5 years 7 months 7 days

Day 2045. Normally Sammy goes to horse therapy on Monday morning. He did not go this Monday because he was sick. I felt really bad for him. Emmy also stayed home. He was coughing hard, and in the morning he seemed rather sick. Later in the day he was fine other than coughing, which was not at all the case for Sammy who had this virus the worst. In the past, he would always be the least affected by the viruses going around our family.

Randy left to take Tammy to kindergarten. Thanks to Emmy also being home, he kept busy with Sammy, which allowed me to get more rest. I was sick as well, my head hurting all day, and it got worse later in the day, my day ending with pretty bad ear pain. I canceled all my students that day.

Once Randy returned, he was with the boys. I stayed in bed as much as possible. I pulled myself up to do piano practice with the kids, once Tammy got home at 2:30 pm. Just before 4 pm Randy left with Tammy and Emmy to take them to their robotics class. It was his first time taking them there, as I am usually the one to do so. Tammy and Emmy connected some device to their laptops, which was a first. It was a step towards programming robots.

Sammy stayed home with me. I was doing some office work on the computer while in bed. Sammy soon came to me and crawled up into bed with me. He was looking pretty terrible. His was runny all the time, and stuff was coming out of his eyes. Thankfully the ear ache from Sunday was gone. Even as a baby, Sammy was not one to sleep on me, while his siblings would. Sammy is Daddy's boy, and he does sleep on Daddy at times. And so I was surprised - and happy - when Sammy fell asleep in/on my arm in my bed with me. It was a sign of how sick he was. He slept for about 50 minutes. Then I let him use his headset while in bed with me. He was asking when Daddy was coming home, which was the case at about 6:40 pm.

Once everyone was home, I dragged myself to the kitchen to make their dinner. Sammy had hardly eaten anything all day, and it didn't change at night. Then they all went into the bathtub; the hot water was good for Sammy. Then I still read them a story before they went to bed. After they were in bed, I lay down as well and fell asleep.

Two hours later I woke up, surprised at how much time had passed. And then the earache got pretty bed. I got myself a hot water bottle and put my ear on it, when I went to bed, which helped.

This morning Randy left with all three kids - to take Tammy and Emmy to kindergarten, and then go on to an appointment with Sammy. He's outgrown his night braces, and so he needed new ones fitted to his legs. The timing wasn't great, given how sick it was, but it worked out fine. He chose a balloon pattern for his braces.

Normally I would have gone back to bed, but I had an issue with a student/parent that needed my attention, and so I never went back to bed. And at 9 am the cleaning lady arrived that comes every three weeks. After having dealt with the situation, I went on to do office work.

Randy and Sammy returned home just before 12:30 pm. I had just finished making chicken soup for them. Thankfully my earache was gone.

They sat down to eat. There was enough time to go get Tammy and Emmy, but as we had told them they'd be staying longer in kindergarten if Sammy's appointment takes longer, we decided to just leave them there, as they would have only had half an hour at home if Randy had gone to get them, and their class was around the corner from kindergarten.

Randy spent time with Sammy, while I got everything ready to leave the house. I went back and forth a few times whether I was up for it or whether I should let Randy go. In the end I decided to go myself. I made sandwiches for the kids, and at 2:20 pm I left the house. I walked to the bus stop and then took two busses to go to their kindergarten, where I arrived at 3 pm. Their teacher immediately asked me whether this was a one-time thing or was gonna be the new normal. I was a little surprised about the question just because we picked them up later ONCE. It's probably all about having to pay extra for the afternoon.

Tammy, Emmy and I left and started walking to the dance studio where Emmy's breakdance class was happening. We stopped at the pharmacy on the way, refilling our cold supplies. When we reached the dance studio, the teacher had just arrived and was opening the door for everyone. It was not 3:30 pm yet, which is when the class started.

Tammy stayed in the locker room with me. I had brought her tablet with me. I went inside the dance studio from time to time to see what Emmy was doing and take pictures. And we still had to take a picture with Max, their exercise class mascot, as Emmy had him this week. Tomorrow he's returning him, and tonight I wrote about the week in Max's journal, adding 10 pictures from the week to the report.

Emmy was doing a great job doing the difficult exercises. When he had to do a headstand, he did it easily. And then he did a handstand and was also able to stand with no help. In the end, he did a great freestyle dance. Then we left right away to get to their ball-playing class on time.

We had no scooters with us today, so we walked to the tram stop, got on the tram, got off after three stop and got on the bus that was running a few minutes late so that we didn't have to walk that one stop. When we got on the bus, there were Randy and Sammy. Sammy looked absolutely terrible, his eyes and nose draining and both getting read. Having eaten very little, you could also see his face being even thinner than before. We wanted him to stay home and rest, but he insisted that he wanted to go to the class and play balls with his friend Michi.

We went inside the school and saw Michi right away. The kids put their shorts and sports shoes on and went inside the gym. The rest of us sat down along the wall. Tammy and Emmy started playing games with their trainers and the other kids. Sammy started playing ball with Michi. He was clearly weaker, falling over more easily, and his voice not as loud as usual. He played for most of the class. Only the last few minutes he went to Daddy to lay on his chest.

At 5:30 pm the class was over. Everyone got dressed again, then we walked to the playground where they played for a few minutes until it was time to go to the bus stop. Then we got on the bus that took us home, where we arrived around 6:15 pm. I was surprised I was feeling as good as I did and not worse. I went to the kitchen to make their dinner, then sat down to prepare for my 8:10 pm class while the kids were eating.

After they eaten, I went downstairs with Tammy and Emmy for piano practice. Tammy did great and plays the newest song already really well, as she plays it over and over again, while Emmy complains about playing a song twice. She's performing that song on Sunday, so it's good that she plays it so well. After she was done, it was Emmy's turn. He'd already had a couple of meltdowns, and piano practice is the perfect time for one, which is what happened. Thankfully I had just the right argument to get him to come back and continue with the practice, and in the end, he also completely it.

We went back upstairs, where the kids went into the bathtub. It was the perfect opportunity to get Sammy's face completely cleaned up. After the bathtub, I put him to bed with a prayer, then sat down with the other two for a story or more. I prayed for them, then they went to brush their teeth, while I sat down at the computer to teach. I taught until 9 pm, then needed a few more minutes to wrap it all up, then I went to the kitchen to get myself something to eat.

After having eaten, I went straight to work as I knew I still had lots to do. I downloaded the pictures and edited them, then printed out smaller versions of the pictures with the mascot from this past week. When Randy went to bed, I had not started writing his diary yet. I had to do that in the dark, just with my computer's light. Then I still had to write this report. At 2 am Tammy came to my bed. Now it's 10 minutes later, and I have yet to load the dishwasher.