An Au Pair in Germany: April 20 & 22

April 20th

My year spent as an au pair in Germany, told in many parts.

I feel like progress was made today regarding my relationship with Clara. It felt like I was treading on thin ice all day because she was in a good mood, not getting angry with me and she was polite. To my great surprise, the breakdown never happened! She stayed home sick from kindergarten this morning so my guess is that she is nicer when she doesn’t feel well.

Lukas, on the other hand, is beginning to test his boundaries with me. Lately anytime I try to do something he says ‘Ni’ [No]. For example, I was trying to look at a book about cats and he kept taking it from me and giving me a dirty look. When I took it back to try again he would snatch it and throw it down.

For lunch we had crepes with strawberries, chocolate, and almonds. YUM! Dinner was tortellini with sauce, black olives and feta cheese.

Tonight bedtime was the easiest night I’ve had yet! We were pretending to be cats so they were distracted from the regular routine that they hate so much. They were having a blast and not screaming and I was getting the job done!

April 22nd

Just like every day,  I awoke this morning and got breakfast ready before everyone came downstairs. A couple hours after breakfast Lukas and I had second breakfast in the form of croissants that K picked up when she dropped Clara off at Kindergarten.

Lukas and I played in the garden a bit while the air was cool and the sun was warm. It was perfect outside!

After lunch Lukas and I had a nap while Clara got to hang around downstairs (which we found out later was a HUGE mistake).

My beloved IKEA bed

After nap time we played downstairs a good bit until S took the kids outside to work in the yard. K gathered some dishes and cutlery from the downstairs kitchen so that I can have some in my room. She gave me four of everything in case I have company (which she is sure I will). She says they can find me a coffee maker too!

Baby Elle chilling in her pram outside

K laughed at me today because while the children were outside I was sitting around looking at their books. There was one about farm life that had a lot of nice pictures. The flap books are my favorite! I like trying to figure out what words mean and if I know any on each page.

For dinner we heated up leftover crepes and Clara had a major temper tantrum. The tantrum was so huge that S had to put her on the terrace and shut the door. Needless to say, that didn’t make her any happier. We laughed thinking of what it would be like if they lived in an apartment and she screamed like that.

During dinner S graciously taught me how to use my silverware because he “noticed I was doing it wrong”. Kind of embarrassing, but I have never learned etiquette so it was nice to finally learn. K and I were able to watch Germany’s next top model tonight since S put the kid’s to bed. That’s something I don’t need subtitles to understand so it was pretty enjoyable.