Yesterday was Gustav's birthday party, and it was a lot of fun. On Friday night, when Gustav was crying because he "couldn't sleep" Esther told him that she was so tired and that she still needed to bake his cake and it was very difficult to do that when she had to sit upstairs next to his bed. He looked at her and said, "Geh, Mama, und back so viel Kuchen, wie du kannst" (Go, Mama, and bake as much cake as you can). When Gustav woke up in the morning and Esther went into his room to see him, the first thing he said to her was, "Today is my birthday, and I'm 4 years old." Adorable. Esther already had a marbled bunt cake downstairs on the table with 4 blue candles in it to make it so it really felt like his birthday. She remembers her 4th birthday, so she wanted Gustav's to be really special so that he has a good memory of his, too. They read him his birthday card and gave him his first present, which was a firetruck by Playmobil. He was so excited about it that he even parked it under his stool when we sat down to breakfast.

The party didn't actually start until 3 in the afternoon, so it was a little frustrating for Gustav. It kept wondering when his guests were coming, and why so late, and how come they're not here yet. It was hard for Pauline, too, because I think she felt a little lost. Gustav had his new truck, and Pauline wanted to take it and play with it but she couldn't. It got harder for her when Gunther (grandpa) and Silke (Olaf's sister) showed up with more presents. They gave Gustav a fire station for his new truck that, of course, has a million tiny pieces and takes any adult over an hour to put together. Olaf and I were trying to get that together, but Gustav was bored and angry because it was taking too long, and Pauline kept walking right through the middle of everything and we had to keep telling her to stop and taking her somewhere else because she was going to lose all of the little pieces. Plus, since she's just been so angry in general lately, she was getting really mad at all of us for not letting her take all of the little pieces. I was finally able to get her to go upstairs for a nap when she admitted that she needed a diaper change, and after that she didn't fight me at all because she was just so tired. She didn't actually sleep (as usual) but it gave her some time to relax and get away from all of the confusion downstairs. We ended up putting the station back in the box after step 1 of assembly, and Olaf is going to build it with Gustav this morning while Pauline is at the playground.

Yesterday was also really stressful for Esther. She had put so much effort into planning Gustav's party and, as the mother, it fell on her to make it all work out right. She was cooking chili con carne for dinner, and she had to find a recipe and bake some muffins for the kids, so she was really busy. Plus, Silke isn't all there, so Esther was trying to keep her occupied in the kitchen but she kept getting distracted and walking away. Eshter told me that it's sometimes hard for her to keep her patience with Silke because when you look at her, you see a 40 year old woman, but when you talk to her, it's sometimes like dealing with a child. She's a really sweet woman, though, she just takes a little more patience. I'm thinking that I might get Esther a slow cooker for Christmas so that when she does something like this again, she doesn't have to stand in the kitchen for 6 hours cooking chili.

The kids showed up right at 3, almost as if they all had come together. We thought that Domenic's mom, Claudia, was going to have to stay because Domenic's never been willing to stay without his mom before, but when he heard that Gustav had a train upstairs it was "Tschues, Mama" and away he went. Everyone was surprised, but it worked out well for Domenic. The first thing that all of the boys did when they got upstairs, though, was tear the train track to shreds and throw Lego pieces all over the room. Boys. Sometimes (most of the time) there's just no logic. Anyway, they all came downstairs to open presents and eat cake after that. Poor little Florian got so sad when Gustav didn't choose his present to open first. He kind of walked away from the table, looking sad, and when Esther asked him what happened he started crying. Eshter couldn't understand what he was saying or why he was crying, but I got it. So I told Esther to have Gustav open Florian's present next, and everything was ok.

I had a lot of fun playing with those boys yesterday. At some point or another I helped almost all of them with something that wasn't working, or a tiff that made them sad, so I was like a new friend to them by the time they left. In particular I made a connection with Domenic, Florian, and little Jonathan (I made an impact on big Jonathan as well, but I'll get into that in a second). Domenic at one point wandered away from the party and started walking up the stairs. I asked him if he was ok, and he said no. Apparently Gustav told Domenic he wasn't his friend, and Domenic was really sad. I told Domenic I would talk to Gustav, and although Gustav was still being a little turd about it, it made Domenic happy. I helped Jonathan fix a toy that wasn't working, and Florian's just a sweetheart that's really easy to connect with.

At one point a few of the boys were hitting Jette in the face with pillows and balloons. She wasn't crying because she's physically pretty tough, but she wasn't happy. She came over to me on the sofa and I was blocking the hits and taking the weapons away while trying to get them to stop hitting her. Eventually they all turned on me, and before I knew it I was being dogpiled by 5 little boys who were all hitting me with pillows. I was wrestling with Gustav, Malta, Domenic, and both Jonathans. We were all hitting eachother with pillows, and I was tickling all of the little boys so we were all laughing and having a good time. Big Jonathan, who was sitting to my right and a little behind me, kept pulling on my dress, particularly in the frontal region. He ended up essentially tearing the fabric out of the boob of my dress (it's a good thing I was wearing a bra!) and I had to put an end to the wrestling so I could change. Olaf was laughing when I told him what happened, and when the parents showed up later and asked why I had changed, they were laughing, too.

When the parents showed up to get the kids at 6, all the adults sat around eating chili and drinking beer while the kids finished their french fries and played with the new toys. When he was getting ready to leave, Florian went around the room and said goodbye to everyone individually, including the adults, and it was very important to him that Gustav in particular say bye to him as well. I love Florian. When little Jonathan was leaving, his parents were standing around talking to the other parents whil he was putting his shoes on. I saw him struggling a little bit with one of his shoes, so I went to help him with it. After I got his shoe on, he needed to put on his jacket. He went over to his mom, took the jacket from her hand, and brought it over to me to help him put it on. He told me he could do it alone, and once he had it on he turned to me and said, "Aber ich kann es nicht zu machen" and he had me zip and button it for him. He's the cutest little thing, too. He kinda looks like the stereotypical nerd from TV shows where they have flashbacks to childhood, and the nerdy kid looks really preppy and proper. He was wearing a turtleneck and a sweatervest, and he has really great posture. It was really cute. I freaking love these kids.

Now I have to go downstairs and cook our Thanksgiving dinner so that it's ready by 2. We're eating early so that Gunther and Silke can eat with us before they have to drive back home.