Bounced (eh, more like crawled) out of bed shortly after six. Matter of fact, I was up so early that I beat Erla to it.
If I wasn't already, I was very much awake after smacking my head on the low-clearance ceiling walking up the loft stairs en route to wake up the kids. Ouch.
Little Miss Bed Head, shortly after she woke up. As you can see, this child is entirely too adorable for her own good.
At the breakfast table, Embla was finishing some homework which was unfortunately discovered last night. I noticed she was writing it with a pink fountain pen. She told me that all students in her school use fountain pens as a general rule, and you can buy them (and the special eraser used for mistakes) at most any grocery store.
(Galen, you would definitely appreciate this little tidbit.)
I think I have gained pseudo-mommy status, because when I dropped Erla off at Kindergarten this morning she did NOT want me to leave. But eventually, I was able to leave. Rachel walked to get coffee, and I headed home.
By 9:30 AM (3:30 AM for my U.S. folks, to be technical about it) we had all children in their proper places. I had just begun to settle down, unload the dishes and start thinking towards a shower, when who should show up but Ellert. He was frustrated because he couldn't figure out where his class went to take their Monday music lessons, as this was only his second week at this particular school. He couldn't locate them and thus decided to just come back home.
After I showered and finished chores, it would appear that a Stomachache of epic proportions had seized our young student, thus rendering him unable to go to class. I should note that it got even worse the more the word "school" was mentioned.
The stomachache was, as he described it:
"....moving up my arm and to my neck, and if it gets to my neck I won't be able to talk for like two minutes!"
Aunt Rachel and I raised our eyebrows incredulously as we viewed the patient. About this time, the ache began to visibly manifest itself in the form of contortions.
"Pleeeeease believe me, you gotta believe me! It hurts really bad."
Ah, no. Was not convinced.
"I knew that I would have a difficult time getting Erla to stay at school, but I never thought I would have any trouble with getting you to school."
I informed him that if he was going to stay home, there would be no movies, no computer games, and that he'd have to come with us to run errands first. He agreed to this, and meanwhile, unbeknownst to him, I secretly tossed his backpack and coat in the trunk.
He brought a blanket with him, and I did an unannounced search before we pulled out of the driveway, the result of which was my discovery of the Kindle Fire which was hidden in said blanket.
Before we pulled out of the driveway, I whipped around in the seat.
"Look, I know you are faking, we all know you are faking. But for now, you're coming with us."
But instead of going to the grocery store, I drove the car over to the sidewalk near his school.
"What? Where are we?" said a shaky voice with a feigned weakness added to it.
"You know where we are."
I removed the backpack from the trunk.
I told him I was going to walk with him to the classroom where he would announce to his teacher and in front of the whole class that he *air quotes* "had a stomachache" and that's why he was so late.
He and I marched through the courtyard and nary a word was spoken between us. The jig was up, and he knew it.
When we opened the door to the classroom, twenty pairs of eyes turned to look at us, surprised to see Ellert appear in the middle of a school day as they quietly worked on their math lesson. He looked at his feet and sheepishly mumbled:
"Ich hätten ein Bauchschmerzen...."
The teacher nodded and then asked who I was.
"Dein Schwester?"
"Nein, couzin."
I replied.
"Ah, ok. Alles klar. Danke."
Whether for my good or to my detriment, I can be rather headstrong, which is really just a nicer way of saying I'm stubborn. But I suppose my strong will came in handy, at least for today. I doubt he'll try that stunt out again anytime soon.
I will admit that I strutted just a tad as I walked back to the car, triumphant in my quest, with the Avengers theme song playing in my mind like background music in a movie.
With a big smile and a thumbs up to Aunt Rachel who was sitting in the passenger seat, I hopped back into he driver seat.
"Well, that was oddly satisfying."
"Where to next? I think we should go..."
"....get a shot of vodka? Not that I drink it, but you know what I mean."
"Yes, a glass of hemlock perhaps?"
We crack ourselves up.
"Truth is, you could make a killing being a kick-butt Nanny."
Maybe I could.
The crisis at an end, we ran our errands and made a quick lunch afterwards. It involved Salami, and it was good.
I picked up Erla from Kindergarten, and we all ate lunch together. Ellert arrived back home from school and my recon (Aunt Rachel) later informed me that he was glad that he went back. Our relationship went on as before, there appeared to be no breach in it.
My carefully orchestrated
plan for Erla's afternoon was as follows:
1. Home from Kindergarten
2. Lunch
3. Park
4. Bath
5. Dinner
6. Sleep
It went splendidly. I was able to her occupied, as she is one busy, busy, busy girl. Rachel was able to finish some of the cleaning while Erla and I spent over two hours together at the park.
The park even had two concrete ping pong tables!
When we got home, Erla got anxious when I mentioned bath part, but I assured her that I had a special method that ensured no seife (soap) would get in her eyes (just the handy dandy head tilt.) She thought this was magic, and to watch her excitement as she realized that having a bath doesn't automatically mean soap in the eyes was very cute.
We made a wide assortment of things for dinner: pizza from Norma's, pasta, steak and salad.
The steak also came from Norma's and it was only 2.99€
It's crazy how inexpensive good quality food is in Germany. They just don't have the enormous subsidies that other countries do, which is one of the reasons why back in the U.S. the healthy and/or real food can be more expensive while the junk food super cheap.
Erla fell asleep quite quickly tonight as we cruised around Böblingen. She's real cute even when she's all conked out.
Rachel and I spent a relaxing evening finishing the house cleaning and then watched more of our TV series, as has become customary. Matter of fact, we finished it off tonight, so we're gonna have to find a new series soon. George and Arnheidur are expected back from Venice late tonight, but for now, I must crash. School routine comes early! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment