Day 1863. The extreme tiredness continues. Once again I did not have a free morning. At 9:30 the alarm woke me up after I had fallen back asleep after dressing the kids before Randy took them to kindergarten. I got up and got ready for my 10 am student. After I was done teaching at 11 am, I went to the kitchen to cook lunch.
It was not a typical day today, as Randy left at 11:30 to go pick up Tammy and Emmy. They got home at about 12:45, which was earlier than expected. Randy ate, then left just after 1 pm to go pick up Sammy at 1:30 pm, an hour later than the other days of the week. From his kindergarten, he went straight to his therapy center with him where he had physiotherapy from 2:15 to 3:15 pm. Then they returned home.
Once Tammy and Emmy got home, I went downstairs with them so they could do their daily 5 minutes of piano practice. I stayed really busy the rest of the time until 2 pm, when I had a student, to get everything ready for us to leave as soon as I was done teaching.
5 minutes before I was done at 2:50, I told the kids to go put their shoes, jackets and helmets on. Once done I did the same, and we quickly left to catch the 2:57 bus. It helped for us to have our scooters, and they also served us really well later, when we were in a rush.
We made the bus, then took a tram and got off at a very busy intersection where there was also a subway station. We still had to walk a short distance, then arrived at the address where Emmy's Break Dance class was supposed to be held. The teacher had lost the location, where Emmy started the class a few weeks ago, and the new location was too far. I figured out that we'd be able to make the class on Tuesday afternoon, so there we were. Tammy was not interested in taking the class, so she was there as a spectator, just like me.
Even though we had reached our destination, I did not see the dance studio anywhere. I texted the teacher who said he was late, then other parents arrived, which is how I found the entrance. Together we all waited for the teacher, who was 10 minutes late. Tammy and Emmy immediately connected with a boy from the class, having fun with him.
Once the teacher finally arrived, we all followed him up the stairs to the dance studio. There was a nice room with chairs, where they could change their clothes, and they also had toys, books, paper and crayons. Emmy changed his pants and shoes and went inside the dance hall. There were about twice as many kids in this class than the other one, including one girl. All the parents stood on the side, watching their kids dance, but the teacher encouraged everyone to go to the other room. He said he'd call the parents in at the end to show them what they had learned today. Still many parents kept watching, though from further away. I also went in and out several times to take a few pictures. Tammy was excited about the paper and crayons and drawing happily. I got to see Emmy do what we call a "candle" and hold it after the teacher had let go of his legs.
The class had started 15 minutes late at 3:45 pm, but we still had to leave at 4:15 pm, which is when it was supposed to end. So we told him we had to go, while the others had another 15 minutes to finish the class. We grabbed our scooters and rode them to the nearest tram stop, then got onto the next tram. Randy had already called me a few times. First, Sammy was crying, when we weren't home, then because Randy was looking for the entrance to the school where we were meeting up, but he was there long before us. We rode the tram for 3 stops, then got off and rode our scooters for one bus stop to reach the school where their ball-playing class was happening this semester. It was pretty big, and we ended up taking the wrong entrance. But we were in a rush, as we were late. We found Randy and Sammy who was happy to see us. They got changed, then we went into the gym, where everyone was already playing ball.
Thankfully they have a time of "free play" for the first few minutes of every class, so they hadn't missed anything. The parents were all sitting on the floor along the wall, watching their children. We joined them as well. Sammy was looking forward to playing ball with me, and that's what we did. He'd found a very bouncy ball and did a great job making it bounce, throwing it to me and catching it again.
There was a Dad sitting close to us, and Sammy started talking to him, after he had moved our ball back towards us several times. I wished I had filmed their interaction, it was just so very cute! Sammy was asking him questions, and the man was smiling and very nice to him and answering him. When he didn't understand Sammy's speech, I helped out. Sammy asked his name and asked him his age and many other things. Soon he had stopped playing ball and was just talking to him. He even said, "I love you" to him at one point. It's something he tells me and Randy and his siblings every day. In the end he said good-bye to him, and the man said "until next week".
The class itself started with a roll call and the main teacher also talking to the parents to give them information. Then the kids had to do the parcours that was set up - balancing across a beam, crawling through hoops and jumping off the vaulting box. They had fun. Then they played a game and they enjoyed that as well. The kids actually knew the main teacher from their summer camp.
After an hour the class was over. They changed again, got dressed, and we left to walk to the bus stop. We walked by a playground, where they started climbing around. After a few minutes we left to catch the bus. At the bus stop there was another boy from the class, and one the kids already knew from before. They were playing with him and then sat with him on the bus having fun. He got off before we did.
It wasn't quite 6:30 pm yet, when we got home. The kids were hungry, so I quickly got them something to eat. Then they went into the bathtub, where they continued eating. I put Sammy to bed, then read a story to the other two and put them to bed. I was pretty tired and got myself something to eat, then I started working on today's pictures. Now it's nearly 2 am and I still have to finish the kitchen before going to bed.
