I had intended to take the train into Cologne and head across the river today, but I ended up staying at home. It had been really warm and sunny yesterday (warm enough that I was actually wearing a tank top) and then today it got cold again and was dark and cloudy, so it just kind of felt like a stay at home day. I spent the majority of the day hanging out with the family and playing with the kids, and Amelie and I took a nap in my room this afternoon.

After lunch, Esther, Gustav and I made cookies. They were basically shortbread cookies, except they had eggs in them and I don't think shortbread contains any eggs. But they taste like shortbread, so that's what I'm going to call them. Anyway, each of us had our own little mat and rolling pin to roll out the dough, and then we used cookie cutters to cut out snowmen, hearts, stars, angels, Christmas trees, all kinds of things. Then, using powdered sugar, orange juice, and food coloring, we made a glaze to paint over the tops of the cookies and decorated them with sprinkles. They're delicious, and it was a lot of fun. At one point, Esther commended Gustav on what a good job he was doing, and his response was "Ja, ich bin toll," which basically means yeah, I'm pretty amazing. It was so cute. Esther told me that she's really glad I was there, because she thinks it's more fun when I'm there cooking and baking with her and the kids.

Tonight we had what was described to me as a typical German Saturday dinner: "Bockwurst, Bier, und Fussball." Gustav's bockwurst had a little bulge on it where some of the sausage had squeezed through the skin that he refered to as the sausage's penis. It did, actually, kind of look like one. When Gustav was done eating we gave the rest of his sausage (including the "penis" that he cut off before he started eating) to Pauline because she was still hungry. She picked up the little piece and looked at it for a second before saying "Guck, ein Penis," and throwing it across the room and onto the floor. Olaf, Esther and I looked at eachother and immediately started laughing. These kids are so entertaining.

Yesterday was a long day, but a good one. I got up earlier than usual to take Amelie for a walk because I knew that Jette was going to be coming over just a little after 8. When Jette got here, she didn't cry or fuss like the last time, and she actually smiled when she saw me coming down the stairs. As usual, they only wanted to play with their dolls at first, so that's what we did for about an hour or so. Then I helped them both put their shoes and jackets on and we walked down the street to the playground with the dolls in their strollers.

On the way to the park, there was a kitty that was standing at the front door of his house trying to get in. He was meowing, but there was nobody home to help him. We stopped, and I talked to him a little bit to get him to come over to me. He was such a love. He immediately started purring and rubbing his face on me, and he even let me pick him up. I wanted to take him with me; I miss my kitty. Pauline was afraid of it, though. I don't know why she was afraid, but she stayed far away from the cat and after I picked him up she called me and asked me to leave, and then she wanted me to carry her. It was kinda sad, but really cute.

We had a lot of fun at the playground, and Pauline made another huge step in her English education when she started repeating some of the things that I said to her. They were playing on this thing that's kind of like a teeter totter but they stand on it and their feet never touch the ground. Anyway, the girls decided to sit on it, so each time they were on the down swing their feet touched these tires that were buried in the sand as a safety feature. (I realize this probably doesn't make sense without a picture, so I'll have to take one.) Pauline had her knees bent back so that only the tops of her feet were hitting the tires, and I was trying to explain to her how to push off with her toes so that she could propel herself. Every time her feet touched the tire I told her to push, and she started saying "Push" with me. Then, while she was walking across the top of a short brick wall, I told her to be careful and she repeated "Careful" several times as she was balancing. I don't know if she fully understood what it meant, but at least she's trying to speak it now.

Jette also had a first at the playground yesterday. She was afraid to go down the slide by herself, so I went with her. When we went the second time, Pauline and Jette were both sitting on my lap. I was going to wait at the bottom for Jette the third time, but when I didn't go to the top of the slide with her, she started climbing back down the stairs because she didn't want to do it alone. So I went up with her, and sat down with her between my legs, and then inched forward until she was sliding down by herself. When she got to the bottom I told her to turn around and look, and she seemed confused when she saw me at the top of the slide until I told her "Du hast es alleine gemacht!" Then she got a huge smile on her face, and immediately went back to the top to do it again. She had such a blast on that slide once she knew she could do it by herself.

When we got back from the playground it was after 11 so I cooked some noodles and heated up the tomato sauce from the other night for lunch. Pauline didn't really eat anything, but Jette ate a lot. Then it was nap time, so Esther and I heated some milk for the girls and took them upstairs to lay down. Pauline took her milk and got in bed and everything was well, but Jette really didn't want to take a nap. She was screaming and crying, but at the same time rubbing her eyes and yawning because she was so tired. She calmed down a little while Esther was sitting next to the bed with her, but as soon as Esther tried to leave Jette started crying again. I knew that Esther still had a lot of work to do, so I went upstairs and sat next to the bed with Jette to keep her calm. She just laid there on her back looking at me, not saying or really doing anything, for about 10 minutes, and the whole time her eyes were gradually closing and she was yawning. Withing 15 minutes she was sound asleep and I left her there alone to nap. She was still sleeping when her dad came to pick her up at 1, so he left her here and I called him when she was awake, which I think wasn't until about 2 or 2:30. Oh, and when we put her down for her nap, we changed Jette's diaper, and holy craps. That thing must've weighed about 10 pounds. I had no idea that a diaper was even capable of holding that much poop. It was disgusting.


In the evening Esther cooked some marinated turkey. It looked like a pork roast, and I thought it was until I tasted some of the skin, but it was delicious. She also made a really good sauce using the juice/fat from roasting the turkey, honey, orange juice, and sherry. I poured the sauce on my turkey and rice, and it was soo good. I ate way to much of it, but it was worth it. Also, Britta came over to drop off a thank you gift for me for taking care of Jette all day. She bought this adorable little Christmas tree, and it's actually alive. She's so sweet.

After we put the kids to bed, Esther, Olaf and I just sat downstairs in the living room talking until about midnight. The German version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was on, so we watched that, and then we just talked about whatever while sitting around drinking red wine. I learned a lot about both of them, and the family, and all kinds of stuff. Apparently they've both been married before. I knew Esther was, but I didn't know that Olaf had an ex wife. Anyway, at some point Esther mentioned something about her first husband, and Olaf, obviously joking, stood up and said, "What!? You were married before me? You never told me that, you bitch!" and he put his hands around her neck like he was going to strangle her. Esther and I were both laughing so hard. The whole time, really, all 3 of us were laughing and having a good time. We spoke a lot of Germish, which is how our conversations typically tend to go. I was really tired when I finally went to bed, but it was a great day.