New Challenges

Life has been busy. After our consecutive bouts of stomach flu (yes, Roque eventually succumbed as well), we faced a new challenge. My nanny, who has been in China for the last two months, did not return to work. As a result, we are back on the hunt for a new nanny. This entails placing an ad in the Chinese paper and fielding a plethora of phone calls from desperate Chinese immigrants trying to find work in this fading economy. After at least 70 phone calls and five interviews, we are "trying out" our first candidate tomorrow.

The last time I was in this place, I was a wreck. This time, I come to the table with the peace of a more experienced mom. The sad truth is, all nannies are replaceable to some extent, and just like God gave us Xiao Ling, I know that he is leading us to the right person. Still, the process is just as frenetic, annoying and exhausting as before. Tapping into the immigrant labor market is like snorkeling with a lousy mask. You know there are gems out there, but the exasperating cultural divide between Chinese and American culture gets in the way, and you can barely see them. I dealt with all sorts of characters on the phone. It was infuriating at points. During one conversation, this lady was trying to convince me, with broken Mandarin that she would be a good nanny because she raised her son herself and he's already 30. I had to tell her, "Lady, I'm looking for a nanny, not a mother."

Meanwhile, Greyson is flourishing and growing at the speed of light. After his week of fasting from the stomach flu, his appetite returned with a vengeance. We could barely keep up with his constant clamoring to eat. He'd wake up in the morning, down a full cup of milk and then run to his high chair and pull at it, yelling "Eat! Eat!" He can now count to 20 in English, and never ceases to amaze us with his memory. His favorite books now are Jane Yolen's "How Does a Dinosaur..." series (Thanks Hai-Nhu for the recommendation!) and Bob the Builder. He's developing a sense of himself, and goes around claiming ownership of everything: "Grey Grey's door! Grey Grey's toothpaste! Grey Grey's house! Grey Grey's car!" It's super cute. Here is a video of him multi-tasking his own version of Closet Peekaboo and watching The Papa Show. He actually laughed so hard he fell over, but we didn't catch that on tape. I'm sure it is just because he's mine, but I find his laughter so infectious.