KDUNK

Dear Lili,

It’s possible I may have found you the world’s most amazing babysitter otherwise known as Super Nanny. Before I get way too excited we will have to do a trial run but so far things are looking up. We start on Thursday.

Lets just say Lili that our 24/7 liefstyle together is not what I envisioned for us as the best balance for mother and baby. Mama – in order to be the best mother to you – needs a break occasionally. To write. To exercise. To read a book. To see your Dad. Having been sans babysitter for a few weeks now has not allowed this balance and I’m hoping and thinking better times are ahead.

Super Nanny is from Puebla, Mexico. She asked on the interview if it was ok to teach you Spanish – um…YES. (Then you can teach me) Super Nanny also didn’t flinch when you began to cry and stroked your little leg and comforted you. When I spoke of my bottle panic – the fact that you never take a bottle – so that whomever is watching you has to return from wherever they are every two hours – she didn’t blink an eye saying it would be no problem and we’d figure it out. She also asked if you suck on that pacifier all the time and would it be ok to teach you not to need it because she didn’t think it was good. I felt like crying with joy. Help has arrived.

Super Nanny will be watching you and the world’s most adorable almost three-year-old girl together two days a week. I met the little girl. She and Super Nanny wandered over one rainy Monday wearing polka dot and multi-colored striped rain boots. I watched them out the window as they held hands smiling under their oversized rain jacket hoods. Despite the rain – Super Nanny let the little girl stop to splash her boot in a puddle and didn’t rush her.

Lili, I like the idea of you being watched in an older sibling type setting and not only one on one. You get plenty of that from me and Dad and it is important to learn – all of us – that we are not the center of everyone’s adoring attention at all times.

Last week Super Nanny called and invited us over to the fiesta that was being thrown in the park across from our house for her friend a fellow nanny. We wandered over and despite being a little shy at first were welcomed immediately. The scene was several nannies with kids of all ages sitting on their laps or packed tightly to their sides. Super Nanny told me about this group of women – older women, younger women from Guatemala and Mexico – her friends – that get together in the park every day for lunch or go to the different kids houses and cook for the kids. On rainy days there is a Spanish music class they run for kids in the park for free. These women are always together and more or less watching these kids in a little group which I love.

I was offered some sheet cake and food on bright colored paper plates. Everyone was speaking Spanish and laughing and having a good time. There was not a word of English being spoken and the kids at their sides politely said ‘gracias’ and ‘por favor’ when asking or receiving things.

Lili – you amazed me. For the first few minutes you were fine on Super Nanny’s lap and then your bottom lip quivered and you were about to cry. Within seconds about four of the different women noticed and immediately and warmly reached out to you asking, “Qué Pasa Lili?” stroking your little leg or hair until you stopped. After that – I am not lying when I say that you sat contently on Super Nanny’s lap for close to thirty minutes as she cut cake and helped feed another kid. This sounds normal to any other parent but to me it was huge. This was one of the things that has been so hard about putting you down for five minutes or handing you over to someone else. But your big blue eyes took in the new faces and sounds and you never looked happier.

A few minutes later one woman pointed at you Lili and said something funny and everyone laughed. Super Nanny turned to me and said, “They are saying that now Lili is one of us and soon she’ll be saying ‘Adios Mommy. Hasta Pronto.”