signed off. We then got ready and left the house together at 3:30 pm. Sammy wanted to come with me instead of Daddy, and as there were only a few stops by the dance studio, that was fine with me.

We took the subway - a new train, much to Sammy's delight - then walked to the dance studio. Sammy was saying how he missed Tammy and that he liked her. We got to the dance studio before the camp ended at 4 pm. Tammy saw us and ran to us, but I told her to go back in until it was over. Sammy and I then sat down and waited with the other parents. Once Tammy was done, we left to walk back to the subway.

I asked Tammy how she'd liked the day, and she said she had enjoyed it. Later she told Randy how one boy had annoyed her, but she had told the teacher who told the boy to stop. She was crying, when she told Daddy. She continued crying, which was odd. When she talked to me, she said she was crying because she wanted me to take her tomorrow as well, and not Daddy. Emmy was right there and he said it was okay for me to take her and for him to go with Daddy. I then said that I'd be taking her in the morning and then picking up Emmy in the afternoon. That sounded like a good deal to them. Emmy said that he had enjoyed the camp, even though there had also been an older boy that had annoyed him.

We got home at 4:30 pm, and a few minutes later Randy and Emmy arrived. I was getting ready for my 5 pm student. Randy then went downstairs with the kids. After I was done and they came back up, I started getting their food ready. They ate, then went into the bathtub. Coming back out, I reminded them that they had to tidy up their room tonight as the cleaning lady was coming tomorrow. Tammy went to work right away, going at double speed, while Emmy didn't move and never lifted a finger. I told him there'd be consequences and took something away he had just received and that was important to him, which led to him crying and the drama we see way too often with him at night. When he's tired, he cries easily and becomes unreasonable. It took a long time before it was all resolved, and by then his siblings were already asleep.

Once he was finally in bed, I got to get something to eat, then I started working again. I also did some more wrapping of birthday presents. At midnight I realized I had not written my report yet, so it's nearly 1 am now, as I go to bed.