5 years 3 months 3 days

Day 1921. Yesterday was Wednesday. I went back to bed after Randy left to take the kids to kindergarten and got to sleep in. After I got up, I went to the kitchen to make lunch. Randy got Sammy a little earlier so that he was home by 12:30. Then Randy left again to go pick up the other kids.

At 1 pm Grandma arrived. It had been quite a long time since her last visit. Grandma, Sammy and I went downstairs. Grandma then got a book with children's songs and started singing the ones she knew to Sammy. Sammy was having fun. But then he accidentally tore a page and started crying after having been scolded. I tried to comfort him, but it was not easy. He kept asking for Daddy, but Daddy wasn't home yet. Then I told Grandma how devastated Sammy had been on Tuesday, when his friend Michi hadn't come to class, and Sammy started crying hard again. Oh no! I was glad, when Randy and the kids finally arrived, and Sammy was overjoyed to finally have Daddy back.

I sat down first with Emmy to do piano practice, then with Tammy, while the others had fun with Grandma. Time went by way too fast. Just before 3 pm I took the kids upstairs to get them dressed in their exercise clothes, and Grandma also came upstairs to leave. We said good-bye to her, then Randy got Sammy ready, as he also wanted to go with Daddy and not stay home with me. And so Randy left with all three kids just after 3 pm to take Tammy and Emmy to their exercise class.

I greatly enjoyed the quiet, having an afternoon to myself. I took advantage of the time and wrote a quick newsletter and got it out in all three languages. Just before 5:30 pm Randy and the kids returned. I had their dinner ready for them on the table. Then I sat down for my 5:30 pm student, but he never showed up. After they had eaten, they went into the bathtub, which started our evening routine.

I've been blessed this week with no commitments in the morning so that I was once again able to go back to bed and sleep in once Randy had left with the kids to take them to kindergarten. And today I did not have to cook as we had plenty of leftovers from yesterday. Randy picked up Sammy and brought him home at 12:45 pm, then he left again to go pick up the other two. Sammy and I were having fun. Randy and the other kids only returned home just after 2:30 pm. Good thing that my 2:30 pm student had canceled. I went downstairs with Emmy to do piano practice, then called for Tammy to come. However, after a few minutes she started crying that she didn't want to do piano practice any more, so we stop,ped and went upstairs. I was disappointed.

Back upstairs I realized how late it already was. I made their sandwiches to take with us and got dressed to leave the house. At 3:30 pm I started teaching and taught until 4:20 pm. Randy and Sammy had just left the house to go to Sammy's wheelchair class. The other two were ready to leave as well. We grabbed our scooters and left at 4:30 pm.

The three of us took the subway downtown, then rode our scooters to their music school. In January we have a one-week skiing vacation which means they miss two Saturday piano classes, and so this was the first make-up class for the first of the two. We got to the school plenty early and found out that it was their regular teacher who did this class as well. I had hoped it was a different teacher.

Their class was in the biggest room where we've been for events, but never for a class before. There were three other kids in the class. Emmy was having a hard time; it was just too late in the day which is why they go to class on Saturday morning. Tammy was doing better. What they did was pretty much what they are doing on Saturday, so it was all their level.

The class was over at 6 pm, and we left to go back home, where we arrived at 6:30. They had even their sandwiches on the way, but I gave them same vegetable rice with meat at home, then cut up some fruit for them all. Sammy returned home at 7 pm and sat down at the table with them to eat. Then they went into the bathtub, which started our evening routine.