A Humbling Moment...

The day started off as every Wednesday does. The girls and Michael left for school and Jack and I were off to his school. Every morning now we both smile and say our "Morgen"s to his teachers and head over to change his shoes to his "house shoes" and start our goodbyes. As we sit to start our routine I see Jack's teacher, Judith, approaching. Judith speaks very little English. I am praying that she will just say Morgen and keep going, but no she's coming to me. I start to sweat and review all the words I know in German. Seriously, I was sweating. She comes over and starts in with German. Fast German. Whew, ok, Sage, just pick out the words you know and go from there. And the most unbelievable thing happened...I UNDERSTOOD HER!!! I was so excited I kept telling her in German I understand, I understand!!! She is a very sweet woman so she just smiled.
So I'm feeling good about myself. Yeah! I can do this German thing, piece of cake. And then it happened. I'm almost out the door and out of nowhere comes the spawn of Simon Cowell disguised as a cute little 4 year old German boy. He says one sentence to me and Jack and I have no idea what he is saying. I look at Jack and say, "hey, buddy, help me out on this one". He says, "I think he wants to know what time it is mom". Don't think so. So I try some German on him and he rolls his eyes at me. Damn! Every phrase I try to use I get nothin' but the same damn sentence back each time laced with more and more disgust in my lack of knowledge. Finally I come up with "what's your name" and he answers "Tim". Ahhh, now we are getting somewhere. I said, "Jack do you know what his name is?" He says, "yea, that's Tim. We have two Tim's but the other one is crazy". Of course I'm thinking to myself, if this is the "good one" I can't imagine what the "crazy one" is like.
And so I give up. I give Tim (who's last name I"m sure is Cowell) a half smile and a nod, hug Jack and run like a scared little girl out of there.
Tonight I will study so if I do encounter "Tim" again I will be ready. What has my life come to that my nemesis is a 4 year old???