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.