Day 1908. It was my first night at home, and it was a rather rough night. Tammy has a bad cough and did lots of tossing and turning. Emmy also came and lay down next to me. In the morning I helped getting them ready for kindergarten, then Randy left with them.
I wanted to lie back down for more sleep, but I couldn't sleep any more, so I got up. I had a student at 10 am, so I prepared for my lesson. It was great seeing my favorite student again, and sad to find out she'll be gone for a month. I enjoyed getting to teach again.
After I was done, I went to the kitchen to make lunch, as Randy had to leave early and needed to eat before. He ate and left at 11:45 am to go pick up Sammy and then go with him to Tammy's and Emmy's kindergarten to pick them up. Then they all took the bus to the tennis center, where they had tennis class from 2 to 3 pm.
As for me, I enjoyed the quiet and did some work preparing for lessons that are coming up. Then I needed some rest before leaving at 2 pm. I took the subway and then the tram and returned to the hospital that I had only just left yesterday. It was weird already being back. But I was back for an event I had registered us for many weeks ago. As the kids were born in this hospital, we were invited to World Preemie Day and the even they were organizing. I wanted to be there, when it started at 3 pm so as to not miss anything. I thought they might give a speech or talk but that was not the case. And so it was rather awkward being there all by myself without any children, while the other parents with their preemies were all around me. And I was rather bored. There was no general program. They had snacks and drinks set out for everyone and stations set up. One room with stuff for the parents, and several rooms with stuff for the kids.
I was getting a snack, when two ladies started talking to me, saying they recognized me. They were doctors/therapists that have done the kids' yearly check-up before and they remembered me because of Africa and the triplets. So we talked for a little bit, and I told them the kids were on their way. From the tennis center, Randy and the kids took the tram to the subway, and the subway took them straight to the hospital. I talked to Randy on the phone as they entered the hospital and walked towards the elevators to show them the way. When Emmy saw me from the distance, he started running towards me, his arms wide open, and ran into my arms. It was just the cutest thing!
We walked to the even together, hung up our coats, and the kids got name tags. They wanted to do the fun stuff, but got some snacks on the way there. The first room had instruments, and they played them briefly. Then we passed by the adult room where they had incubators for babies set up, and I showed them to the kids, telling them that they had been in those boxes themselves. We walked on, and Randy and Sammy stayed in the first room to play, while I took the other two to the next room, where more stuff was set up, and more stuff for older kids, not babies.
Emmy went straight for the wall with balls that stuck to it. He throw them every which way - with his back to the wall, two and three and four at the same time, and kicked them with his foot, and he did pretty well and had fun. Tammy went straight for the crafts table and decorated several paper cups. They had the Cliniclowns there and the kids had some fun with them. Emmy ended up doing this game/test, and one Cliniclown was there the whole time. Emmy did really well guessing just from holding the shapes in his hand which shape shown on the cards was the one in his hand. Later he did the game again and of course was a lot faster that time. Tammy then also wanted to do it, and she also had no problem doing it.
At some point Sammy joined us in the room and also threw some balls at the wall. The Cliniclowns also spent some time with him. Emmy then also wanted to do a cup and made a quite simple one that he gave to me as a gift. As for me, I had been there for two hours and had been on my feet for quite a long time already, and I was feeling it. I was tired and exhausted and needed some rest. It was my first day out of the hospital after all. I told Randy that I needed to go home. We left the room, and the kids saw the bubbles and all three blew some bubbles. Tammy also briefly did some coloring on the wall there. I wanted to find a chair to sit down on, but then Randy said we should all go, so we did. No sitting down. It took a while to get our coats, then we had the long walk to the elevators and the exit of the building.
I told Randy I wanted to take an Uber home and let him and the kids go home by public transportation. Then the kids said they wanted to go with me in the taxi. I told them there were no child seats in there. And then Sammy kept saying "taxi, taxi". I knew if I took the other two and not him, he'd be very unhappy. But I didn't think I could even take the other two. The more we talked the more I realized I'd just have to take public transportation with them, even though I was not happy about that, given the way I was feeling. There was a lot of walking involved.
We left the building and saw that all the trees were lit up in purple in honor of Preemie World Day. It was pretty. We made the long walk to the tram stop, where we had to wait 7 minutes for the tram. I sat down and closed my eyes. Emmy started talking to a lady standing there. We got on the tram and rode it to the end. I kept my eyes closed for most of the trip home, as I was just done. We got off and had to walk to the subway and got on. After we got off at home, we still had quite a bit of walking left to do. My belly started stinging a bit. I just wanted to get home. When we did, I went straight to bed. While it was my job, it was Randy who had to give the kids their fruit to eat for dinner. I finally got my much-needed rest.
I was feeling a lot better after an hour. I prayed for Sammy and was then up to read Tammy and Emmy a story before bed time. They brushed their teeth, then I put them to bed. I wasn't hungry yet, so I sat down by my computer. Some time later I got myself something to eat, then I continued working on today's pictures, and I still had two gifts to wrap for the birthday party tomorrow. Now it's after midnight, and Randy is about to go to bed, and I will be following shortly.
