Day 1630. Yesterday Emmy started coughing pretty bad. Today he had a fever, and it was higher than Sammy's has ever been. Sammy always seems to not have any of these viruses affect him as much as his siblings.
This morning the kids were all up before the alarm went off at 8 am. Randy then got up to make breakfast, but Emmy hardly ate anything all day long. I got up a little later and dressed the kids. Just after 9 am we left the house to catch the 9:20 am train. It was raining a little bit and still windy. After we got off the train, we had to take the tram, and it arrived right away. Then we walked all around the swimming pool, to the back, where we had to get up a staircase. The area is a huge construction site right now, which is why the former entrance is gone. I took the bags, and Randy rolled Sammy up the stairs. We paid and went to the locker room to get changed. Then we went inside, showered, and went into the pool.
The kids were all excited, as it's been 3 weeks since the last class. Even Emmy started diving and jumping right away, and Tammy showed that she can swim all by herself. Sammy was also really excited to be in the water. Then the class started. By then Emmy was cold and did not want to do the initial activity of being thrown into the air. He didn't want to do the first swimming exercise either. Randy ended up leaving the water with him, wrapping him in a towel and holding him tight to warm him up. And so I had Tammy and Sammy by myself, which was challenging at times. Tammy was the best in class, and in a way I wished they were a little bit more challenged. They had to swim on their bellies and on their backs. They swam through a tunnel, slid down a slide into the water and dove through two rings. Tammy was so fast that she actually did a whole circle and caught up with me and Sammy again. And before we knew it, the half hour was up, and we did the good-bye song.
Normally we stay a little to enjoy the water, but with Emmy sick and our busy afternoon ahead, we needed to leave right away.
We got back on the tram and rode the two stops back to the train station. We had 15 minutes to wait for our train. I was holding a visibly sick Emmy in my arms. We took the 11:23 train home, where we arrived just after 11:30. The kids were already hungry, as was I, and so I warmed up the leftovers for everyone to eat. Emmy, however, I put straight to bed. I made the room dark, and he actually fell asleep and slept for a little while. Then he woke up and agreed to eat a little. I needed some rest bad, but there were only a few minutes for that. Emmy actually ended up lying down next to me for a few minutes. But then it was time to get ready to leave at 1:15. I gave Emmy a fever-lowering sirup and dressed the kids, putting their costumes on.
At 1:15 pm we left the house on time and walked to the subway. We took it to the end, then had to take a tram for two stops. There were already some other disguised kids on the subway with us that were going to the same place - the biggest carnival kids' party in Vienna at town hall. We got off the tram and walked to the entrance of town hall. It was 1:45 pm, and the official beginning was at 2 pm. Everyone had to have tickets, but I had to go pick up a free ticket for Sammy that he was given because of the wheelchair. Then we stood in line to be let in, which took some time, as they were checking everyone's tickets. We didn't go up the staircase, but we went straight to the elevator as we already knew from last time where it was. We rode it up and got out right where the face-painting station was. That was the perfect beginning for the afternoon. There was already a long line, and we lined up at the end.
We took our coats off, and Randy left to go take them to where you were supposed to hand them in for safe-keeping. Once he was a back, I suggested to the kids we'd go check out what was around where we were. And so Randy stayed in the line with Sammy, while we saw the tables for coloring, and the tables for board games. We went to the next room, where there were a lot of people. The kids were given a card and told they needed to complete at least three tasks and then come back and get a gift.
The first task was to crawl through tunnels - no problem for them. That was their first stamp. Then they took their picture - second stamp. There was a lady dressed as a sea turtle, and I took their picture with her. Next they had the different trash cans set up, as we are required to separate our trash into categories. They then put different items on the ground, and the kids were supposed to put them into the correct trash cans. There were really too many kids in there, when they were there, but they each put an item into a trash can - third stamp. We then went to the table, where Tammy chose a teabag as a gift, and Emmy flower seeds.
Randy had already called me, and we headed back to the line. They were much closer to the front than before, but there was still a good number of children ahead of them. So it was time for patience-training, which is hard. Randy already had Sammy watching songs on his phone, but he was still getting more and more restless. I had to start playing with him, like we usually do, which makes him laugh and distracts him.
And then it was their turn. The lady most easily accessible became available first, so Randy went to her. She drew him a Mickey Mouse face. Then Tammy went to the next lady who beautifully painted our little princess. Emmy went to the third lady, who was a little bit at a loss and ended up simply drawing some fire on his cheek. They all finished about the same time.
It was finally time to go to the big hall; it was already 3 pm, so they had missed the first activity there. We got there just as they were doing the official opening and greeting. We were right in front of the stage, and it was pretty loud. I put Emmy on my shoulders so he could see better, but Tammy wanted up too. They had a guy with "speaking drums" come to do some fun stuff with the kids, but our kids didn't enjoy it. They wanted to see Kasperl, and so we decided to head to the 3:30 performance instead (rather than the 4:30 one we were going to go to). I knew that we needed to go down the stairs and wasn't sure how to get there by elevator. A lady on staff told us the elevator was going there, so we headed to the elevator, but it did not take us there. So we returned, crossed the big hall, and took the stairs down. Randy rolled the wheelchair down step by step. It turned out that the Kasperl theater was set up on the bottom floor, so we could have taken the elevator down and cross the courtyard.
As the show was about to start, the room was pretty full. We walked all the way to the front, and Tammy and Emmy sat down in the crowd of kids. I stayed with Sammy on the side, while Randy left to lean against the wall nearby. Kasperl is not Sammy's thing, so I had to interact with him the whole time. However, I still got to watch the show, and I was not impressed. I remembered how underwhelmed I had been last time, when we watched the same group perform. They simply don't have good stories. It was about Valentine's Day rather than carnival, and it was all about a witch, which our children did not like. I noticed that more and more parents and children were leaving the room, and in the end we also left before it was over. For our kids not to want to finish a Kasperl show, that says it all.
It was time to go to the next place they had wanted to go - the ballpen. We crossed the courtyard as fast as possible, as it was cold without our coats, and took the elevator back up to the floor, where the action was. Then we headed to the small kids' area. They were selling traditional Austrian donuts with apricot jam on the way, and Tammy wanted one, so we stopped and lined up to buy two. We then took those with us to the room that was our destination. We sat down on chairs, and Tammy, Sammy and Randy ate the donuts. Then we moved on to the ballpen. Tammy and Sammy went in right away and had fun. Emmy's fever had gone up again, and he was sitting in Daddy's arm on a chair nearby. The other two didn't stay long either, as they wanted to go to the playdoh area right there. And so the two of them did. It was a playdoh paradise with everything you could possibly want! I then asked Randy to switch with me as I had not sat in a chair for a long time and needed a break. I sat down with Emmy, while Randy stayed with Tammy and Sammy by the playdoh.
After some time they returned, and we decided to go home. It was about half an hour before the end of the party. We walked to the main hall, where I found an available chair to sit on. That's where the four of us waited, while Randy left to go pick up our coats. Tammy started dancing to the good music that was playing after having found some garland that she liked. I even got to make a little video of her. After Randy's return, we walked to the elevator once again and rode it down to street level. We put our coats on and left through the gate we had come in through. We walked to the tram stop and rode it for two stops, then took the elevators down to the subway that took us home. Randy was carrying Emmy for much of the time, as I had hurt my back carrying the kids and couldn't do it.
By 5:45 pm we were back home, and I warmed up some food for them right away. Emmy didn't want to eat anything again. Instead I put his pj's on right away. He wanted to spend a few minutes on his tablet. Then he came to me, saying he wanted to cuddle a little, and he fell asleep doing so. When I put his diaper for the night on later, he woke up and insisted on a story. So I actually read Bible stories to them. Then Emmy went to bed. Tammy and Sammy took a quick shower, then I put them to bed. And so they ended up in bed much earlier than usual; by 7:30 pm they were all asleep.
I myself was way too tired to take half an hour to cut my salad. So I made something quick instead and sat down to eat. Tammy now only falls asleep in my bed, so she was right there next to me and stayed there all evening while I was working. Now it's midnight, and I have yet to take care of the kitchen before being the last one to go to bed.
