4 years 3 months 20 days

 Day 1572. On Wednesday the kids have their exercise class. Randy took them there, while I stayed home with Sammy, and we had a good time together. After they returned, I had a student.

Yesterday afternoon Randy took Sammy to his weekly physiotherapy session, while I taught from 3 to 7 pm. Once Randy and Sammy returned, they went downstairs with the other two to play. In the evening I had another student at 9 pm. It was my last session with the Syrian couple, teaching them German, and I was really sad about it.

This morning I had a student at 9 am, and I was very tired. Thankfully it energizes me to teach. Once Randy returned, he went downstairs with them, while I got to do some office work. At 11:30 they came back upstairs, and I started doing school work with them. First they were doing papers, then educational games on their tablets. Emmy often has fits while doing the papers, because he doesn't want to do them. Today he had one as well. He got up and was crying that he didn't want to do it. All he had to do was to color a dog. I was in the kitchen cooking, while Tammy was already on the tablet. I then said to him that the devil was laughing watching him, as he had won. Emmy immediately stopped crying, returned to his seat and finished his paper in very little time. I was really impressed! We were cheering that he had conquered the devil.

When Randy and Sammy returned from kindergarten at 12:45, we sat down to eat. Then they continued playing or watching stuff, while I continued working. I was very tired and really just wanted to take a nap, but time was too short. At 2 pm we started getting them ready to leave the house, and at 2:15 we did.

We took the 2:30 train; it was an old train and so Sammy started crying hard. He had already been cranky because he was so tired, but he insisted that he was coming with us. I succeeded in getting him to calm down, reminding him that we were about to get on the subway. Thank God it was a new train! However, we only rode it for one stop, and so he was crying hard again, when we got off.

We walked to the school, where we arrived early. We took the kids' coats etc. off and put their exercise shoes on, then they went inside the gym. Once the teacher arrived, we left to go downstairs to the library. Sammy was eager to look at books. Even though I was just as tired as Randy, Sammy wanted to read books with me, so I sat down with him, and he pulled book after book out, while Randy took the opportunity to take a short nap. Sammy then wanted to sit in one of the kids' chairs there, and I then took these pictures of him.

After he while he wanted to use his tablet. I told him he couldn't make noise in the library, so we went back upstairs. There were only about 10 minutes left. Sammy was watching children's songs on his tablet during that time.

After their class was over, we put all the coats etc. back on and left to walk back to the subway. We had the ultra-modern train for the second time ever, much to Sammy's delight, but it was only one stop once again. After we got off, we went straight up to the train platform and took the 4:23 pm train a few minutes later.

Just after 4:30 pm we were back home. Randy and the kids went downstairs, while I got ready for my 5 pm student. I was so tired that the only thing I really wanted to do was to lie down and close my eyes, but I didn't. I taught until 6 pm, then did some more work. Then everybody came back upstairs. At 6:30 I gave the kids some warmed up leftovers to eat, and at the same time the monthly Zoom sing-along their music school offers started. They were eating, while it was going on, then they went into the bathtub after it was over. After they had come out, we went through our nightly ritual of advent calendars and stories and prayer and brushing their teeth and giving them stars for chores done. It all takes some time. Once they were finally in bed, Randy sat down with them, while I went to the kitchen to cut up my salad, which also takes time. It was quite a bit after 9 pm before I got to sit down and eat.

And now it's nearly 1 am and time for me to go to bed. We have an intense weekend ahead of us.