5 years 4 months 15 days

Day 1963. Yesterday morning I was glad that the previous night had been better, Emmy not coughing and twisting and turning all the time. Once they had left for kindergarten, I went back to bed and had some restful sleep. I knew it was my last chance to sleep in the morning before we leave on our trip.

After getting up, I warmed up the leftover soup and ate. Then Randy brought Sammy home from kindergarten and left again to pick up the other two. Sammy and I had a good time together, while I also worked on getting everything ready for my first student at 2:15 pm. Randy only returned home with Tammy and Emmy just as I was about to start teaching. I quickly gave Randy their exercise clothes and let him know that Sammy wanted to go with them rather than staying home with me. A student had asked me for a lesson, and that allowed me to do that lesson at 4 pm. But first I taught my 2:15 pm lesson. It was supposed to end at 3:05 pm, but Tammy was crying so hard, not wanting to leave the house but to stay with me, that I ended 5 minutes later to calm her down. Thankfully I succeeded, and Randy was able to leave with all three kids. A few minutes later he called from the train station that the 3:20 was not running and they had to wait another 15 minutes for the next train. Tammy was crying again that she didn't want to go to exercise class, and again I succeeded in getting her to stop crying. In the end, she enjoyed the exercise class, as always.

At 4 pm I started teaching. After I was done, I left the house to run a quick errand, taking the subway to the bank. While I was busy there, Randy called. They were at the train station waiting for the train home. Even after I was done, the video call continued. I left the bank and took the subway home. Just as I had gotten off the subway, I realized that I had left my scooter by the bank. The phone call had so distracted me that I had forgotten it. And the only reason I had taken it in the first place was to be quick. Now I had to turn around and go back to the bank to get my scooter. So much for trying to save time.

Back home it was nearly 5:30 pm, which was the time I had my next student. Thankfully it was the student who always comes 10 to 20 minutes late, so that I still had time to make their dinner. And a few minutes later Randy and the kids returned home, before I had even started teaching.

After I was done, the kids were nearly done eating as well, and then we went downstairs for piano practice. After that, it was time for the bathtub. We kept it a little shorter, as I had a student at 8:10 pm and still wanted to make sure I'd get them to bed in time. They had to go to bed without a bedtime story, tough.
Soon after I had started teaching, I could hear Tammy cry on the other side of my door. She was crying for me. All day she had wanted to be with me, but I never found out why. Her crying was disturbing my teaching so much, that I told her she could come and lie down in my bed, right next to me teaching at the desk. Of course Emmy then also wanted to come and there was no saying no. Tammy was asleep quickly, while Emmy listened to me teaching until the end of my lesson at 9 pm. Then I put him to bed and carried Tammy to her bed.

I finally got to go get something to eat and continued working on the financial report for the ministry for last year until after midnight. It had been a long day.

And today was  no better, on the contrary. The night was absolutely terrible with me hardly getting any sleep. Emmy was coughing and tossing and turning, and I had no space in our bed with Emmy on one and Tammy on the other side. I was exhausested all day.

Emmy had gone to hospital last Sunday where they had said he had swollen tonsils and should get checked out by a throat/nose/ear specialist. I had succeeded in getting an appointment with the specialist with the best rating online this morning at 9:10. Tammy was once again crying that she wanted to stay with me and not go to kindergarten by herself, without her brother. By the time she left with Randy and Sammy, I'd been able to calm her down. They left just before 8:30 am, and Emmy and I left a few minutes later.

We again took our scooters to be faster as I had an 11 am student. We took the subway, then had to ride our scooters for a while. We got to the doctor's office early, and I was surprised to see that there were no people in the waiting room. We had just sat down after registering, when we were called in. The doctor was an older man, and a woman was sitting at the desk by the computer. The doctor was doing all the talking. He had Emmy sit down on a big chair in the middle, then he moved the chair up. He then looked into his mouth, ears and nose. He was very nice, always telling Emmy what he was about to do. He said that the secretion from his nose was running down in the back and affecting his throat and that he could see that his hearing was also affected. He wanted him to do a hearing test, so we went back into the waiting room.

Again we didn't wait long. We went into a tiny room with a man and a woman, and again the man did all the talking. I sat down on the chair and had Emmy on my lap. They put earphones on his ears, and in the first round, Emmy had to repeat the numbers he was hearing. In the second round, he had to push a button every time he was hearing a beeping sound. Then we sat back down in the waiting room and were called back into the first room after a few minutes. The doctor just said that the hearing test confirmed a 10% reduction of hearing in Emmy's one ear because of the virus infection. He gave us two medications, and we left. I was really impressed in how quickly we left there, as well as the friendliness and professionality of everyone there. They deserve being the best in town when it comes to ratings.

We rode our scooters back to the subway, got on the train, but continued beyond our stop to go to the bank again. It was early enough to still make that stop. After the bank, we made a quick stop at the grocery store there, and Emmy got what he wanted, as well as me buying what I needed.

I was thankful that we still got home early. I sat down at my computer to prepare for my 11 am student and had plenty of time to do so. I taught until noon, and a few minutes later Randy left to go pick up Sammy. I then cooked lunch, and Emmy and I ate. When Sammy got home, we weren't done yet, and he also wanted some pasta, so I gave him what Emmy hadn't eaten, as he had eaten little. I was so extremely tired I just wanted to lie down for a little bit. I finally asked Emmy to play with Sammy for a while so I could lie down for half an hour which was all the time I had until my first student at 2:10 pm. The first 15 minutes I listened to them play, as they were rather loud, then Emmy came to me complaining about Sammy. That was the end of me trying to get some rest.

At 2:10 pm I started teaching, and just then Randy and Tammy returned. I finished at 3 pm; Randy had taken the kids downstairs by then. I went to the kitchen to make their sandwiches to take with them. At 3:30 pm I had my next student. When I was done at 4:20 pm, Randy and Sammy had already left for his wheelchair class. Sammy was really happy to see all his friends there again and had fun.

Just before 4:30 pm I left the house with Tammy and Emmy, and we had our scooters with us. We rode the subway downtown, then rode our scooters to the music school. As they'll be missing piano class these next two Saturdays because of our trip, they had their second make-up class today, and it was the first one since before Christmas. I was exhausted and closed my eyes on the subway.

I purchased the tickets for their concert in 10 days, then we went into the room for their class. There were three other students. The teacher wanted to know who was doing what at the concert. Several kids didn't want to play the piano or sing for the event. After the greeting song, the kids did the finger warm-up. They now play everything with both hands and usually practice every day. They were clearly the best in class. The other kids could barely play with both hands. The teacher went through all their piano pieces with them, and Emmy was bored because he played them so slowly.

Then the teacher asked Emmy to come to the front, to the grand piano, and play his concert piece for everyone. He played it perfectly without mistakes, by heart. Tammy went next. She played it not quite as fast but also perfectly. Only one other kid played a song, and only with one hand.

Then they did the singing songs. No music theory today. It was all about the upcoming concert. The teacher did a story, then the class was over. Today Emmy had behaved well, except for one little incident.

We left the music school and rode our scooters back to the subway, then rode the subway home, where we arrived by 6:30 pm. I never teach at 7 pm, but today I had a 7 pm student as he had pleaded with me to find time for a lesson. I went straight to the kitchen to cut up their fruit, gave it to them, then I sat down at the computer. Just as I was starting, Randy and Sammy returned home. Sammy then also ate his fruit. After they were done, Randy took the kids to the bathtub, but he didn't bring the rest of their fruit. They always finish their food in the bathtub. Not today, and so all three were still hungry after they had come out and were supposed to go to bed. They all got hot cocoa, then went to bed. I was exhausted but glad I didn't have any more students.

After I had put the kids to bed, I got myself something to eat, and even put in the time to make a salad. And then one of my dead teeth crumbled to pieces. Tomorrow is our last day in Vienna before our vacaction, and now I have to go to the dentist in the morning, when it's already such a busy day!