Just Laugh

I've always been the type of person who likes everything to go as planned.  The unexpected always threw me for a loop and I was so quick to stress over the smallest upset.  While I still manage to stress out easily, being an au pair in a foreign country has taught me to laugh at ridiculous situations rather than stress out over them.  I of course take my job seriously as I am in charge of someone else's three wonderful children, but this job has taught me how to lighten up.

The other day while I was cleaning up from breakfast Sophie decided she wanted another bowl of muesli with milk.  I heated up the milk for her since it's hard enough to get the kids to eat without them being distracted by something else so when one of them asks for seconds I never question it.  The serving container for the milk was barely even a quarter of the way full and the previous mornings Sophie had proudly shown how her 2-year-old self can pour her own milk into her sippy cup.  Since a bowl has a wider mouth I figured there would be no problem...well, so much for that thought.  After doing some things in the kitchen I walked back into the Esszimmer (eating room, where the kitchen table is) to find Sophie sitting in a swimming pool-sized puddle of milk.  The milk must have managed to perfectly strike her Kinderstuhl in such a way that it sprayed all over the kitchen floor.  Table, child, Kinderstuhl, and floor were completely covered in milk.  I couldn't help but crack a smile when she turned to me with those huge "uh-oh I did something wrong" eyes.  I lifted her off of her seat and as soon as her feet touched the ground she burst into tears.  I gave her a hug and told her in German that it's only milk and I can clean it up.  Besides, the dog got to the floor before I did so it wasn't too big of a clean up. :)

There are days when I'm tired and just need to retreat to my room after spending an eventful morning with the kids...especially if the kids were particularly grumpy that day or extremely energetic.  On one of those days I was reading in my room and suddenly heard fast and furious tiny footsteps coming down the hall.  They didn't even stop in front of my door and instead it was just one continuous motion as my bedroom door flung open and Nina and Sophie flew into my room.  Nina, with a knife (kid friendly) and fork in hand, proudly proclaimed in a super hero stance "ESSEN IST FERTIG!!!" (food is ready).  After that she jumped onto my bed and asked me to come to the kitchen.  Any stress I had from the morning suddenly melted away and all I could do was laugh and think how I have a pretty awesome life.  
 
 

 

I'mmmm BBBaaaccckkkkk!

So...I basically fell off the face of the blogging earth once I left Germany and went home to the US in November.  I was pretty discouraged with the whole au pair thing since I had a...umm...well there's no nice way to say I HAD A TERRIBLE HOST FAMILY.  I was also bummed that I had to leave my awesome German class and it was just another bump in the road.  However, I came back in January and ever since then things have been AMAZING. 

Oh man, where do I begin?!  Some of you may have seen the pictures I've posted on facebook of the adorable kids I'm an au pair for.  I went from having a terrible family to having the most amazing host family I could ever ask for.  My host parents are so nice and I finally feel really comfortable.  I don't even feel like an au pair...instead, I feel like I just got three new little sisters.   There's Lisa who is 4, and Nina & Sophie who are 2.  I love seeing their cute little faces in the morning and I think it's so sweet when they want to sit on the counter in the bathroom and watch me do my hair or my makeup.  It also melts my heart when they come into my room in the evening and sit next to me in my bed while I'm reading or catching up with friends on facebook.   Nina is the one who comes into my room the most and I think it's the sweetest thing when she comes in the front door of the house and immediately I hear tiny little footsteps running down the hall to my room.  Plus, hugs from kids are just the best.

All kids have their moments of course...and it makes it even more difficult when there is a language barrier.  I just have to laugh when Sophie says something to me in German and I respond with "ich verstehe nicht" (i don't understand) and she proceeds to say it louder and louder...as if that will suddenly make me know what she is saying.  She is a very curious little girl and also loves to ask WHY for everything.  It's hard enough for me to answer, "was ist das?" (what is this?) let alone the 100 warums (whys) that follow it.  Haha, I truly love it though.

Today I had the whole family (minus my host dad) in my room trying to figure out how to make my bed go back to it's original position.  My bed can be folded into a couch but I usually always keep it down...but today I lifted it up to vacuum under it and man was that a mistake.  When I tried to push one side down the other side popped up...or if you tried to sit on it the middle caved in and the two ends popped up.  Nina came into my room and kept telling me I need to put my bed down but I told her I didn't know how.  So the tiny 2 year old exclaimed "selber machen" (she can do it alone) and proceeded to hang on the end of the bed that was in the air.  She tried and tried for a good 5 minutes while I laughed hysterically the whole time.  Eventually Ulli (host mom), Lisa, and Sophie came in as well and between the three kids jumping on different parts of the bed and Ulli folding the bed so many different ways it finally went back down.  These are the best moments.

.....the not so awesome moments are when I open my door and step out into the dark hallway only to trip and fall over a tiny police car one of them parked outside of my door.  Hahahaha....oh Kinder :)


I have so many more funny stories to share but I already typed a novel of a post...so next time!