4 years 8 months 19 days

Day 1723. Last night I made it to bed earlier, at 1 am, but it takes me some time to fall asleep. In the morning the alarm goes off at 7:15, but usually Sammy is up before then. Randy then gets up to make breakfast and sits down with the boys. Then my second alarm goes off, and I wake up Tammy next to me to also get up and have breakfast. Once they are done eating, I get up to dress them, and they leave between 8:15 and 8:30 am. Today it was rather late. It was Sammy's first day back at the kindergarten in a week. And today the kids and Randy sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me, and the kids gave me drawings they had made.

When I can, I lie back down after they leave for kindergarten, but today that was not possible, as I had a 9 am student. I taught until 10 am, then got ready to leave. When I left at 10:15 am, Randy had not returned, as he went to the grocery store after kindergarten. I took the subway for two stops and walked to Sammy's kindergarten. When I opened the front door, there was Sammy in a chair with the physiotherapist. Sammy was so happy to see me. The therapist told me that Sammy had walked from their room to the front with her. S he also told me how amazed she was at the progress the horse therapy had caused in his legs. His muscles are more relaxed and he crosses his legs less. Then I put Sammy into his wheelchair, and we left the kindergarten.

We walked to the subway and thankfully it was a new subway that came. We rode it for four stops. There was a man in a wheelchair near us who enjoyed very much watching Sammy's joy of riding the subway and pushing the door button. After we got off, we walked quite a bit to get to Sammy's therapy center. We got there perfectly on time. While waiting for the fine motor skill therapist, Sammy's physiotherapist who's retiring came by and exchanged a few words with us. Then the therapist arrived and took us to her room. She was supposed to do the session with another therapist, but the other one was sick.

And so it was just the three of us. I got Sammy out of the wheelchair and put him on the ground. I took a picture and was severely rebuked for it. She told me she didn't want pictures. All the other therapists there had allowed and even encouraged it. She then started playing with Sammy, as well as asking me questions about him. The session was 45 minutes long, and it was about her getting a picture of where Sammy is at. He's gonna start this therapy on a weekly basis in September.

We left the center again and went home. When we got off the subway, there was Randy waiting for the subway in the other direction to go pick up Tammy and Emmy.Sammy was really happy to see Daddy and we saw him off, waving at him in the subway.

By 12:15 pm we were home. I immediately started making an omelet and bread with Salami for Sammy with myself. He then ate and watched music videos and also played with his remote-controlled car until Randy returned at 1:30 pm with Tammy and Emmy. Everyone had birthday cake then, while I just wanted to lie down for a nap, but there was no chance. And then Grandma already arrived before it was 2 pm. It was great to see her again. I was overjoyed that she had made me my favorite birthday cake that my Grandma made for me every year and that I had not had in two decades until my 50th birthday last year. She then went downstairs with the kids, while Randy and I left the house at 2:15 pm.

We had the year-end conversation scheduled at Sammy's kindergarten. We got there at 2:30 and one of the leaders of Sammy's group opened the door for us and took us to a room, where we sat down. The main leader was sick, so it was only her meeting with us. They had a 30-page or so report printed out for us that included where Sammy was at, when he first came in September, in various different areas, where he was half-way through the year, and where he is today. He has definitely made much progress this year, and it was great to see that and talk about it. It was also great to finally get to ask certain things and point out certain things. The meeting lasted one hour, and I enjoyed it.

At 3:30 pm we left to go back home, where we arrived a few minutes later to join Grandma and the kids. Sammy had been asking for me the whole time. I enjoyed the remaining 15 minutes or so with my Mom, who can only stay 2 hours because that's how long her parking ticket is valid, she says. At 4 pm she left.

The kids wanted me to stay downstairs and play with them for a while. Since it was unusual for me not to have any students all afternoon, and since it was my birthday, I went downstairs. And I had a gift for them as well. It was new rings to swing on. The ones they had were not round and hard plastic and rather cheap ones. They love the rings so much, I got them round ones with a rubber coating, so that they are not as hard, and they are sturdy. I was glad, when Randy hung them up right away, and immediately the kids were on them and enjoying them. The ropes were rather short, so that the rings were up high, but the kids can reach them and don't care. Of course Sammy wanted to swing in them too, so I put him into the rings and swung him around. He had so much fun! He was crying hard, when I got him out. At some point his arms get tired of holding on to the rope and he needs a break, but he doesn't want to take one.

Having the unusual free time, I decided to take action and do what I've been wanting to do for a while - move my desk/office so I can use it again. It's one big 60 sqm room downstairs, so that we had to section it ourselves. When we moved here 4 years ago, putting the desk/office where I did made sense, but it soon turned out not to have been smart. I stopped working there, as the kids' play area is right there as well, so that I cannot work, as the kids constantly come to me. It was time to separate the office physically from the play area. I simply started moving things, but I couldn't do it by myself. I was thankful, when Randy sprung to action as well. I have a big, heavy shelf sitting on top of my desk, and Randy started emptying it out and putting everything into boxes, while I swung Sammy. Then he had to take the shelf apart, as there are two parts to it. It was hard labor, as it's really heavy, and I helped where I could. I moved the furniture around so that there'd be a path to move the desk to its new position. Tammy was helping me moving toys, while Emmy didn't really want to. After a while they got bored and asked for their tablets, so I let them get them. All three were then sitting there on their tablets, while we were working. We got the desk to the right position, and then put the shelf back together on top of my desk.

And then the doorbell already rang. It was 6 pm, and our ordered food had arrived. We got pizza and spareribs for my birthday. We all went upstairs and sat down at the table to eat. I ate spareribs, and everyone else ate the pizza. They are now able to finish a whole pizza, just the four of them!

After having eaten, they went into the bathtub, where they were having fun. Then they put their pj's on. It was rather early, so Sammy was watching his children's songs in bed, while the other two watched a dancing and singing show. Randy and I finished up downstairs, what we could do for the day. At 8 pm I prayed for the kids and put them to bed. Randy sat down with them, while I went to the computer to work. I didn't get everything done, but was glad to make it to bed by 1 am.