Those Alaskan Geese from Canada

Yesterday I was way too tired to write an update. After we put the kids to bed, Esther and I stayed up until 10:30 (Esther actually stayed up until 1) making Advents Calendars for Gustav and Pauline. It was a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of work. We individually wrapped every individual little gift and piece of candy, so 48 things total. Esther was really excited when I told her that I enjoy wrapping presents, because she really loves crafty stuff and having someone to do it with. I was exhausted by the end of the night, probably largely because I was in the process of getting sick again, or just a little relapse from the cold I had last week.

When I woke up this morning I felt like complete crap. I hardly slept at all last night, so I was really tired, and my throat was swollen/sore and I could hardly breath (although, the woman setting next to me on the train this morning farted, and I could smell that, so apparently it wasn't as bad as I thought). My right nostril was plugged all day and even my Afrin did nothing to help it. It didn't clear up until about an hour ago when Esther gave me some of her amazing nasal drops that I could feel going into my sinuses, and in less than 5 minutes I was completely cleared up. I'm going to have to buy a ton of this stuff and bring it home with me when I leave.

An old friend of Olaf came to visit today because he was in town. They used to work together when Olaf worked for Pepsi. He actually spent a summer living in LA to attend a summer MBA course at UCLA, so his English is really good. He also has a great story about how he spent a night in a Tijuana jail because he left his passport in LA. He's never going back there again. He was really surprised when I laughed at something he said to Esther because he didn't realize that I understood German way better than I can speak it.

While I was walking with Amelie in the field this afternoon I got to see the geese migrating for the winter. You don't really see very much of that in San Diego, because San Diego is further south than a lot of birds care to go. But today I saw two huge flocks of geese (or is it still called a gander when they're flying?) with at least 200 geese in each group. They were talking the whole time, and they were in a huge V formation, and it was pretty cool. Yet another simple, everyday thing that I found to be way too exciting.

Gustav, by the way, was been an absolute doll lately. Yesterday morning when I dropped him off at Kindergarten, I had a cake tin because they were going to be celebrating his birthday. At first he wanted to carry the cake into the classroom, but then he handed it to me so that I would go with him. I was talking to his "teacher" (it's not really school, so they're not really teachers) and he was holding on to my leg the whole time. When I went to say goodbye to him, he gave me a big kiss on the cheek. Then today, because Esther had to work late, I put the kids to bed by myself. Gustav asked me to come back into his room after they were both in bed, and I thought that the nightmare was about to begin. When I got to the door and asked him what was wrong, he asked me if I could stay next to his bed for just a little bit longer. So I knelt next to his bed and held his hand for a few minutes while he was laying on his back, rubbing his eyes. Then he rolled over on his side for a few minutes but kept holding my finger. After a while, as his eyes started closing, he whispered, "Ok, du kannst wieder weg gehen, wenn du willst," ("You can leave again when you want to") and he pulled up his covers and went to sleep. That was almost 3 hours ago, and there still hasn't been a peep from him tonight. He really is a sweetheart.