Carpools and Colds

Today was my first day of a successful carpool that I set up with Christianne - the mother of Tivan, one of Emma Sophie´s friends from Kindergarten. I know this sounds very small and insignificant, but I am so proud of myself - you have no idea! I arranged it all by myself! I got Emmi ready right on time in the morning, early enough to drive to Tivan´s house (without getting lost), take them both to Kindergarten, and then I could relax at noon when Christianne brought them both back. I think Christianne loves it too. It made my morning so much more relaxing to not have to watch the clock and plan to go pick her up in the middle of cooking lunch. It makes me nervous to leave things simmering on the stove while I´m gone, but if I don´t then they get sad, dry, cold lunches. And it just isn´t the same if you try to microwave them again... The kids liked my lunch today! Success. Lately they get some sort of sick enjoyment from saying they don´t like my food. Today I made mashed potatoes with lots of butter and milk (Paul Luis is far too small and skinny - I need to find a way to fatten that kid up!!), meatballs with spinach sauce, fresh sliced carrots and apples from Oma Jutta´s garden, and creamed cauliflower. At first the kids were appalled that I put cream on the cauliflower, but they loved it once they tried it. Emmi likes to think sometimes that I am "culturing" them, and asked me with wide eyes "do they make cauliflower like this in YOUR land?" It was adorable. I laughed and said, "sometimes, but I think they surely do it here in Germany, as well" to which she adamantly responded "NEVER!!! Only in your land. It is different than here - you´ll see." Sometimes I could just put that girl in my pocket - so cute. She had some grumpy moments today, too, but she has the same cold that I do - which made her very tired and stuffy. I was kind of jealous that she could express how she felt being sick. If I could get away with it, I might have been crying and kicking all afternoon too! :) I took her to English class in the afternoon, and had a great conversation with her teacher from Scotland, Hazel. She said some very positive and reassuring things about how she can tell that Emmi´s English is already improving so much since I arrived. It makes me happy, but also more self-conscious to realize that these children are basing their language skills off of the example I set. I want to be sure I use proper grammar instead of lazy slang, and have started to say a few things like "absolutely" instead of "yes" or "ok" all the time, and things like "fantastic", "fabulous", "magnificent", etc., instead of "good job." I was excited today to hear Paul Luis chase me with his "ferocious dragon" instead of "scary" or "mean." They pick up on things so quickly!! If only my German would progress as well as their English...

I´m going to end for now. I am freezing, and want to get over this cold now! I think some tea, or hot milk with honey might do the trick for the time being. Since today was a long day (I worked until 7pm!) I get to sleep in tomorrow. Torsten doesn´t work, so I just have to show up to make lunch, maybe buy some groceries, and play with the kids for an hour or so. Tuesday nights will soon become my new Saturday night! :) Today, however, my goal is to get healthy again as quickly as humanly possible.