Day 1666. I had gone to bed before 3 am and had set my alarm for just before 10 am. However, there's no sleeping with three little kids. Especially Emmy constantly comes to me. This morning he was hungry and crying because of it. Even though it's Randy who makes breakfast, he still came to me for help. Eventually Randy got up and made breakfast. I ended up reading stories to them before my alarm went off. I had bought some Christian books at the church bookstore last weekend, and they wanted me to continue the story we had started, so I did. At some point I got up as well and got ready to leave the house before 10:30 am.
Sammy's physiotherapy at the therapy center has ended because of his therapist retiring, and now he's on the waiting list for fine motor skill therapy. I then got a call for him to go try out horse therapy, and today was that day for the appointment. Sammy was really excited for Mommy to go with him. We got on the subway, rode it for three stops, and then we had to find the bus stop. There were so many different buses there that it wasn't that easy, but we found it. We got on and rode it for some time, all the way to the last stop before leaving Vienna. We got off and stood in front of the horse therapy center. We were 15 minutes early, which was perfect. We had to find the door and walked in. We continued walking in the direction of where we saw horses with people on them in a big hall. Sammy's face lit up, as he was watching. At the same time he was a little apprehensive as to what was going to happen. I got him out of the wheelchair and carried him closer to the horses. He enjoyed watching them.
Then the therapist came with her previous client. She finished with them and then turned to us. She said hello to Sammy, and his horse Daya was brought next to the metal plate that could go up to help smaller kids get onto the horse. She had me stand on the other side to make sure he was safe. Sammy was excited. Once he was on it, the therapist moved his legs the way she wanted them. Then she told him to straighten up, and off we all went to the big pen behind the building. She had a lady guiding the horse, while she always had her hand on Sammy's back to keep him from falling. Once we reached the pen, the area, where you work with the horse, I had to stay on the outside to watch.
Even though it was a cold day, the sun was out and pretty strong, so we all got pretty hot at some point. Even Sammy eventually took his coat off - also because it was so bulky that the therapist couldn't make anything out. They walked in a circle around the pen several times. The therapist constantly asked Sammy to sit up and be as tall as possible. And Sammy did quite a bit of talking as well. He was the most curious to know whether the horse was pooping, asking that a lot.
After half an hour the session was already over, and we went back to where we had started. Sammy still had a big smile on his face. I caught him on camera, smiling at me. As they told me not to post any pictures, this is the only one I'm showing you, as it's mostly Sammy you can see on it.
She had Sammy get off the horse correctly, and then talked to me a little bit. The doctor had thought that he was still too small for horse therapy, that the horse was too wide for him, but the therapist said that it had turned out better than expected and that she wanted him to come back two more times before deciding whether he should do a block of 10 sessions. She said that it would do him good in a lot of ways, listing a few. Then we said good-bye. I put Sammy back into his wheelchair, and we left.
The bus stop was right there, but we had to wait quite a few minutes until the bus arrived. We then rode it back to the subway, then rode the subway home. By 12:30 we were back home. Randy had put two lasagnas into the oven that were ready to eat. And so I put it all on plates, and we sat down to eat together.
After lunch Randy left immediately to buy some groceries, as we had been out of town, but time was short. The kids were all occupying themselves, and so I lay down to close my eyes for a little bit as I was extremely tired. However, Sammy's remote-controlled car is really loud, so I did not get much rest. When the alarm went off, I hit the snooze button a few times. Then I got up and got everybody ready to leave the house.
At 2:30 pm we all left the house together to take the subway for two stops and then the tram for three to get to the school, where their ball-playing class is taking place every Monday at 3 pm. We were the first ones there, and surprisingly the door was locked. Then the teacher came and called the janitor who unlocked the door for us. We went into the locker room, they took their long pants off and put their shoes on, and then we went inside the gym, where balls were already everywhere. Tammy and Emmy started throwing balls to me that I was throwing back to them. I then played with Sammy a little, but he was more interested in just having fun with me without having balls involved. Randy was also very tired and sat on the floor during the whole class, closing his eyes. I would have liked to do the same.
The kids played different games with the balls and were having fun. Early on Emmy came to me saying his foot that he had hurt the other day was hurting so bad. I prayed for him, and he was fine again, going back to playing at full speed. Thank you, Jesus!
Emmy didn't always do what he was supposed to but rather what he wanted, while Tammy was very diligent doing exactly what was asked for her, and she did quite a few rounds of the obstacle course, having lots of fun. Before we knew it, the class was over. We left right away, got them changed and dressed and walked back to the tram that took us to the subway.
Just before 4:30 pm we were back home; I had just enough time to go to the bathroom before turning my computer on to teach. Randy and the kids went downstairs to play. I taught for two horus, and they were all back upstairs before I was done teaching. Then they started crying, because Daddy wouldn't let them have their tablets. They were also trying to get to me, but I was holding the door shut while teaching. Once I was done, I put a Superbook CD into the TV player for them to watch. Then I went to the kitchen to make dinner.
And for the first time since Tuesday of last week, we went through our regular evening routine. Well, almost. Because at 6:45 pm I remembered that the kids' music school had a story-telling time. So I quickly joined the Zoom call on my computer and put it in front of them on the dining room table. Then I went to the kitchen to continue making their food. Once the half-hour story-telling time was over, they all went to the bathtub, where they were finishing their fruit. By 8:30 pm they were all in bed - the earliest since last Tuesday. Even Sammy was not falling asleep right away. Eventually Tammy did, because I was lying next to her. Then I left to go get myself something to eat. After having eaten, I went to work on the pictures and the report. Now it's after 1 am, and I still have to take care of the kitchen.
