I have been attempting to write this blog since Monday. Seriously, now that I have to pick up Pauline at 1 every day I don't have any time for myself during the day anymore. And with the World Cup going on right now, my evenings are occupied as well. Right now I'm watching the game between Slovakia and Italy and the kids are playing in the garden, so hopefully I'll have enough time to do this now.

This past weekend was really busy. It started with a full day of babysitting on Saturday. I had told Güner that I would help her out and take care of Elif for a couple of hours while she went to an appointment in Köln. After I had breakfast with the family I headed down the street to their house. When I got there Güner was just putting Elif down for a nap, which meant that (as long as she stayed asleep) I wouldn't have very much to worry about. Güner also had a ton of laundry that she needed to do, which she hadn't been able to get to because she had so much to do with the baby over the past few weeks, and then she was sick with a fever for a couple days, so I offered to help with that while Elif slept. There were literally 2 laundry baskets full of clean laundry that needed to be ironed. So when Güner left I started with the ironing and turned on the TV to watch the game at 1. Elif slept basically the entire time and only started to fuss a little bit about 10 minutes before Güner got home. Even then, though, she wasn't a problem. I just held her in my arm (facing outward so she could see the world, of course) and continued ironing with my free hand, and that was just fine for her. When Güner got home she had Turkish food with her, so we had lunch while Elif sat on her little rocker and played with a ball.

After lunch I offered to stay a little longer to keep an eye on the little one so that Güner could get more work done. They were going to her parents house in Mannheim for 3 weeks and she still had a lot to do before they left. She called her husband, Seydi, to find out what time he and Zeynep would be home and when they were leaving for their trip. That's when she learned that they actually had an appointment at 6 to meet with someone about plans for the kitchen in the new house they're building. Taking Zeynep to that appointment was going to be an absolute nightmare, so Güner asked if I would be able to stay and watch her for an hour or so while they got that taken care of. That actually ended up turning into about 3 hours, because they didn't make it home until a little after 9. Then they put Zeynep to bed and I stayed to watch the end of the game with Güner and Seydi. I ended up not getting home until about 11:30, a full 12 hours after I left that morning. Needless to say, I was exhausted.

Sunday was a whole other adventure. I got a call from Alex, the DJ, after breakfast inviting me to go water-skiing with Tommy and Steffi (2 of the other lifeguards from the last time I went to the lake). I had been intending to stay at home with the family because Olaf's relatives were coming to celebrate Pauline's birthday, but Esther said that I should go to the lake since I had the opportunity. It was kind of weird because boats aren't actually allowed on the lake, so instead they had this machine with cables that went around in a big square, and you would hold on to a rope that was attached to this cable and it pulled you around the lake. We actually were using wake boards instead of skis. I never actually made it around the lake. I failed miserably at starting because I either put too much weight on my front foot, or let the rope pull my arms up too fast, or something stupid. I think that each time I went I had a different problem, which is pretty typical for me. Anyway, we were there for 2 hours and I don't think I ever made it more than 10 or 15 meters from the start. But I did go doubles on a knee-board with Tommy one time, and I managed to injure my arm, so all in all it was a pretty good day. Afterward we were going to go to the sauna, but everyone decided against it in the end and we all just went home.

I think the only other exciting thing that's happened was the game last night. I went to another Public Viewing with Alex, Tünn, Ingrida and Steven, but this time in Sinzig where Rudi and Tünn are from. We went to a Biergarten in the middle of this little town, and it was packed. It was seriously a struggle trying to move (or breathe, for that matter) but it was good times. It doesn't hurt that Germany won, either. Once again there was a huge party in the street after the game. We must have been there for another 2 hours, just celebrating with everyone. Ingrida and I were holding a German flag so that it stretched across the street for all the cars to drive under, and everyone was screaming and honking and having a good time. I wish I could have taken pictures or a video of it, but I'm a fucking idiot and dropped my camera in the toilet during the game and now its broken. Yeah, I'm really upset. Not only was it my camera, but it was a $500 camera that made really freaking amazing pictures. So I'm trying to let it dry out a little bit and hopefully there's not too much damage and it will actually function again. It already made some improvement this morning when it started beeping and then retracted the lens. Its a good start, but it needs to keep getting better.

And the US won! That was exciting. For whatever stupid reason, they chose to only show one game on the TV in Germany with intermittent highlights from the other instead of showing both games on 2 different channels. Unfortunately (but predictably) that meant that I was watching the England game and not the USA game. The ref had literally just blown the final whistle in the England game when all of a sudden the announcer starts yelling, "Tor! Tor!" and we just knew that the US had scored against Algeria. That was pretty cool, and really exciting. Yesterday was a good day for football.

Today was just a really relaxed day. After dropping off the kids and walking Amelie I took a nap because I was just way too tired from yesterday. When I picked Pauline up this afternoon she was ridiculously tired, too. We had to walk Amelie again, so I brought Pauline's laufrad and helmet and we went to the woods by Maria's. Pauline was really reluctant to get on the laufrad, and at first she started crying because she just didn't want to be there. I got her to calm down, but the whole time we were in the woods I could hear her fussing. It was kind of pathetic. We stopped by Esther's office on the way home and Esther was tempted to have me put Pauline down for a nap, but I convinced her otherwise. Its a good thing, too, because its 9 right now and shes still not sleeping, but if she had napped then she would never sleep. I'm just going to enjoy the Denmark-Japan game and let Esther worry about Pauline.

Yesterday was Pauline's 3rd birthday. On Wednesday night, after the kids were in bed and Olaf and Esther went to the Kindergarten for an information night, I made some strawberry muffins for Pauline's birthday. Those acted as her birthday cake/breakfast yesterday morning. We all sat down at the table together in the morning (which never happens during the week) and lit candles for Pauline and sang happy birthday. Pauline also opened her presents from the family, which were a big fuzzy pink Lillifee pillow with a fawn on it and a new dress. She put the dress on right away and wore it for most of the day. Then we ate the muffins before Olaf took the kids to Kindergarten and Maria's.

With everybody gone, Esther and I began preparations for the birthday party. I baked another 3 dozen muffins (strawberry muffins for the kids and Eierlikör muffins for the adults) and Esther baked a marble cake and a strawberry torte. Needless to say, there was plenty for everyone to eat. Esther also put up balloons and decorations (Lillifee, of course) and I made a birthday crown while Pauline was at Maria's.

The first gift that Pauline got to open when she got home was the big one. She got a new bike from Günter. It's so cute. It's all pink, of course, with a little flag on the front and training wheels. She was really excited to sit on it, but didn't really have much interest in actually riding it. Nonetheless, she was excited to have it.

The first guest, Zaynep, got there at about 2:30 in the afternoon. The plan was that her mom (Güner) was going to drop her off a little early and then go to the dentist because she had an appointment at 3. Güner just had a baby in March and had planned on taking the little Elef with her to the dentist, but then had second thoughts and Esther asked if I would be ok with keeping an eye on the little one. Of course that's never a problem for me, so I gladly took over. When Olaf first saw me holding the baby, the first thing he said was, "I didn't even notice you were pregnant," to which my response, of course, was, "Surprise!" A couple other people actually commented on the fact that Elef and I looked similar enough that you might think she was my baby, and she was pretty content to be in my arms as long as I kept her with her back against my chest so that she was upright and facing forward the whole time. She's so precious.

In the end Güner never went to her appointment because she just didn't the energy or desire to deal with it, so she stayed here the whole time, but I was still taking care of Elef for a good part of the time. It gave Güner a chance to relax a little bit without having to focus all of her energy and attention on the newborn, which she really appreciated. At one point she half jokingly asked me if I wanted to babysit, which of course I do, so I'm actually going over to their house tomorrow to take care of Elef for a couple hours while Güner has some errands to do. I'm actually really excited about it.

And of course David, my other little love, was there, too. I just can't get enough of that little boy.

The party itself went really well, aside from the fact that I kicked off the celebration by breaking Olaf's favorite schnapps glass. Ooops. He's not really upset about it, but I'm still obviously going to see if I can replace it for him. Other than that, though, it was a good day. There were 8 kids there: Pauline, Gustav, Fabio, David, Jette, Malte, Zaynep, and Julia. The girls all played very well together with almost no fighting or arguing or anything, and for the most part the boys left them alone, or at least played nicely with them. Aside from a few minor incidents and Gustav throwing a hissy fit because he wasn't allowed to open Pauline's presents for her, there really weren't any problems or anything. There were so many situations, though, where I felt like such a mom. I specifically recall one situation where I was sitting inside the house with Elef and heard Julia outside crying by the swing set, so I toted the baby out there to see what was wrong. There I stood, with a baby on one arm, comforting a crying child with the other, and lecturing a third about not hitting other kids. I often feel like I'm the first one to react when the kids are fighting, or start crying, or get hurt, even when it's not Gustav or Pauline. I just go straight into mom-mode when kids are there. I guess that's a good thing, though, and at least all the little ones like and trust me. Plus, the parents never seem to mind that they get a break from parenting every once in a while.

Today there was nothing in particular going on, just watching the World Cup with the family. Günter is still here because he's staying until Sunday, so after I drove Gustav to Kindergarten this morning we all had breakfast together. Then I took care of Pauline for a few hours while Esther took a nap and Olaf took Amelie to the vet to get her vaccinations. At around 1 Esther called the Italian restaurant down the street to order some pizzas, which I picked up and brought back to the house just in time for the start of the Germany v. Serbia game. I don't think I've ever seen such horrible refereeing in a professional game in my life. That jackass was just throwing cards all over the place, like he doesn't understand that a foul does not necessarily equal a yellow card. It doesn't help that Germany started the game out playing like crap, or that Podolski's PK was unsuccessful, but Klose's red card was killer. It's never easy having to play a man down like that, especially for almost the entire 90 minutes. And don't even get me started about the US goal against Slovenia that got called back for literally no reason. What a bunch of crap. It was not a good day for soccer. Let's hope that tomorrow fares a little better.

Well, after having a really rough start to my week, I was at least able to end it on a high note. Saturday was another meeting with the au pairs in Köln. We met at the Hauptbahnhof at 9 in the morning to head to the town of St. Goar in the Middle Rhein Valley. We were visiting the ruins of the medieval Schloss Rheinfels. I don't think it's possible for me to visit the site of ancient ruins and not have a good time. It always makes me feel happy and at home to be among archaeological remains. Of course, I'm a jackass and didn't charge my camera battery before the trip, so I don't have very many pictures right now. It's not entirely my fault, though, because I couldn't find my battery charger; it was very well hidden on top of my desk next to my computer. I used Elena's camera to take a lot of pictures, though, so I will be getting those from her next week in class. I want to go back and visit the castle again some time, too, but this time I'm bringing a flashlight. There were so many little tunnels (hallways, actually) and stairwells that were accessible except for the fact that you literally could see nothing because it was so dark. I'm too much like my mother, and I have to know what's there, so I definitely need to go back and check things out a little more.

Aside from the castle itself, the whole trip was great because it was so amazingly beautiful. This section of the Rhein is basically lined with ancient castles, which are dotted all along the banks of the river. We took a brief little cruise up the river to the wine village of Bacharach (named after Bacchus, not Burt) and we passed at least 3 castles on the way. The towns in the area are absolutely adorable, too. There were a ton of fachwerk houses and little cobblestone streets. It was basically your quintessential small European village. And there's an ice cream shop that makes Riesling ice cream. That was a delicious and interesting experience. The only thing that sucked was that, because of people not paying attention to the time, we missed our train out of Bacharach and had to wait around for a full hour until the next one came. It was kind of an obnoxious waste of time, and I was really tired and slightly sore (it was a a rather strenuous excursion considering that I had just had an operation), but otherwise it was a great trip.

Sunday was just simply awesome. My friend Alex (the DJ I met in Djerba) picked me up at around 1:30 in the afternoon to go to Euskirchen. We were going to a Public Viewing (which is the "German" word for a public showing of a soccer game) of the Germany-Australia game at 8:30. The reason he picked me up so early is that these 2 guys named Rudi and Tünn, who sing a song about the World Cup called "Afrika, wir sind da," were going to be performing at the event, and Alex is kind of like their promoter/agent. First we went to Alex's flat in Euskirchen, which is really cool. It's an attic loft, so it has the low slanted ceilings upstairs (which I just love), and it has a nice, peaceful view from the balcony. I could definitely live there. We left Alex's at around 5 to go to where the viewing was. It used to be a tennis complex but at some point they built a shelter over it, filled it with sand, and turned it into a party hall. It holds 6,000 people, so it's pretty big. Since we were with the band, we had backstage passes and were able to go in super early to hang out. Before the game started, Rudi und Tünn performed their song and I got to be on stage with them, taking pictures. I had a charged battery this time :)

The mood inside this place was so intense. It reminded me of the Simon and Garfunkle concert that I went to in Rome (though I have yet to witness anything even nearly that awesome). The sense of excitement was practically palpable. Not only did Germany totally kick Australia's ass, but they also played the best game of soccer that I've seen in a very long time. It reminded me of watching my brother's club team play back in high school, where they worked so well together as a team that they were basically able to make blind passes and know that someone was going to be there to get it. It was absolutely amazing, and an incredible experience to be there with all those fans. Like going to a huge party to watch the NBA finals or the Super Bowl, but way better because it wasn't basketball or football.

Needless to say, the atmosphere after the game was far more intense. It took almost 2 hours to get through the center of Euskirchen, which isn't exactly a big town (when I told Olaf where I watched the game his response was, "Haben sie schon Strom in Euskirchen?"), because the entire town was one big party. The streets were packed with cars that were essentially just parked. Everyone was hanging out of their windows and sunroofs, honking their horns, shouting, and singing. People were walking through the streets with flags and horns and whistles, and everyone was just celebrating. I can't wait to see what happens when they win the Cup ;-)

Once we finally got out of the center of town, we went back to Alex's flat to sleep. He had hardly slept the night before and it's about a half hour drive between Euskirchen and Köln each way, so he was just way too tired to make the drive. We set an alarm for 5:30 in the morning so that he could drive me back home in time for me to take a shower and help with the kids at 8. When I got here Amelie was at the door waiting for me, and I went up to my room to cuddle with her on the floor a little bit before I had to start moving. I got a phone call from Esther at about 7:30 asking me where I was because she thought I still hadn't made it home.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to follow through with my plan, which was to drop off Esther and the kids, walk with Amelie, and then sleep until 1. Instead, I had to take a rather distraught Pauline to Maria's (last week she started throwing fits in the morning about the fact that she had to go to Maria's, and she still cries and screams about it every morning), walk with Amelie, then come back and take care of Gustav while Esther slept for the rest of the morning to make up for the fact that she didn't sleep at all the night before. Gustav had a relatively high fever the night before, so he wasn't able to go to school yesterday. It wasn't like all the other times he's stayed home sick, though, where he's actually fine and full of energy and running around all over the place. This time he was really, genuinely ill. He had a tummy ache all day and ended up sleeping on the sofa for most of the morning and afternoon. Esther went shopping and picked up Pauline in the afternoon, then brought the little one home before going to her office for an appointment. The kids and I watched the soccer games, painted, and played a little bit until Esther got home, then it was off to school. Yeah, yesterday was a long day.

Gustav stayed home again today, but he's definitely feeling better. I don't think he had a fever at all today. We played for a long time in his room, first with puzzles and then we pretended to be pirates. His bed was the ship, and he was using a little soccer ball as a cannon to shoot the dinosaurs and tigers that were swimming after us and trying to attack us. At one point I laid down in the bed while he was fetching the ball, and then he called the bed our "Schlafschiff" or sleep ship. Then, later on while we were sitting on the lower mattress, he told me that we should go back up into the Schlafschiff to take a nap. He was really tired, but I didn't let him take a nap because I knew what it would mean for this evening. Instead we stayed there and cuddled while I read him stories.

When Olaf came in and told Gustav that it was time to get dressed because they were going to pick up Mama and go out to lunch, Gustav said that he didn't want to go because he wanted to stay with me. It didn't matter to him that they were going to a restaurant (which they don't do that often, so its kind of a big excursion for the kids) or that Esther was going to be there; he wanted to cuddle with me. So I made some noodles and cut up some bell pepper for Gustav and I to eat while Olaf went to lunch with Esther and then picked up Pauline. When they got home I already had the game on, so Olaf took little pauses from his work to look at the game and I took pauses from watching the game to play soccer with the kids in the garden. They keep themselves pretty well entertained, so it wasn't really a big deal that I was watching the game.

When we put the kids to bed Pauline went immediately to sleep, but Gustav didn't. He was sitting in his bed calling for Esther (Olaf had already made attempts to calm him down) simply because he wanted her to be there in his room. She told him that she'd be there as soon as the news was over, but that wasn't good enough and he kept making noise. I went in to quiet him down so that he didn't disturb Pauline, and since Esther wasn't coming he said he wanted me to cuddle with him again. So I climbed up into his bed and laid down next to him. As soon as I was there with him he closed his eyes, and I stayed there until he fell asleep. He was so exhausted. Tomorrow he will definitely be going back to Kindergarten, though.

Precious Moments

I almost forgot the most important thing. Gustav called me into his room this evening after we put him to bed. He didn't say anything, but just waited until I got right next to his bed. Then he crawled over to give me a kiss. He just did the same thing again a couple minutes ago. I helped him get out of bed to go pee and when I put him back in bed was a little fussy at first, but then he gave me another kiss and went back to sleep. He's such a love.

The last couple of days since I got home from the hospital have been a little more strenuous than I anticipated. The pain is basically gone, but it still feels sore where the incision is. I have to be careful not to move too far or too fast so that I don't tear it, because there have been a couple of times that I felt like maybe it was opening a little bit. The stitches came out yesterday in the bathtub; hopefully that wasn't too early. Mostly, though, I'm just tired and a little uncomfortable, no big deal.

Pauline has been a little tough lately. She absolutely does not want to go to Maria's right now. I think that it's only because Lena and Zeynep, the 2 other girls her age, don't go to Maria anymore, which basically means that Pauline's alone there. Anyway, on Monday she started crying in the morning when we left the house because she wanted to say with Esther. Then she cried again in the car after we dropped off Gustav, and again at Maria's. I obviously wasn't there Tuesday to know how it went, but it was the same Wednesday and today she cried as she got out of the car at Maria's. We're already picking her up at 1 instead of 4 every day, so I don't know what else we can do. Also, when I picked Pauline up today she was wearing somebody else's pants. She apparently decided that it would be a good idea to pee in her pants, on Maria's sofa, instead of in the toilet. For the third time this week. By the time we got home she was wet again, and then she peed again in her jeans while she was in the garden. That was all just today, and I can't even tell you how many times she's done it in the past couple weeks. In a way she's worse than Gustav was, because with Gustav at least he danced around and you could tell when he had to pee. With Pauline, there's usually no indication that she has to pee until it's too late. A little frustrating. I just put a diaper on her this afternoon because I wasn't going to deal with it again. The good news is that she actually sleeps at night since she's not napping anymore. I guess that's a good consolation :)

"It must suck to be you."

Well, I've had an interesting few days. I just spent the night in the hospital in Frechen because I had to have a cyst removed yesterday. I first noticed there was something wrong on Friday, but the skin just felt a little tender and I thought it was a bruise. Then Friday evening I noticed a small lump which, by the end of the day Saturday, was a large and very painful lump. Despite 2 days of hot compresses and baths, it did not go away or improve at all. So yesterday Esther took me to the doctor, who said that the cyst, which was a little over 2 cm in diameter (about an inch), had formed in a gland that somehow got plugged and that, unfortunately, the only way to remove it when this happens is surgically. It hurt like hell, so Esther took me straight to the hospital to get it checked out and hopefully operated on. Luckily I had started fasting on Saturday, so we didn't have to wait a day to make sure that there was no food/water in my stomach (I had water in the morning but by 4 pm it had been long enough to make it ok to operate). So Esther canceled her meetings for the day, brought my pajamas, a toothbrush, a magazine and my lavender-scented teddy bear to the hospital for me, and took care of the kids while I was gone. It was a quick and easy operation, and I was back home in less than 24 hours, but it still sucked to have to go through all that. What a pain in the ass. Now I'm back home, and I just have to kind of take it easy for a few days so that I don't irritate the incision. So Amelie will be having short walks for the rest of the week (unless Olaf takes her while he's home) and I will be doing minimal work (as if I really did that much to begin with!) until I'm fully healed. So, since vacation I've had a horrible cold, pink eye, and an operation. I think it's enough. Time to be healthy again.

Gustav was so adorable last night. Pauline was already asleep because Esther put her to bed early (she was way too tired, which is how she should be when she doesn't nap in the middle of the day) and I was getting myself ready for bed, too. I was in my room putting on my nightgown and Gustav was standing outside with his face against my door, making siren noises. I opened the door to ask him what he wanted, and he said he just wanted to cuddle, with me, in my bed. You can't say no to that, so we crawled into my bed and I pulled up the covers and he was cuddling against my chest. That's when it occurred to me that, if he fell asleep, he was going to be angry and out of control when we woke him up to put on his pajamas and brush his teeth and I was not prepared to deal with that. So I asked him if we should put his pajamas on first, and he quite willingly got himself out of my bed to go get himself changed. Then I remembered that he was supposed to take a shower because he had been playing in the dirt all day, so he walked to the bathroom, got himself undressed, and waited for me to turn on the shower for him. He used my loofah, which he thought was absolutely fantastic because it makes so much foam. The kids love foam, of course, and he kept telling me how cool my sponge was. Too cute. Then we got him dried off, put his pajamas on, and brushed his teeth. Esther was in her bedroom with the door locked because she was on the phone and didn't want loud screaming kids to disrupt her, so Gustav knocked on the door to see if he could get the hairdryer from the bathroom. Esther didn't respond but Olaf (who was downstairs this whole time) heard Gustav knocking and went to find Gustav a hairdryer. Gustav dried his hair almost entirely by himself, with me helping in the back. It was so cute, too, because he was using the mirror and you kept moving the dryer in the wrong direction because mirrors are tricky like that. He had this really adorable confused and yet entirely focused look on his face. Once his hair was dry he looked at me and said "Ok, jetzt können wir kuscheln," and he hopped into my bed. I laid down next to him, and we just sat there for a few minutes with his eyes only half open. Then he heard Olaf cough and he said, "Papa ist noch wach," (Papa is still awake) and then after a second, "aber Pauline schläft schon," (but Pauline's already sleeping). I agreed with him, and then he said, "Ich gehe jetzt auch ins Bett." So we went into his room and sat on the bottom mattress for a little bit so I could read him a story from one of his Bobo Siebenschläfer books, and then he crawled up into his bed. I went downstairs to make him a milk because he decided he needed one, he went pee one more time, and then I tucked him in. He almost immediately fell asleep without making another sound. Esther and Olaf were both confused because they had each thought that the other one had taken care of Gustav. He was such a love, though. As much of a pain in the ass as he can be, he's generally an absolute sweetheart.