Lorena, our Nanny

I feel very lucky that we were able to find our nanny, Lorena (the girls call her TaTa). As some of you may have remembered from previous posts, a friend of ours from my previous job at The Oxbow School used this nanny for their son (the one who named her TaTa) for almost 5 years. They used her full time as they were both teachers at the school where I worked. And anyone who understands boarding schools knows that you end up working beyond full time because the students are there around the clock....but that's another story for another day.

Lorena plays music on her cell phone for the girls. They love dancing to it!

With Charles' job, we are so fortunate, that we only need to use her two days a week for a total of about twelve hours. And the fact that she is totally fine with that is awesome too. Charles works 48 hours on, and then has four days off in a row. But those days rotate (since he has a six day schedule) every week. The fact that Lorena is flexible with this is a feat in itself. She keeps telling me "As long as I have work, I don't care what days they are. Just let me know the days, and I will be there." We do, and she is!

Lorena has a six year old son who comes with her in the mornings. After about a half hour, he walks directly to my side yard where the school bus picks him up. Isn't that great, that the bus route is so close? He is a silly guy, who loves Michael Jackson (a guy after my own heart), and loves even more to show me the moves he has learned from his Michael Jackson video game. Annabelle has a little crush on this guy, but unfortunately, his favorite is Abigail. I can see some sister rivalry already ensuing over this one. :-)

Lorena has told me that the girls speak Spanish with her. She told me a story where she was putting the girls' clothes away, and Abigail kept saying "aqui?" And Lorena, would respond, "No." And then Abigail would try a new place to put the shorts continuing to say "aqui" until she got it right. I think I hear them saying Spanglish words like "a-der" for agua and water.

Regardless, my receptive Spanish has improved tremendously. I can understand most of what she says in person. She is very good about using sign language to accentuate her stories and in the process I am able to learn a whole slew of new Spanish words. On the phone, it is really hard to understand what she is saying because you are relying solely on your understanding of Spanish with no extra hand gestures to help. My expressive Spanish, however, has not improved much at all. I still mangle verb tenses, saying "I like crackers" when I mean, "They like crackers." I only use the present tense, I still get before and after confused (which are very important words you know...like, did they eat before or after their nap?), and I end up pointing when I don't know the name of a particular noun. (There are so many of those dang things!) Lorena is very patient, always telling me "No preocupes!" when I put my head in my hands in frustration at not being able to express myself properly. She nods her head as if to say, "I understand what you are trying to say."

But the best part about Lorena, is that the girls absolutely LOOOOOOOVE her! She exudes energy, enthusiasm, and love. She walks through the door, knocking quietly, saying, "Hola!" and the girls come running. They smile and giggle and point and gush. Annabelle is actually to the point now where she screams. It makes it a whole lot easier to go to work when you know that they are enjoying their time with her. And, she doesn't just put on a show for me and the girls. I have had friends in my neighborhood tell me that they've seen my girls at the park with a different lady. "Oh, that's my nanny," I tell them. And before I can say how great she is, they usually say, "She is so great with them! She seems very caring and interested in what they are doing. She was very attentive." What a relief to hear that from a person whom Lorena probably wasn't even aware was observing her!

Thanks Lorena!