wedding anniversary. In order to make things a little easier on me, they invited Olaf's aunt and uncle, Tante Karin and Heinz-Josef, to come and stay with us to help with the kids. For the entire week I was given 2 responsibilities: take care of Amelie, and take Gustav to his swim lessons in Pulheim. Other than that Karin and Heinz were going to take care of everything. At least, that was the plan. When Olaf got home from grocery shopping on Friday, however, the trail of oil and pillar of white smoke spewing from the back of the car required plans to be altered. The car was picked up (by a tow truck with a crane, which was actually pretty cool to watch) on Sunday and taken to the shop for the week, which meant that now Heinz was responsible for all transportation of the children, including taking Gustav to Pulheim. Wendesday, Thursday, and Friday, however, I had to pick up Pauline with the bike while they took Gustav to his lessons because it was too boring for Pauline to sit there, and she had been sick so she couldn't go swimming until he was finished. All in all that part of the week wasn't bad. What was horrible was nights. Pauline was an absolute monster. She wouldn't sleep, she cried and screamed and fussed incessantly, but either refused to tell you what was wrong or wouldn't let you help her, and she kept everybody (except 
Gustav) up all night almost every night. It wasn't until Wednesday night, when I told her flat out to cut the crap, that she finally quieted down and went to sleep. She mostly had complained that her stomach hurt, which may have actually been the case, but she definitely intentionally over-dramatized it. Plus, she's the boy who cried wolf, and I don't know how legitimate her complaints actually were, especially since she stopped when I told her we simply wouldn't tolerate it any more. It turns out that Esther and Olaf didn't have it too much better. They both had the stomach flu, which hit Esther at the airport on the way to Mallorca and kept Olaf in bed for 2 or 3 days with a fever. As I said, not a happy week.Well, Esther and Olaf are back from their 5-year anniversary vacation, and I wish I could say that everything was now back to normal. Unfortunately, though, it's not. The car is still in the shop, Gustav has been home sick for 2 days, and I've been stuck trying to take care of Gustav, walk Amelie, and deliver Pauline to and from the Kindergarten, without a car. This means that for the past 2 days I took Pauline, on the back of my bicycle, to Kindergarten in the morning and Amelie came along with us. I rode the bike through the fields, which is a shorter but slightly more difficult route since it's a little muddy, so that Amelie could run a little bit and take care of her business without having to be on the leash the whole time. After dropping off Pauline I had to come back home to watch over Gustav. Monday Esther was here all day, too, but she slept all day because the kids
were so horrible the night before that she didn't sleep at all. In the afternoon Gustav passed out on my floor and I left him there while I went to pick up Pauline. Esther was home, so don't worry; I did not leave the child here alone. When I got back I picked up Gustav, who was still sleeping on my rug, and carried him into his room to put him on the mattress underneath his bed. Today, however, I was the one who fell asleep in Gustav's room. I curled up on the mattress while he did puzzles, and I woke up to Gustav yelling at Amelie. She had crawled up onto the mattress so she could curl up and cuddle with me. What a love. When it came time to pick up Pauline today we ran into some complications. Esther wasn't here this time, so I couldn't simply take the bike and get her like I did yesterday. She also wasn't able to get a hold of any of the neighbors to ask if they could either bring Pauline home with them, or watch over Gustav while I picked her up. Instead, Esther had to call a taxi to take her to the Kindergarten and then bring her and Pauline home. Kind of crappy, but it worked. Olaf was supposed to pick up the car this evening when he got back with the train, but the test drive revealed a new problem and now they need to keep it until tomorrow. And Pauline apparently had a minor fever today, which could mean that she's staying home tomorrow. Son of a...On the bright side, the packages that my mom sent a couple weeks ago arrived today. There was one box for me, which had a couple of Halloween decorations in it but was mostly stuffed with
baking supplies, and one for the family. She waited until this evening to open it so that the kids and Olaf could all be there, and it kind of felt like Christmas. In the package were 2 Halloween gift bags, which are really sturdy and can be used to collect Halloween candy, and in each one were gifts for the kids. Specifically, there was a Spiderman costume for Gustav, a fairy costume for Pauline, 2 LED candles (one that's orange with a spider on it and the other one shaped like a ghost), and 2 felt decorations that have eyes that light up and make noise when you squeeze them. Pauline's is a jack-o-lantern that says "Happy Halloween!" and Gustav has a ghost that plays scary music. For Esther and Olaf my mom sent the same oil burner she had sent me a while ago, plus 2 other glass mosaic candle holders with scented tea lights. The kids both tried on their costumes immediately, and Esther set up her new candles, and I baked Ranger cookies with the goodies that my mom sent in my package. I love getting stuff from my mom.On a side note, I got to babysit Elif on Saturday evening. Güner and Seydi had a wedding to go to, and they took Zeynep with them but I stayed at their apartment and took care of Elif. The downside to the whole experience was that she cried for an hour while I walked circles around the apartment, singing/humming "Rock-a-Bye Baby" in the dark, trying to get her to fall asleep. It wasn't a big deal to me, because I didn't have anything better to do, but she gets pissed if she isn't facing forward, and she is so heavy, so it got pretty tiring. On the other hand, she did fall asleep on my arm and slept peacefully on my chest for half an hour, which made me very happy. That was unfortunately before the crying spell, but once she finally fell back asleep she out until Zeynep got home and woke her up. Another plus for this weekend was that I took my first-aid course in Köln, which I need in order to get my driver's license, and I prepared all of the paperwork that I need to get my visa extended. Yay me!
