4 years 5 months 15 days

Day 1628. It's been a while since my last blog post. The main reason for that is that this is the semester break week, so last semester's classes have ended, and next semester's classes only start next week. That meant they had no classes this week. Of course I myself still had plenty of lessons to teach, as different regions have different weeks off. However, the main action we've had this week was that Sammy got that same mean cough that I've had and have only just gotten over. I believe it was Tuesday night that he coughed really bad the first half of the night, waking up and crying a lot. Thankfully I had received a cough sirup specifically for this type of cough and started giving it to him. That plus all your prayers have truly brought about a miraculous recovery! Already yesterday, Thursday, he was not coughing much any more at all, and today it's rare that he coughs. Praise God! It's also the first day today that he is eating and feeling fine again. His body temperature was just a little elevated the last few days. Wednesday he had an absolute terrible day.

On Monday the physiotherapist at the kindergarten showed Randy some exercises to do with Sammy at home, so that's why he took some pictures. As for me, I had an interest morning as I was given a university student to teach maths, which is outside of my expertise. I was glad, when he didn't show up. In the aftertnoon I taught two of my regular students.

On Tuesday I had two of my regular students as well. Sammy went to kindergarten, while the other two kids stayed home all day.

On Wednesday Sammy was excused from kindergarten, as all three kids had an eye doctor's appointment. It was their first check-up with eye drops. And thankfully it's a doctor that's not far from us for a change. We got there before 10:30, registered, and sat down to wait. They had a little kids' corner, where Tammy and Emmy found stuff to play with. They were then called to come to the machine, where they measured eye pressure. And I was called in with Sammy. Because he was coughing and obviously not feeling well, they said they would not put the eye drops in. She tried to do a few tests, but the questions were too hard for him. Then she called in the other kids.

Tammy decided to go first. She put glasses on her face, where only one eye could see at the time, and had her try to recognize shapes from a distance. Then Emmy did the same. Then we returned to the waiting room and waited to be called in to the doctor's office. We didn't have to wait long. The doctor looked at Tammy's and Emmy's eyes through her machine, since the eye drops had done their work. Then she said that their vision was perfect - no glasses necessary. She said to come back with Sammy, when he's well again.

We left and went home, where I went straight to work cooking lunch. After lunch it wasn't long until my first student. I had a long afternoon of teaching from 2 to 6 pm, while Randy took the kids downstairs to pla.

On Thursday I informed the kindergarten that Sammy was sick and not coming. I also canceled his last physiotherapy appointment with his therapist who is retiring, but he has a new appointment to make up for it. I only taught two hours, from 2 to 4 pm. Randy was again downstairs with them, where they have all their toys.

This morning the alarm woke us at 6:30 am - that is 45 minutes earlier than when Sammy goes to kindergarten. Randy got up and started making breakfast, while Tammy and Emmy continued sleeping to my left and right. Even Sammy continued sleeping, but he was then the first one up. Randy sat down to have breakfast with him, then the others were waking up as well, but only Tammy ate some food. Emmy didn't want to. At 7:30 we left the house together.

It was time for their yearly preemie checkup at the university hospital, where they were born. In fact, this time it was at age 4.5, while the 3-year-old check up had been around their biological age 3 mark (Nov 2022). Now they only have one more check-up a year from now, when they're 5.5, so just before they start school. We had to take three subways, and it was so fast this morning, that we got there quite a bit too early. However, we still had to register, which took some time. The one thing I noticed right away that it was the first time with no Covid measures whatsoever. There was no check at the door, and nobody was wearing masks. After having registered, we went to the familiar waiting area, where we were the only ones. I was surprised, when a lady came right away and said we could come for the measuring part of the check-up. Surprisingly it was Emmy who said he was going first; usually it's Tammy. They had a chair that was a scale, where they weighed him, then measured his head circumference, then took his blood pressure. Next she took him to the wall to measure his height, then it was Tammy's turn. Sammy went last, and he did great as well.

We had to return to the waiting room for some time, and the kids took advantage of the games on the walls, as well as the vehicles to sit on and move with that they found. We didn't have to wait long to be called back into the room.

This time the checkup was a little different. There were two doctors in the room, and one silently sat on a chair the whole time, while the other questioned me, wanting to know everything about the kids. First I had to answer all the questions about Emmy, then Tammy, then Sammy. She also listened to their lungs and hearts and tested their reflexes. Then she asked Tammy and Emmy to do a few things, like walk on a line and walk on tip-toes. They mastered everything. Then this part was over, and she told us we needed to go a level down to see the physiotherapists and speech therapists, who'd do the remaining tests.

And so we walked downstairs. I asked whether Sammy's physiotherapist was there who had worked with him the first two years of his life, but she's still on leave. What a shame. We waited a little while, then we were called into a little gym. There were about 5 different therapists who were going to do all the tests. One took Tammy with her to the room nextdoor, and Randy went with her. Another physiotherapist started testing Emmy in the room I was in, and Sammy was also with us. Another lady then started questioning me about the kids, and the questioning took pretty much the whole time I was there! It was a shame as I was curious what kinds of things the kids had to do. I saw a little bit of what Emmy was doing - like coloring and cutting with scissors. At some point Tammy returned, and Emmy went to the other room. Randy stayed with Sammy. When I had completed the papers, I went to the other room as Emmy was there on his own. They had basically just finished what they were doing, and so the lady gave me some feedback. She was the speech therapist. She said that after the initial shyness, Emmy had opened up and become talkative. She had no issues with either his or Tammy's speech.

We then returned to the first room, where another physiotherapist started doing physical stuff with Emmy that I could watch, like jumping on squares and the like. I found out that the other therapist had more questions for me, so I continued answering questions. In the end I was told that it would be a good idea for Emmy to have a few fine motor skill therapy sessions. However, there are long waiting lists everywhere, so that would take a while anyway. As for Sammy, they thought he could eventually go to an integrative class, when he starts school.  That would mean being the one special needs kid in a normal school class, but with an additional teacher that is just there to help Sammy keep up. As he still has 2.5 years before he has to start school, there is still time until then. The other two will probably start school in 1.5 years.

It was 11 am, when we left. We had been there for 2.5 hours. I was amazed at how well the kids had done. All three had stayed concentrated and done what they were asked of until the end; no sign of tiredness. We left the hospital and took the three subways back home, where we arrived just before noon. Once again I went straight to the kitchen to start cooking, and it took 45 minutes until it was ready. Then we sat down to eat.

As we had all gotten up so early, I closed all the curtains and made the room dark, so they could lie in bed and rest, even though they had their tablets with them. Not even Sammy slept today (he had slept once this week, when he was sick).  It was Randy who was the most tired and took a nap in the chair next to Sammy's bed. I was alright and worked for a while, until the tiredness caught up with me as well, so that a I closed my eyes for a while. Eventually Randy took the kids downstairs to play, while I went back to work after my short nap. It was surprising and rare for me to have an afternoon without any students. However, they had given me a new student and scheduled it for 9 pm, so I prepared a little for that first session.

At one point Randy called me to come downstairs. He had sat up the railing in a new way, so that Sammy could stand and walk sideways, and he wanted to show me how well Sammy was doing just that. He was doing great!

Randy and the kids came back upstairs rather early. We went through our daily evening routine, with Tammy lying down in my bed to fall asleep. I went to the kitchen to make my salad, as always, and was done by 8:45 pm. I took Tammy back to her own bed, and got ready for my 9 pm student. I had a good lesson with her, then I finally got to eat my salad. Because of the student I lost some time, so that it's already 1 am now, and tomorrow I teach early in the morning.