5 years 8 days

Day 1834. After an intense weekend, I was glad not to have any commitments in the morning. However, Randy didn't give me a break. He dropped Sammy next to me and sleeping Tammy because he didn't want to eat breakfast. Tammy was soon up, but she needed to get up anyway. I then helped getting them dressed, then Randy left to take all three to their kindergartens, while I lay back down to get more sleep. It had been 2 am last night, when I went to bed.

After I got up, I went straight to the kitchen to make lunch, which then was my first meal of the day. Just after noon, Randy left to go pick up Sammy. I was eating, when they returned at 12:40 pm. Sammy had already eaten at kindergarten, and Randy was gonna eat after having picked up the other kids. He left right away to do so.

Sammy and I were having fun; I was also preparing for my 2:30 pm student. I was surprised, when Randy and the kids already returned at 2 pm today. Emmy, who is always really tired on the way home and even takes a nap on the bus, if his sister lets him, had misbehaved, which is what he does, when he is tired, so he was not allowed to have his tablet, while the other two were on it.
Before starting to teach, I called Tammy to myself to ask her whether she would like to go to a ballet try-out class this afternoon. I had received an email from the dance school they used to go to yesterday which reminded me that they had ballet classes. I looked it up and saw they had a try-out class today. All the other options for ballet classes were not possible as they were on the wrong days of the week. I wasn't sure what she was going to say, but it was a resounding yes. As I happened to not have any other students today, I had the time to take her there.

After I was done with my student, we got ready to leave the house. Everyone was still upstairs, but Randy then went downstairs with the boys. Tammy and I left together just after 3:45 pm. We took the subway and then the bus, then had to walk. I was surprised, when we already arrived at the school at 4:15 pm. The class was gonna start at 4:30 pm. Tammy immediately recognized the school, as they had gone to kid dance classes there for over a year. However, we stopped going there, when 2022 ended.

We went one floor up and to the locker room, where she put her dance shoes on. She had already put her new ballet outfit on at home. It was the first time she was wearing it outside the house. And it was a good thing, as nearly all the girls in the class wore an outfit like hers. We went into the dance hall, where the teacher was already present and going through music. She spoke English and was clearly from Eastern Europe somewhere - that's where the best ballet dancers come from. She did speak a little German and used both languages throughout the class. I sat down on one of the little chairs along the wall, where I stayed until the end of the class. Other parents joined me there, as most of the 8 kids there today came for the try-out. We still had 10 minutes until the class started, but Tammy was already dancing.

The teacher was doing a great job keeping it fun for the kids, as well as teaching them some ballet basics. Tammy has never done a ballet class before. She's only had a few ballet elements taught to her in her other dance classes. But she was doing a great job some of the time, while having a hard time at other times. When they were dancing freely, she got noticed by the teacher who asked me during break time where Tammy has gone to dancing school until now. She told me that she was impressed with Tammy's dancing skills.

After 50 minutes the class was over. Tammy had clearly enjoyed it, and I had enjoyed watching her just as much. But she didn't say that she wanted to continue attending the class after she had found out that I would not be allowed to sit in the room and watch her but would have to stay outside. I told her we had a few more try-out classes, so there was no reason to decide right away whether she wanted to come back.

Ten minutes before the class was over Randy called. Sammy was crying for me. I let him and Emmy watch Tammy and the others dance for a while; it really was too loud for me to hear them. After we had left and sat on the bus home, we called them back and spent a few more minutes on a video call with them. Then we took the subway and got home just after 6 pm.

Sammy was so very happy to see us and said he'd missed us. I went straight to the kitchen to make their dinner, which started our evening routine. Emmy had one of his tiredness meltdowns, where little thinks make him cry and not want to come to me, so there was no bedtime story tonight. In the end he had calmed down after all and requested me to sing the "prince song" to him, a prophetic song from God about prince Emmy. Tammy then wanted me to sing a princess song to her as well. Sammy was still on the tablet, so I took it away from him, which made him cry. But it was time to go to sleep. For me, it was time to get something to eat. After having eaten, I started doing some work. Now it's nearly midnight, and I still have to take care of the kitchen and then go to bed. There's no sleeping in tomorrow morning.