Aside from me having my hands full with Pauline, the real fun started on Thursday. It was a holiday (Christi Himmelfahrt, the date of Christ's ascension) so Olaf did not have to go to work and the whole family was home all day. Johannes and Marlene (Esther's brother-in-law and niece) drove out to visit and to stay the night. Gustav was so excited the whole day about being able to play with his cousin. He kept asking every 5 minutes when Marlene was going to be here, if that was Marlene's car, if she was almost here yet, and so on. They arrived just shortly after lunch, and immediately the kids all went into the garden to play on the new playground. In the meantime I walked with Amelie and Olaf made a strawberry-banana tort for tea time. Afterward, Esther and Olaf got themselves ready to go to the ballet in Düsseldorf.
Esther was a little bit delayed getting ready because Pauline had a little bit of an accident. She went to go to the bathroom, and she never came back. When we realized she had been gone for a long time Esther went to check on her and found her in the bathroom, standing in a puddle of pee. The poor thing didn't make it on time, and couldn't hold it any longer. But, rather than saying anything about it, she tried to clean it all up on her own with toilet paper. That little girl unfortunately has a bladder the size of cistern, so toilet paper just wasn't going to cut it. It honestly reminded me of me, because that's something that I would've done as a little girl, too. It was so cute that she was trying to take care of it without causing anyone else any trouble, and yet at the same time it was so pathetic to see her standing there. Poor little thing.
Anyway, Gustav and Marlene had decided that they wanted to sleep together down in the cellar, so Olaf pulled out the sofa bed and got it set up for the two of them. Pauline decided that she was also going to sleep in the cellar and she wouldn't have it any other way. She grabbed her blanket, her pillow, her millions of stuffed animals, and anything else she could carry and dragged it all the way down the stairs and into the cellar. She also got herself completely undressed and changed into her pajamas because she was so excited about the sleep over. It was really precious. You cant really tell her no when shes being that adorable, so Olaf put a mattress downstairs for Pauline to sleep on next to the other two kids. Then Esther and Olaf left for their evening out and the adventure began. The kids immediately started running up and down the stairs and were laughing/screaming the whole time. They were pretending that Pauline was hunting Gustav and Marlene, only Pauline can't go up and down the stairs nearly as fast as they can. She was exhausted, and eventually she just came to sit on my lap and cuddle a lit bit because she couldn't do it anymore. In the meantime I made dinner for everybody, then helped the kids all brush their teeth and warmed some milk for all 3 of them. Gustav and Pauline wanted to be big kids like Marlene, so they took their milk and went downstairs alone; I wasn't allowed to tuck them in.
The kids obviously didn't go to sleep, since kids never do at a sleep-over. I cleaned up the kitchen while Johannes sat on the sofa and read a book, and the whole time we could hear the kids downstairs laughing and playing. I finished cleaning up, then went to check on the neighbors' cats. Shortly after I got back Gustav started screaming and crying hysterically. I went to see what was wrong and I met him at the bottom of the stairs, covered in blood. He and Marlene had been wrestling around, and Gustav got a bloody nose. He had big drops of blood all over his pajamas, and it was running down his face and dribbling off of his chin. So I carried him upstairs, stopped the bleeding with some paper towels, an ice pack, and some arnica, and tried to get him calmed down. Needless to say, he was very upset. Once things were calm again I took everybody back downstairs and had to clean the mattress, change Gustav, and put a new cover on the comforter before he and Marlene would get back in the bed. Johannes had explained to them that play time was over because they were just going to keep hurting themselves, and once they were back in bed I left them there to sleep.
It sounded like everything was fine, but pretty soon here comes Pauline, asking for more milk. The other 2 followed not long afterward, complaining that they couldn't sleep (each of them accused the other of not letting them sleep). Ok. Party's over. Johannes told Marlene that he would sit downstairs with her until she fell asleep, and the other 2 had to go upstairs to their own beds. I warmed some more milk for all 3 of them and told Pauline and Gustav to take their things upstairs while I got a new blanket for Marlene, since she had been using Gustav's. Pauline and Gustav were not happy about the idea of going to their own beds. Pauline refused to go upstairs, so I grabbed all the crap that she had carried down with her, along with her milk bottle, and just carted it all up knowing that she would follow her stuff. Unfortunately, she followed it while screaming at the top of her lungs and crying because she was so angry that I was taking it all away. I put everything back in her bed, then put her in the bed and closed her door, leaving her to cry and scream in her room. When I went back to the cellar to get Gustav, he had laid himself back down in Marlene's bed, under the covers, with the milk bottle in his mouth. He also refused to get up, even though Johannes and I both explained multiple times that he couldn't stay there, so I grabbed his blanket and pillow, pulled the bottle out of his mouth, and told him to come with me. He started crying, so I picked him up to carry him to his room. He started kicking and screaming and demanded that I put him down so that he could walk himself. When I put him down he immediately tried to run back to the bed, and when I stopped him he threw himself on the floor and started throwing a tantrum. So, I scooped him back up and carried him, kicking and screaming, up to his room and closed the door. That really made him angry, because Gustav hates having his bedroom door closed when he goes to bed. He opened the door and started yelling at me, so I told him that he either had to shut up or close the door, but if the door was open I didn't want to hear him crying. That got him to calm down a little bit, and I explained to him again why he couldn't sleep downstairs before offering to read him a story. While Gustav was looking for a story for me to read I went to get Pauline, who had been screaming and crying the whole time, to have her come and listen to the story too. She just yelled at me, so I closed the door and left her there again.
Once the story was over it was no problem getting Gustav to climb up into his bed and go to sleep. He was so tired, and that was all he really wanted to do anyway. I gave him his milk and tucked him in, and he went straight to sleep. Pauline, meanwhile, had suddenly stopped crying right around the time that Gustav's story ended. I went into her room to check on her, and she was lying face down in the pillow, snoring, with the light on and her milk bottle standing upright on the mattress next to her. She had literally cried herself to sleep, and she was done. Finally, at around 10 or 10:30, the madness was over. I walked Amelie one last time and then went straight to bed.
Yesterday was a lot calmer, but still kind of exhausting. Olaf was still at home because it was the first day of his holiday, but after breakfast Esther went to her office, and Johannes and Marlene left soon afterward. At around 1 Esther came back to pick up Olaf and the kids, and drove them into Weiden to get their hair cut while she went shopping. In the meantime, I cleaned the kitchen, did 2 loads of laundry, vacuumed, washed the floor, ironed Olaf's shirts, cleaned up the kids' rooms, and walked the dog twice. I had no idea that they were going to be gone so long, but when they finally came back at around 6:30 I left. I needed to get out of the house. I didn't really have anything to do so I just headed into Köln to do a little shopping. Unfortunately at was after 7 when I got there, and everything closes at 8 or 9, so I didn't get much shopping done. I did, however, find 3 new dresses. Then I went to the bookstore in the Hauptbahnhof, bought a cookbook with fast, low-calorie recipes, and sat in Starbucks drinking a chai tea latte. It kinda sucked being by myself the whole time, but it was nice to be out of the house for a little bit.
Today was mostly just a day for me. After breakfast I headed into Weiden to see if I could find a pair of shoes to go with one of my new dresses. All I needed was a simple pair of white or light brown sandals, and I found
nothing. I didn't have a whole lot of time because I was supposed to meet with Britta at 1:40, so I left with only a purse and no new shoes. Kinda bummed. What I was more bummed about (although pissed is probably the better word) is that I got to the S-Bahn just as it pulled up, and the freaking doors wouldn't open! Nobody got off the back half of the train, and when I pushed the button the door didn't open. I tried 4 doors, and nothing. So the train left without me, and I had to wait 15 minutes. I was not happy. By the time I finally got to the station in Königsdorf it was 1:47, and I had to run home in hopes of catching Britta before she left without me. Luckily, she had just finished getting ready herself (unfortunately it was because Jette had thrown up in their other car and they had to get it cleaned) so she didn't have to wait for me. We headed to Pulheim and spent the next 3-4 hours painting. It had been a long time since I'd been able to go painting with them, so I was really excited. When we got home the family was just sitting down to dinner, so I ate some barbecue and then headed to my room to relax. Now, tomorrow I pack and early Monday morning, vacation begins.
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