A New Addition to the Family

This past Monday we accepted a new member into our family – well sort of – not family but she is living in our house so she may as well be! We now have a live in maid/nanny/cook. Her name is Yaza. She is 24 years old and ethnically from Nepal but her family has immigrated to Burma. After the issues we had with our last nanny, we were quite concerned about hiring a new nanny and especially about having a live in. But we know Yaza’s sister as she works in our building for friends of ours, so that helps. We have the utmost respect for her sister. She does all the cooking, cleaning, laundry, ironing, grocery shopping, runs errands for us and has shared childcare duties. Eventually I plan to go back to taking language lessons and to the personal trainer at the gym – especially now that I have the baby belly to get rid of from my pregnancy. I am hoping to have her fully trained and on a good schedule by next week so I can resume some of these activities. My plan is to do the gym 3 days a week and language 2 days a week. That way I am only gone for a few hours each day and can spend the rest with my little man.

Yaza has been an absolute blessing – Nick absolutely loves her, except when she gives him a bath. We have tried every night this week and he just isn’t having it so I think we may take over the bath time and do it ourselves. It is funny to watch him with her in the morning – he talks to her in the kitchen while she is cleaning and getting all his bottles ready for the day and it’s almost as if he is showing off/flirting with her. We have been especially happy with her meals at dinner time. Last night she made some pork dish that was cut up cubes of pork in this sauce – tomatoes, onions, cumin, cilantro and I want to say there was a little curry in there too but I am not sure. It was not spicy at all but it was just so flavorful. You put it over a bed of rice and eat it. She made some sautéed green beans with it. Tonight she made salmon baked in the oven seasoned with lemon pepper, a side of asparagus and a side of corn. It was all wonderful. Joe and I were both commenting how nice it was to have fresh vegetables that were NOT drenched in oyster sauce! We had no idea she could cook western style food for us to this was an added bonus! Yaza went shopping with her sister today and plans to do this once a week to buy all the food for one week. They get all their fruits and veggies from the wet market and can bargain and get them for much cheaper there.

Yaza has some mad cleaning skills which is good and bad. On day one she had cleaned everything but the ceiling and I was waiting for her to climb up there and start cleaning it next. Now those that know me well know that I am a pretty tidy person but I will admit that lately I have had some piles left out here and there. Nothing too bad but more than I would like. I blame this on several issues – one the nanny we were paying to unpack us while back in the US did a piss poor job. Then when I returned with Nick I was busy focusing on getting him adjusted and figuring out his meds and rice cereal issue over here. Then we had the nanny drama and then no nanny. So my piles have taken a LOT longer to put away with all that has gone on. Well, Yaza has been running around putting things away. I have decided that I think she has OCD when it comes to cleaning. So today for example I had some baby clothes out on the bed to go through as I am sending my cousin some hand me downs. I put them there so I could go through them this afternoon as I had plans this morning. So just before leaving she asks me, where can I put these? I am like oh just leave them there and I explain my plans for them this afternoon. She says oh no cannot keep out, must put away, too much, must put away now. Well we argued this for quite a while back and forth and finally I was like okay fine. So then I could see her eyeing other piles and thought you know I had better just stay home because God knows what she will do with them or where she will put them. So I stayed home and at least got through the pile of baby clothes. I have to pump several times a day to get Milk for the baby. So I keep my pump out by my recliner in our bedroom as that is where I pump. Last night I could not find my pump. To the point I almost had to wake her up because I HAD to pump. Eventually I found it tucked away in some cabinets but it was in the most obscure place. So while it is nice that she is forcing me to get my house organized and tidy, I am a bit annoyed that she refuses to listen to me if I tell her something. I mean why couldn’t she just keep the baby clothes on the bed for a few more hours? But in the grand scheme of things it is not a huge deal and just a petty little thing that annoys me but I will get over it soon. Because at the end of the day, she is phenomenal and we are very happy to have her!

What we really find interesting is that when she moved in – she came with her purse and a very small duffel bag. That is all she had to move. Can you believe that? It’s amazing how simple life is like for other cultures. She does not eat in front of us. She feeds us first and then once we have left the kitchen she takes some food into her room to eat. We are pretty sure she only eats rice and nothing else. Her sister had a Birthday yesterday and her employers invited us all to a small Birthday gathering for her where they served Birthday cake. Neither of them would eat it in front of us. She speaks very little English but seems to understand it just fine. She worked for another Asian family for 6 years before we hired her so we were told her ability to speak English was a bit rusty. But we manage just fine. Again we are very happy to have her.

Even though Nick seems to really like her, Nick has had some separation anxiety. I have tried to go out for a few hours each day to get him used to me leaving and being there with her. But when I come back she tells me he has cried the entire time and as soon as he see’s me he is reaching for me – I take him and he immediately calms down, wraps his little arms around my neck and squeezes tight, smiles and starts talking to me. On one hand it is quite nice to know he still prefers me over her but on the other hand I hate that she is dealing with a screaming baby while I am gone. I know with time this will get better but I still feel bad