This is why I still love the little bastard :)

Some of you may already know that Gustav and I have not been the best of friends for the past few months or so. That's primarily due to the fact that I'm usually the only adult in this house that tells him there will be consequences and actually means it. For example, when I tell him that we're all sitting down to eat dinner now, and that if he would rather fart around and be a pain in my neck than eat his dinner (which generally only happens when he has friends over) then he can go to bed without dinner because there will be nothing to eat later, I actually send him to bed without dinner. Or if I say that he needs to hurry up and get ready for bed so that he can watch Sandmännchen (which comes on every night at 6:45) then he better do it, because I refuse to record it on the DVR while he screams and cries and tries to hit me so that I can later reward him for his crappy behavior by allowing him to stay up a half hour longer to watch the show he wants but doesn't deserve to see. But I feel it's necessary to show him that there are consequences for his poor attitude and complete disrespect, because he's really become a little turd. The fact that I have been so "strict" with him has caused him to tell me that he hates me, or that I should leave and never come back, or that he wishes I had never come here, things like that.

But things are starting to look up. Of course we still have our problems, but he has been doing things recently that really remind me of what a good kid he actually is, and why I love him. First, Esther had a dream a couple weeks ago that we were all sitting at the table and I said, "Btw, I quit. I'm leaving tomorrow." When she told about the dream, Gustav told her how horrible that would be if I were to leave. Then, last week we were in the car and I was driving a group of kids to a birthday party. Gustav (who has always been extremely opposed to anything involving English) asked me what "Liebe" was in English. Then he asked, "Wie heisst 'Ich liebe dich'?" So I told him, and he responded, "Ja, das wollte ich sagen. I love you, Amanda." He told me he loves me. In English! It almost brought a tear to my eye, it was the sweetest thing ever. And yesterday, he drew me a picture in Kindergarten. A real picture. He usually just puts a few blobs down on a piece of paper and has no idea or explanation for what they are. In fact, since he drew the Easter Bunny and St. Nick when he was 4, I don't think he's even attempted to make a real picture. But for me he drew a hill with 2 cherry trees, a couple flowers, a man, a sun, clouds, and even a mushroom. And you can totally tell what each thing is, too. And he drew it just for me! No matter what kind of hateful things he sometimes says, I know he loves me, and it's things like this that will make it impossible for me to ever not love him.