4 years 9 months 20 days

Day 1754. On Tuesday all the kids went back to kindergarten after the 1+ week break because of Emmy's chickenpox. Sammy's face was beaming, when he got to see everyone again, and he was still beaming, when I saw him coming home from kindergarten. The other two were also excited to be back. Today their teacher told me that they picked right up where they had left off, which she thought was not typical. She told me today that they are such good, well-behaved kids, but that opposites attrack and that they've picked the worst kids for their friends.

On Tuesday they don't have any classes, and their Wednesday afternoon class was canceled. And so they had three afternoons in a row at home, without going to any class. That's rare. I, of course, had students I was teaching, while Randy was with the kids.

Yesterday, Thursday, was different. They had their very last dance class before the summer break. And the last one before their performance on Sunday. And so I wanted to be the one going with them; I had already been disappointed to have missed them trying their costumes on, and Randy had not taken Emmy's picture. I figured there'd be some more information about the performance, and I was right. All the parents there went to the receptionist to ask questions, and I listened to the conversations. I had my own question, but it was about the next semester.

The parents don't get to watch them in this class. So I can only guess that they did their dance one last time. As they have their concert Sunday morning, they are going to miss walking on the stage with the other kids and will be on the stage in the theater for the first time, when they actually perform.

After the class, the three of us took our scooters and went back home. Sammy wasn't home yet; Randy had taken him to the wheelchair kids group, where he was having fun. They returned home at 7 pm. Tammy and Emmy were already eating, and Sammy's food was ready and waiting for him. We went through our typical evening routine, but then I had a student at 9:30 pm.

This morning I also started the day with a student, setting my alarm to get up in time to prepare for the lesson with her. Of course I always get up in the morning to dress the kids for kindergarten and then lie back down.

After I was done teaching, I looked at my emails and was overjoyed to find out that they had been accepted to a small, Christian school, where they were on a waiting list. I knew we'd find out in June whether they get in or not, and I'm very happy they did. And it's still over a year until they start school.

I then got ready to leave the house, making sure I had everything with me. Randy left the house first to go get Sammy, and I left at 12:20 with my scooter to go to the bus stop. I rode two buses and got to their kindergarten at about 1 pm. They came out of their room, I talked to their teacher, then they put their shoes on, got their scooters, and off we went to go down the long street to the other bus stop. We then got on a bus that we rode for 15 minutes, where they had some snacks, then we used our scooters to go down another long road to the sports center, where we arrived a few minutes before the 2 pm tennis class was to start.

We went to the locker room, so they could get changed, then headed to the court. I sat down in the restaurant to watch them through the window. There was a lady with their teacher today. After a while she took over from him, and the teacher came to us parents sitting in the restaurant. I used the opportunity to let him know they'd miss the next two classes and found out that they could make up for them. And so they do their class at 4 pm next week, as they get back from their kindergarten trip at 3 pm, and they'll do the other class after the summer.

With the lady in charge, they played less tennis and more games today. I also noticed that she wasn't correcting how they were holding their rackets like the other teacher does. The kids didn't care and had fun. I got talking with another mother sitting near me because I wanted to know her son's age as he was doing a lot better than the other three kids, and he's exactly a year older than them, which explains the difference.

At the end of the class they always get candy. Today it was marshmallows. I was surprised to find out that Tammy does not like marshmallows. Emmy said he'd eat hers. We went to the locker room, then took our scooters to head home. Today Randy and Sammy had not shown up, but we called them during our 15-minute train ride. Randy had taken Sammy to the playground today, and he was eager for us to come home. They met us, when we got off the subway. Emmy gave Sammy a big hug, and Sammy gave me a big hug. Then we headed home. It was 4 pm, and I had to start teaching at 4:10 pm and taught two students, which took until 6 pm. Then I headed to the kitchen to make dinner, which was the beginning of our evening routine.