It's only Tuesday, and already it's been an eventful week. Not that either day has been particularly bad, just interesting.

Yesterday Olaf took the car to an appointment he had to go to, and it ran longer than he expected. When it came time for me to pick up the kids, I didn't have a car to do it in, so I got to take the bike again. And I thought last time was difficult! This time I had to pick up Pauline and Gustav. In order to get Pauline I had to ride the bike up a fat hill, but not all of the gears on the bike worked so there wasn't really any way to make it any easier. After getting Pauline I rode to the Kindergarten to get Gustav, and the idea was that he and I would walk and Pauline would sit in the kiddie seat on the bike. But, of course, Gustav didn't want to walk. So I picked him up and put him on the seat, and had to make sure that he held on to something really tightly so he didn't fall off. Luckily, there are handles on the kiddie seat that were right behind him that he could reach back and hold onto. Then I had to walk the whole way home, pushing the bike and making sure that the kids didn't fall. I was so exhausted when we finally got home.

Then today I lost my phone in Cologne. I know exactly where I lost it, but when I went back to the store they didn't have it. I know that I had it in the fitting room in this store, and then when I left the store I didn't have it anymore. I checked the fitting room I was in, I retraced my steps and looked all over the floor, and I asked the cashier I checked out with and the store's customer service if anyone had turned it in, but no such luck. So right now I'm without a phone, and hoping that when I go back to Cologne on Thursday it will be in the store. If not, I have to start over, which I'm not looking forward to. On top of which, Pauline accidentally headbutted me in the eyebrow the other day, and it still hurts.

On the bright side, the packages that my mom sent a week and a half ago finally arrived today. Now I have some cookbooks that I can pull some recipes from and maybe I can start cooking, too. And I have a new harness for Amelie, which she loves. We're going to use it on our walk tomorrow and see how it goes. My mom's so funny. She sent a card to Amelie, and wrote the note in it as if it were from her dog, Bailey. So freaking cute. Esther is excited about the puzzles and books that Mom sent for the kids, too. It will definitely help them to learn English.