Day 1705. The past two days have been pretty busy. Yesterday I taught from 10 to 12, then Randy left to go pick up Sammy from kindergarten. When he got there, he was in his wheelchair, and the physiotherapist was working with him to learn to steer his wheelchair. Randy took a picture. By 12:40 they were home and I then had 90 minutes with Sammy as Randy left again right away to pick up the other kids from kindergarten. They returned home at 2:15 pm, and at 2:30 pm I had a student. After I was done, I dressed Tammy and Emmy for their dance class, and Randy left with them at 3:45 pm to take them to their class. Sammy and I then had another 2.5 hours together, and they were pretty long. He was whining for Daddy at one point, but I was able to distract him and start playing with him again to make him laugh and have fun. He was so happy, when they finally returned home around 6:15 pm.
This morning I also had a student at 10 am. Then I got everything ready and grabbed something to eat. At 12:15 I left the house, after Randy had already left the house to go get Sammy. I had to take two buses, but I missed the second one after the first one had been late, so I had to wait for a while. I then got to their kindergarten just after 1 pm. When they saw me, they came to me, they got dressed, and off we went.
The cold is finally over, and it had already warmed up considerably, so that Emmy did not put his coat on. We had quite a long walk ahead of us to go to a new bus stop. It was over a month ago, when they had a one-hour tennis tryout session and decided they'd like to take a class. Today it was finally the first day of class, and it was not around the corner from kindergarten, but closer to there than our home.
After our long walk, we could see the bus stop in the distance and lots of people waiting. Then we saw the bus approaching and started running to make it, and we did. We then had over 15 minutes on that bus. It was very full at first, but then it got better. After we got off, we still had quite a long walk ahead of us, nearly as long as the one at first. But then we reached the sports center. We found the entrance and walked in.
The reception was right there, and the guy there gave me a locker key in return for me giving him my house key. We then went upstairs to look for the locker room and we eventually found it. I had brought their sports clothes with me, and so they changed. Then we had to find the tennis courts. We went back downstairs and ended up in a restaurant. And then we could see the courts. One guy had a tennis school T-shirt on, and there were mothers with little kids watching through the glass, so I figured we were in the right place. It was still 5 minutes until 2 pm.
The teacher we had seen finished his lesson, and then we all went in, including the other mother and son. The teacher introduced himself and asked the kids their names. Then he told us mothers that we could stay the first 10 minutes and then had to leave. There were two other boys in their group, so they were 4 students in total.
First the teacher set up a parcours in a circle and told them what they had to do in each part of it. They didn't do everything exactly as they were supposed to but tried. Then he had them take two balls and throw them over the net to try to make little columns fall over. They had throw one with their left hand and the other with their right hand. At her first try, Tammy made two columns fall over.
Then he gave them all tennis rackets and showed them how to stand, how to hold the racket and how to move it, when the balls come. He then played a few balls with a kid before moving on to the next kid. After one was done, they had to go through the whole parcours again and then line up behind the others to play with the teacher again.
After a few rounds, he gave them cones and had them try to catch as many balls as possible, the balls that he was throwing to them. They had lots of fun. Then he had them come one by one again and try to hit the ball he was throwing to them, but this time they had to move and hold the racket differently. I was sitting in the restaurant, right where I could see them best, and watched through the glass, as well as taking pictures. In the end, they all stood by the net with their rackets in front of their faces, and he threw balls to them that they had to hit. Then the class was over. I was surprised, when they each received a piece of candy.
We went back to the locker rooms and got changed again. They'd had fun. Then we left and had to go a different way to go home. Once again it was a long walk before we reached the S-train station. I think it's time to take the scooters with us. We then waited only a few minutes before our train arrived to take us downtown to our subway. Once there, Emmy needed a bathroom, so we made a stop at the public bathroom. Randy then called us there to ask where we were, as Sammy was impatient to see us. Randy had taken him to the playground, but he was done. He said they were coming to our subway stop to meet up with us. It was just before 4 pm, when we got off there, and Sammy was so happy to see us. Tammy gave him a long hug, then we walked home together. I was holding Sammy's hand.
While on the road, my student had once again canceled our 4 pm class - that was the 4th cancelation in 3 weeks. I would have had to immediately turn my computer on and start, so it was nice to actually have some time instead. Randy took the kids downstairs, while I sat down at my computer. At 5 pm I started teaching my second student, and unfortunately the kids came upstairs long before I was done and were interrupting me constantly. After I was done, I went to the kitchen to make their food, which is the beginning of our daily evening routine.
