Day 1559. A day without an alarm clock. Yeah! At least not an electronic one. Emmy was the one waking me up, and of course he was impatient to open his advent calendar. Soon they were all up and wanted to open all the advent calendars, so I had no choice but to get up and open them all with them. Then they had breakfast and actually went downstairs with Randy for half an hour. At 10 am we all left the house together.
It was snowing really hard, and snow was already covering everything. The kids were delighted and full of joy, picking up snow and making balls with them. But we were in a hurry. We got on the subway, went downtown, and then walked to the music school. We were a few minutes late for their piano class today. I've been going about every other week, staying home with Sammy on the other Saturdays.
The kids were doing well today, in terms of behavior and participation. After they have mastered the Do, they learned the Re today, where it is on the keyboard. And again they played all five notes with the correct fingers from 1 to 5. They also did some note-writing and songs/dances, rhythm, and of course the story at the end. Tammy always asks repeatedly throughout the class whether it's story time yet.
After class it was time to get them all dressed again to go back out into the snow, and it seemed even worse. It was snowing really hard and it was cold, and we were not going home. We had to walk a different direction to a tram stop, fighting against the weather. We finally made it to the tram stop, and thankfully the tram soon arrived. Some kids were whining about the cold. We then stayed on the tram for 23 minutes. Once we got off, we had to wait a few minutes for another tram to ride for two stops. Then we had to walk a little, and the sidewalk was full of snow. Pushing the wheelchair in all that snow was pretty hard, and so I let Randy do it.
We had never been to the location where we were going - office space for one of the churches we often go to. Today the kids were meeting there from 10 to 3 pm to practice the Christmas play. I had told them we would not be able to come before noon.
And it was about 12:15, when we got there. Most everyone had already eaten, but there were no little pizzas left, so they bought more, and about half an hour later we were also able to get some food into our stomachs. In fact, the kids had already eaten a lot of snacks on the way there. While waiting for the food, we went into the room with the costumes. The kids got to choose whether they wanted to be angels, sheep or shepherds. Tammy wanted to be an angel. At first Emmy said sheep, but then he changed his mind to angel as well. Sammy was gonna be a sheep, and he was looking great in his costume. After they had tried on their costumes, we returned to the crowd. There were some toys there that the kids started playing with. Eventually they started doing some crafts, and all our three children made a little star. When the dancer was practicing a dance with all the kids wanting to be involved, Tammy joined the group, and it delighted my heart to see her dance with the others. But it didn't last very long; she told me she was not gonna do it.
Then we found out that there was nothing else going on today, so there was no reason to stay. We packed up and left at 1:40 pm to go home. It was a long trip home, and there were several options. While waiting for the tram, Tammy and Emmy were having lots of fun playing with the snow and throwing balls at each other. After a short tram ride, we got on the subway and rode two lines home, where we arrived at 2:30 pm. It had been nice and warm on the subway. Once we were back outside again, the snow was beating down on us. The ground had a thick layer on it, but the kids were having fun.
They wanted to build a snowman bad, and have more fun in the snow. I still had until 4 pm before I had to teach, but I had two hours with a difficult student ahead of me, and I started getting really tired after a long day already. I really wanted to go outside to play with the kids in the snow, but I was simply too tired, especially in light of my 2-hour teaching stint. I had no choice but to say I couldn't do it, but was happy that Randy was willing to go outside with them. Sammy wasn't interested anyway, so he could stay inside with me. And so we put snowsuits on the kids and wrapped them all up, ready to go outside and play. Randy got two of the plastic sleds, and off they went to go to the nearby park. Unfortunately there's hardly any inclines there, so they were not that successful and came back to our house and to where the sand box is right outside our apartment downstairs. They were having fun there, and making snow angels, then building a snowman. The snow was perfect for that, and so it did not take them long to make one bigger than themselves. Randy came back inside with them just before 4 pm to pick up some stuff to put on the snowman, and they went back outside. At 4 pm I started teaching, but they were still not back. That was a problem, as Sammy needs constant attention, and so I had to constantly leave my student to take care of him. I tried to call Randy, but to no avail. Twenty minutes into my lesson they finally came back inside, and I was able to teach in peace until 6 pm, just having to deal with a diffcult teenage boy who does not want to learn or study. I was even more exhausted after.
At 6:30 I went to the kitchen to make dinner for them, and Sammy joined me, having fun with me. We don't let him pull out the drawers any more, even though he loves it so much, as his weight is gonna break them available. Still, I couldn't believe my eyes, when I saw that Sammy put his feet up as well. Looks like he'll be a climber! I then put him on a chair, the way the physiotherapist had shown me, where we continued having fun. They all had some food, then ate more in the bathtub. Then they opened their chocolate advent calendars, we read a story together, they brushed their teeth, and I prayed for them before putting them to bed. Randy sat down by them, while I went to the kitchen to start the long process of making myself a salad. After having eaten, I went to work on today's pictures, but by 1 am I got so tired that I had to stop writing my report and went to bed.
