A Week in the Life of a German Au Pair!

The other night while we were eating dinner, we were discussing the fact that a new friend has recently come into our lives through our basement... We discovered this new, little buddy when we started to find holes in the bags of our food-storage bags downstairs. Yep, we had a mouse... or HAVE a mouse. I'm not really sure. We haven't seen any evidence of him/her in the past week... since we put out mouse-killer food.

Yep. We murdered a mouse... I think.

So, Finni was downstairs with his dad and touched some. We decided that we needed to discuss with the boys that this poison is dangerous and they needed to leave it alone, which led to a 30 minutes debate on killing the mice. Nico stopped all of us as we started to talk about it and said, "Wait! Stop! Are we KILLING mice?" Haha... We explained that the pink stuff downstairs that "makes mice go to sleep," to which I added, "Forever." Koko thanked me for the dramatic touch - I just didn't think about it - but we all had a good laugh.

Anyway, the kids ideas about the mice... Finni said he had a suggestion. "We either give them cheese... or we kill them." Great Finn. Haha! He was very serious about this too... He said it about five time while eating, "Cheese or death..." HAHA!

Then, I said jokingly, "We just need a cat," then remembered Patrick was allergic. Nico reminded me. We talked about it, but Nico finally said, "Let's sell dad and get a cat!" Patrick laughed and said, "We could do a trade. An Austrian father for sale!" Haha... It was QUITE a hilarious dinner conversation. Finally, we somehow changed the subject and led it to other things... which were just as great.

Later in the week, I was chillin' with Finn and Nico after dinner. Finn fell asleep on the couch after a few moments, but Nico was chatting with me and asking me to sing him some songs from musicals that I've been working on. That was nice, won't lie... When the boys ASK me to sing, it makes me happy! :) Haha... Anyway, I was telling him about different musicals and Wicked came up... So, naturally I sang some of "Popular" for him. Haha! If you have NEVER heard the song, you need to listen to it -classic. Anyway, before I sang I was telling him what the song was about and Nico's proceeded to tell me what's cool... "You have to dress so the girls and boys think you look cool. To get into the movies, you have to do really dangerous things or be able to do super, awesome tricks." Haha! He then proceeded to tell me when to wear a lot or little bit of makeup and such... He was super funny, but interesting because I wonder where kids get these ideas about what's cool... especially when they don't see much of the media in this house. I wish that the idea of "what's cool" wasn't established at such a young age.

Um... there's not a lot to say on this except that during Finni's psycomotorik class this week, Nico's and I spent a half an hour telling knock-knock jokes and making videos of them. HAHA! It all started with him telling me, this one:

"Knock-Knock."
"Who's there?"
"Boo."
"Boo Who?"
"Now don't you cry!"

It was SO funny how funny he found me, and himself... and he WAS pretty hilarious. Some of them are posted below. ENJOY! Haha...


So, on the side of my facebook there pops up one of the recommendations for things you will probably like... "Like John McCain - Those who like Mitt Romney like John McCain." No. No, they don't. Haha! Okay, for SOME this is true, but not for this one. Just sayin'.

Okay... now - two nights ago I went to the pool with Patrick, the boys, and my new friend Luise. Luise is a total sweetheart who recently got back from her mission in DC. She use to live here before the mission, but her family lives in Berlin. She moved back here after being home for five or six months to work and live in Bonn. Anyway, we went swimming at the pool in Friesdorf and decided to try out my camera in the water. One of the features I chose the camera for was it's underwater ability, but yet I have been terrified to try it out underwater in case something went wrong. However, last night I was brave and tried out some underwater magic. Let me tell you... Best photo-shoot EVER! Haha... It was hilarious trying to get a good underwater shot... I don't know HOW models do it while looking beautiful and effortless.

Anyway, while we were doing the photo-shoot Nico really wanted to take a picture underwater, but couldn't go underwater to do it, so he just stuck the camera under and pushed my head down - haha! When we looked at the play back, the picture was a zoom-in on my chest, to which Nico yelled, "I got a boob shot!" Haha!!! I died. Right there in the pool, I died... laughing that is. It was SO classic.... When we all started laughing, Nico of course got his high-pitched laugh on, which made us laugh even more... It was great. (I will NOT be posting the picture he took, in case you thought otherwise...)

Otherwise, I got Nico to try swimming techniques with his floating board by playing sharks and guppies. I would give him the floating board and then swim away a bit and say, "I'm a guppie... you're a shark! Come and get me!" Then, I would keep swimming back and it MADE him use his legs and swim toward me... It was good. I was proud of helping him, because I kinda was NOT sure how to help him with swimming.

On a Finni note, over and over again he would say, "Can I show you something?" Then he would proceed to jump into the pool with his floating noodle and splash like crazy... and get SUPER excited about it. It was just about the cutest thing I have ever seen.

We went last night again and I taught Nico to hold his breath and that is REALLY helping him be more confident in swimming. Yay!

On one more note, this hot weather is making my room hot and making me have BIZARRE dreams! The other night I dreamed up a good episode of "Lie To Me"... It would be a good one too. Each night I wake up around 5am or 6am from some bizarre scenario with random old and current friends mixed all together in obscure and new places. Do dreams really mean something? Sometimes I think they can, but sometimes there is no way, or that it just stems from something that happened earlier in the week or day. Just sayin'...

Last weekend I went to a concert in the park with Patrick and Koko and saw this awesome guy named Max Herre - he was pretty good! Yea, he sang mostly in German, but I dug his sound. He sang a song dedicated to the German soccer (football) coach because it was the day they had won and gotten into the top 4... but that ship has now sailed. Haha... It was cool in the park. The whole park had three HUGE stages and tons of people there, bungee cording, food, and it was crazy... Just a little note on that!

Anyway, this entry is random... and yet, a taste of what life and conversation is like in the life of an Au Pair. Love it.
*muah*

P.S. Next Entry WILL be about Rome, Italy.

Song of the Day: There are a few songs this week that I have discovered via So You Think You Can Dance or The Hills. However, I must choose one for now... So, here's Pink's song "Love Way To Happy." I just really love her voice and this song is an awesome break-up jam... even though I have not broken-up recently. Haha! Here it goes - Enjoy!