We woke up at 7:00, and by "we," I mean Erla and I.
By 9 am, I had her nails all pretty with polish, her fingers in purple and toes all done up in red.
She wanted to do my nails, but I hate nail polish (and red would not be appreciated all over the white tile.) As such, I let her use a washable marker on my toes. Unfortunately, my cosmetologist forgot that yellow looks terrible on my olive skin, and my nails came out to be an ever-becoming shade of Jaundice yellow.
As much as I tried to remember, naturally I totally forgot to wash it off before I ran errands later in the day. Oh well. :)
We did some coloring pages together, with Erla directing the color co-ordination. It's a little known fact, but apparently Sven is a Miami Dolphins fan.
I make it a point to speak entirely in German with Erla, and it's truly a lot of fun. She seems to understands it better than English, and I can almost feel the wheels turning in my mind as I have to switch from speaking German with her and English with the others. It's a good stretching experience for my brain, that's for sure.
I also read her several books in German which was super fun. Between SpongeBob and "Das alles hat Gott gemacht," I learned a lot.
She handed me a book in Icelandic and I went "Uhhhh...."
Due to a breakdown in communication somewhere along the line (which is a rather common occurrence hereabouts) Ellert almost didn't get to go to his tournament.
Remember the sweet Grandma that lent me a coat at soccer practice earlier in the week? Shortly after Ellert left to go meet his ride at the soccer field, she and her grandson, Ellert's friend Colin, showed up in our driveway. Apparently, they were the ride for him and were told to meet at the house.
Not sure how that tidbit got lost in translation. Shortly after I sent them to the field where Ellert was supposed to be waiting, who should walk by but the man himself, saying no one was at the field. I told him he better hurry and get his butt back the field or he wouldn't play.
Rachel, Erla and I took a little outing to Böblingen before lunch, to go to the bank and also in search of a small tablecloth to make the foyer area look attractive.
Due to the difficulty of the pronunciation of Böblingen, we have decided that Rachel and I will henceforward shorten it to "Boo."
I dropped her off at a store that looked promising. Then I had to figure out how to get back on the one way street that I had just left. I began to get concerned after I had to back down a very narrow street that went unexpectedly into a dead end.
About this time, as I backed down said precarious street, the Icelandic Sing-along-song CD we had in the stereo began playing the most annoying/obnoxious song on the entire album, wherein the singer does a rather frightful yodeling demo that is punctuated by additional yelps and yells. Also, the road was so steep that my phone fell into some unseen crevice in the console as I was driving, whilst being simultaneously subjected to the horrific yodeling song that I mentioned previously. A perfect combo for a near mental breakdown, right? Naa. Shortly thereafter I was able to find a way to get back on the street, and I passed by just as she walked out the door. Crisis averted.
This is the view I've been meaning to stop and take a picture of for weeks. The German countryside here is just stunning.
We arrived home, made some lunch, and cleaned and did laundry. I missed laundry, believe it or not; the absence of the simple satisfaction of cleaning, folding and putting up clothes was definitely felt.
Hopefully she won't mind me putting this on here, but it was too funny not to share. As we cleaned the kitchen, the Ever-Awesome and Quotable Aunt Rachel summed things up by saying:
"But where on earth do we put all this crap?"
"....sorry, I am not a lady when it comes to reality."
We both had a good laugh.
And just in case you were wondering, here is what the German version of Mr. Clean looks like.
("Bad" is not an outright defamation of Mr. Clean's character, it means "bath" in German)
Colin and his Grandma brought Ellert home, who was bearing a medal and many tales of how his team won the tournament. We are so very proud to have a soccer star in the family, even if he did walk in the door with a Popsicle stick stuck in his mouth like this:
And then wouldn't smile for me properly:
I mentioned that I missed laundry. I should also mention that, of course, I also missed baking and kitchen creativity. As such, I got in the kitchen this afternoon and made some GF muffins from a mix Aunt Rachel found at the commissary, and then I made chocolate chip cookies from scratch.
I had a very eager, very cute little helper with me.
Erla loves to do things involving fine motor skills like painting, sorting small objects, and playing play doh. To keep her occupied while I cleaned the kitchen, I decided to let her play with some sprinkles I found in the cabinet. Equipped with a small bowl, tiny spoon, and a mini spaghetti tool, she was kept happy and busy for quite a while.
Afterwards, she ran outside to play with Guthrun, the neighbor lady. She is so extremely sweet and kind to play with Erla whenever she runs over to her yard. I try to keep that time at a minimum, because I hate to impose on her, though she is very willing to pitch in.
The strategic use of Barney was crucial for one instance today. I was washing dishes when I caught Erla with all her clothes off and halfway out the door, trying to sneak outside. A few minutes of Barney allowed the dishes to get done without someone calling the Polizei about a naked child on the street.
As a side note, it is rather scary that I can remember such an astonishingly high percentage of the songs contained on any given episode of Barney.
Erla started to show signs of exhaustion and so I took her on a Sleepy Time Joyride. It took her no time at all to fall asleep as we cruised down the little highway, with sun setting over the distant green mountains.
I found an Abba album to listen to (including the songs Dancing Queen and Take A Chance On Me, to be precise about it.) I had the windows down, cruising down the narrow streets on a warm summer night in Germany with a worn out baby sleeping soundly in the back of the car. It was perfect, and a very peaceful end to our busy day at home.
Once back at the old home place, I safely installed Erla in her bed. Ellert and Embla hung out upstairs while Rachel and I made some garlic-butter-sea-salt popcorn to eat as we continued watching our Netflix series on Rev War era Spies. Then we crashed.
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