the dragon project: nanny search is over!

i told you that we narrowed down our nanny search to rose and maria - 2 filipino nannies who would cook filipino food for us and teach maki tagalog. we tried both of them for 5 hours each. they were both very competent. rose was all about training the baby and maria was a neat freak who made maki laugh. we had a hard time picking between the two. maria is a bit more maternal and warmer than rose so we made an offer to maria. we put together a contract (because i hear that's what people do) and emailed it to her. she called me with questions but didn't try to negotiate anything. we assumed she was fine with everything. the next day she emailed me saying that she took another job with a little less hours, no contract and earlier start date. we could have offered her all of that but she didn't try to negotiate. as soon as i got maria's email, i contacted rose and offered her the job. rose was very happy. she said she will start the week after because she already committed to a job that week. i told her that was fine. she negotiated an early start date (may 21 instead of june 4) and we agreed to it. during the middle of the week, i emailed her the contract. she said she understood all the terms and had no questions except for the taxes (it says on there that employee is responsible of paying taxes). she said she can't report because she only has a student visa. i told her i didn't care what she reported - it was up to her to do that. i was paying her in cash every friday. we didn't hear back from her until the saturday before her start date. she said she took another job and wishes me good luck finding someone for maki. WHAAAAAAAAAT?!!! she made me wait a week and gave me 1 day notice that she was not starting that following monday! i was livid. i was emotionally and mentally prepared to have a full-time nanny starting monday. i already made a dr's appt, reinstated my gym membership, made lunch plans, etc. i was looking forward to having some help and to spend time finding my "old" self. so i broke down and cried... mik comforted me and said he will help me search for nannies online. we immediately got into search mode, contacted several nannies and scheduled interviews. i also contacted the nanny from trinidad who we liked too and she told us she was still available and would take the job. within a few hours, we had 3 interviews lined up for sunday and 1 for monday. i told mik that i had a good feeling about the nanny we were going to interview late on sunday. she's not filipino but she has a lot of nanny experience and was very organized with her documents (she emailed me her resume, references and background check without me asking). she didn't seem the type who would be scared of a contract! my instincts were right. she was the only person we interviewed where mik turned to me during the interview and said "do we want her to come tomorrow for a trial?" so we decided right there and then to try her out for 4 hours the next day - even though we had another interview the next evening.

julie showed up the next day. she did a good job... i had a good feeling about her. i told her i would contact her references that night and if they are good, she can start tomorrow. i was able to contact one of her references. she spoke highly of julie - she's wonderful, her english is very good, she talks a lot, very articulate, playful with her child, never late/sick and very caring. after 4 years, they didn't need julie anymore because her daughter was starting pre-school. her weakness was that she wouldn't go on vacation with them - because julie loves being with her own family. she also said julie is not a house cleaner which we are ok with because we already have one. based on that, i told julie that she starts on tuesday. i've spent the entire week with julie (we talk a lot while maki is napping) and i'm very pleased with our decision. i know things happen for a reason... i'm glad those two filipino nannies didn't work out because julie is AWESOME!!! she talks a lot but it's going to be good for maki. mik and i are pretty mellow so someone like julie will balance him out. i want him to grow up very sociable. her 2nd reference ended up calling me back after i've already hired her. he said that julie is great with his kid. her weakness was that she was protective with his kid. at the park, all the nannies are talking to each other while she's watching the kid closely. not really a weakness if you ask me but i guess we should give the kids space sometimes. we'll work on that later with her as needed. this week i've learned so much about julie. she's a very open person. she has 3 kids and a husband who she really cares for. she only wants the best for her family and is a very loving, passionate woman. she's also very modest, disciplines when needed, very patient and caring. she's also very respectable. she respects my thoughts, asks me how we should approach things ("how do you want to handle this?"), offers her advice and we communicate a lot on everything. she takes maki to the park and asks me what time i want him back. she also tends to me a little bit (can i get you water? can i fix you up some lunch? want to take a nap?). she cooks our dinner 3x a week and she's a great cook. she even went to the grocery store for us to buy ingredients. she's puerto rican and she cooked us a traditional dish last night with chicken and tomato paste that we really liked! she said to give her fiipino recipes and she'll cook us whatever dish we want as long as it's only 20 min to prepare and can cook while she's with maki - her 1st priority is the baby!!! she's also fluent in spanish (you wouldn't be able to tell because her english is flawless) so she can teach maki another language. she asked me if i would come over her house, see where she lives, meet her family and have them meet maki too. i told her we want to do that before i start work. she's also open to me coming home for lunch and breastfeeding the baby or them coming to my office if i can breastfeed there. she can send me pics of him during the day. i wish i could say something bad about her but i really can't. after a week bonding with her, i definitely trust her already and know my baby is in good hands with her. i'm truly a believer of fate - she is meant to be our nanny!!!

here are some recent pics of maki: