Day 1837. On Tuesday I was not in a position to be able to lie back down after Randy left with the kids to take them to their kindergartens. Instead, I had to get ready to leave the house myself. I had a 9:15 am appointment at my doctor's to discuss my blood test result. I was surprised, when it was another doctor who called me into his office. I found out that the main doctor got herself another doctor to help out. At first I wasn't happy, but he was actually very nice. My results weren't great, but they were not as bad as I had feared. My existing medication was increased, but no new one prescribed.
Randy left the house earlier than usual to go pick up Tammy and Emmy from kindergarten, while I went to pick up Sammy. He was very happy to see me, and so was his group leader who took advantage of me being there, asking me all kinds of questions. By 12:45 pm we were back home, and Randy arrived a little later with the other kids. He ate, and at 1:30 pm he left with Sammy to take him to his first regular physiotherapy session with the new therapist. As for me, I had two students, while the kids were on their tablets or doing other stuff.
Wednesday was a regular day, except that Sammy had to go back to the therapy center as they had an "orthopedic afternoon", where the orthopedic doctor came in to look at all the kids. Sammy's appointment was at 5:30 pm, so pretty late. Randy took him there, as I had two students.
This morning I lay back down after Randy left with the kids - but not for long, as I had to get up at 9:30 am to get ready for my 10 am student. After I was done teaching, I went to the kitchen to cook, so Randy could eat early, which I did as well as I had not eaten any breakfast. Randy then left to go pick up Sammy, while I had some more office work to do. After they returned, we all got ready to leave the house right away, as we needed to take the 12:57 pm bus.
We took two buses and got to kindergarten just after 1:30 pm. It was my first time in a while. Our kids are now pre-school, so they are in a different room, and I also saw that their hooks and boxes were elsewhere, as they had added a lot more of them. They were not in their regular room but somewhere else. Some teachers brought them to us. Then their main teacher saw me and came to talk to me. She made me aware of a parent-teacher meeting next Monday we knew nothing about. There's no communication; they just hang papers on the wall and expect parents to see them. Since Randy is the one usually there and does not speak German, we miss a lot. Thankfully I'm able to go to that meeting. The teacher also said that she hadn't seen Sammy in a while and could really see the resemblance.
We needed to get going and made the 1:38 pm bus that we rode for a few stops to get to the subway. We then rode the subway for a long time, and then another subway. Emmy said he was tired and that he was gonna sleep on me, but he never did. After we got off the subway, we rode the tram for one stop, then we had arrived at our destination: the pediatrician's office a long way from home.
We had an appointment for their very last mandatory check-up - the 5-year-old check-up. We got a number and sat down in the waiting room. Tammy and Emmy kept moving around and having fun. Sammy sat down on the couch with me. He was nervous. Tammy and Emmy started taking pictures with my phone, fighting over who could take one next. Most of them were fuzzy, as they didn't hold it still, but some worked out, as you can see. I was very tired and tried to close my eyes a bit, but didn't get much of a chance.
We had waited about 45 minutes, when we were called in. There were some assistants in the room that started with the basics. They measured the kids' height and weight and head circumference. Sammy was now very anxious about everything, while Tammy and Emmy were excited and both wanted to go first. They also looked at everything and asked questions. Then they measured their blood pressure. Randy held Sammy, while I helped to straighten out his arm to put the thing on. Next they got to experience something new - an electro-cardiogram. Tammy and Emmy were fine with it, but Sammy was terrified. I held his arms so they could put the suction cups on him, but they wouldn't stick, so it took a while. It took too long, in fact. Sammy started crying hard and cried until it was over. I tried to comfort him after, but he continued crying. The doctor still had to listen to his heart and lungs. I sat down with Sammy crying on my lap and was surprised, when he stopped crying as soon as the doctor put her stethoscope on him. She was actually able to do her job and also look into his ears and throat, even though he didn't like it. That was it; Randy dressed him again.
The doctor told me that all kids showed signs of having a cold/virus, but that Emmy need to be checked out by a specialist because his tonsils were enlarged, and that his heart needed to be listened to again once he was healthy again. I didn't even know that they were NOT healthy. Randy had seen Emmy sneeze in the morning, and in the evening I saw his runny nose.
We left the office and walked to the tram stop. They had some water spray out of poles, which the kids enjoyed. It was yet another very hot day, unusually hot for early September. And there was also a short cord in the air to walk across. Both Tammy and Emmy tried to get across without falling off, but it wasn't easy.
Then our tram arrived. We rode it to the end, then rode another tram, then the subway to get home. By 5:30 pm we were back home. I was glad I had no students scheduled, as it was later than expected and as I was very tired. We had a package to pick up at another apartment, and the kids wanted to come with me. So we took the elevator to the top floor and found the right apartment. The kids rang the bell, and a man opened and gave us our package. Emmy wanted to carry it, and so did Tammy. So he carried it first, then Tammy carried it the rest of the way.
At home I lay down for a few minutes to get a little rest. At 6 pm I got up to make their food. Sammy didn't want to eat at all (too many snacks on the road?), but he ended up eating everything in the bathtub. Tonight it was 8:15 pm before we were done with the story and they went to bed, so later than usual. I got myself something to eat, then went back to work. Now it's midnight and I still have to take care of the kitchen before going to bed.
