4 years 6 months 6 days

Day 1650. Yesterday we had a day at home. Sammy went to kindergarten in the morning, and I had a student. In the afternoon, the kids always go downstairs to play at some point. Before that was the case, Tammy wanted to do some drawing, and she included Sammy, encouraging him to draw with her. I was working on my computer closeby and enjoyed listening to Tammy talk to her brother and the two of them interact. I made a little video of the two of them. Then they all went downstairs, while I taught for 3 hours, from 3 to 6 pm.

This morning the kids were supposed to have piano class, but the teacher was sick, so it was canceled. And I was supposed to teach at 9 am, before piano class, but moved it to the afternoon. And so the morning was free, which I was thankful for as I had lots of office work to do. But also because I was tired and looking forward to sleeping in, as it was the second night in a row, where Emmy woke up crying in pain because of his belly. He's been hurting on and off since Monday. He was still hurting in the morning, and as it's been worse and we had some time, we decided to take him to the hospital to get him checked out.

And so I had to get up at 9 am, got him and myself ready, and we left the house to go to the nearby hospital, while Randy and the other two went downstairs to play. The first picture I took in the subway on the way there. Emmy was in pain, and but it wasn't so bad that he was not in good spirits. As it was Saturday, there were not that many people in the hospital. We went to the kids' emergency room and registered. It was 10 am. Then we sat down. A few minutes later we were called into the first room, where they asked basic questions to find out what the problem was and determine which doctor he'd be sent to. We returned to the waiting room and sat down to wait until Emmy's name was called. He had his tablet with him, while I had my phone and a few papers to read. The second picture I took while waiting. I expected to wait about 2 hours from our experience in the past, but we ended up waiting for just over 3 hours. I had a few squeezies and a cereal bar with us for Emmy, which he ate. We were both getting pretty tired of waiting, and the waiting room was emptying out.

Finally it was our turn to go inside. The doctor was a young surgeon who was really nice. I wished it had been doctors like him who took care of Emmy, when his hand was burned, as he was traumatized back then. The doctor asked me a few questions, then had Emmy lie down on the bed. He said he wasn't going to do anything without telling Emmy first to put him at ease, and it worked. He listened to Emmy's belly and pushed around on it. That was it. He said everything was fine with Emmy and to give him pain medication if necessary and go see the pedeatrician if the pain continues. It looks like he might be intolerant of certain foods that we would have to figure out.

At 1:30 pm we left the hospital; I was really tired and also hungry, as I had not eaten anything yet. I had called Randy twice per video to let him  know we were still waiting. He told me that Sammy was crying for Mommy. Before Emmy and I got on the subway home, we went into the grocery store right there. I had told Randy to warm up some leftovers for himself and the kids, but there wasn't that much, so I was looking for a one portion meal to buy for Emmy, but they didn't really have anything. We ended up buying unhealthy food, mini pizzas, that all the kinds then ate together.

At 1:45 we were finally home, and Sammy was especially happy about that. I made the mini pizzas and then made my own food. I was so very tired, but I had little time, as I had to teach at 3 pm. I lay down and had Sammy with me for some time. Sammy was suddenly not feeling well, saying his belly was hurting and he even threw up once, which Emmy never did. He ended up lying down and taking a nap, while I had to start teaching at 3 pm. After Sammy woke up, Randy took the kids downstairs, and they already came back upstairs, when I finished teaching at 5 pm. Sammy just lay with Daddy and didn't eat dinner, but went to bed early, sleeping long before the others went to bed. The other two ate dinner, then ate their fruit in the bathtub, then we got them ready for bed, and we read the Bible in my bed. After having brushed their teeth, I prayed for them, and we lay down together in my bed. Emmy started crying again that his belly was hurting. I gave him some pain medication the doctor had recommended, but I couldn't tell it was helping. He still cried for a while before he fell asleep. Tammy soon fell asleep. I eventually carried her to own bed. I was working on the computer, when Emmy woke up crying and came to me saying his belly was hurting so bad. I didn't know what else to do to help him. He lay down next to me, but he cried for a while and got up a few times, until he left and returned to his bed, with Daddy sitting next to him. He fell back asleep, but I'm pretty sure he'll come to me crying again in the middle of the night.