An Au Pair Comes To Visit

Alex, our third au pair

We recently had the pleasure of meeting up again with Alex, one of our previous au pairs. I received a message saying that she was here and would love to catch up!

Alex came to Australia from Hamburg, Germany, over three years ago to help our family. Jonah was only 8 months old at the time and Lara and Elliot 4 and 6 respectively. How time flies! While she was here, she developed a relationship with an Australian young lad which is ongoing and so we've had the opportunity to see her again a few times since. It must have been the week for past au pairs I've also received beautiful messages and emails from Heather and Shannon!

We had a lovely evening. We had time to explore the Rocks before dinner and discovered parts that we had never seen before! After dinner, we went for another walk hoping to get a closer look at the Radiance Of The Seas that was docked at the International Passenger Terminal. Alas, she had sailed off. We left Alex to enjoy the rest of her 10 days here with Jay before we meet up again in December, this time in Paris. Surprisingly, she has never been! It will be fun exploring the city together. At least she can speak some French...

That little opening looks interesting...



Let's practice our stair climbing in preparation for all the buildings and structures that we're planning to climb in Europe!



It didn't take long for a little some to get "tired"

The view that we were rewarded at the top

A pretty alley way that we found and had never come across!

We discovered that it had been preserved from way back when...

Things you learn! I never knew that Hickson Rd was not the original shoreline

The Wharfs and buildings right on the waterfront are now hot property having been converted to apartments and restaurants

Our restaurant for the evening, Indonesian cuisine

One my favourite dishes, squid with green chilli

The best and only way to have satay...Indonesian style!

Our view from our table. Ah one day...

More Food

Alas the child-free status of the previous evening was short lived. We had to wake up early as we had an 8am appointment at Jonah's childcare, to contribute to one of the two working bees held each year. Malcolm thankfully got up early to pick up the 2 boys from his parents. And my parents were talked into taking Lara to a birthday party...

Somewhere in there, is a childcare centre...

Jonah running in to help

We have always oiled these 50 year old wooden blocks at each working bee. The tradition continues.

Nearly as big as Jonah

The job is done! 

We spent the morning helping with tasks to maintain the centre, such as oiling all the woodwork, sugar soaping the table and chairs, washing bins, and much much more. Alas, we had to leave to for church. However, it was nice to be able to contribute to what is a wonderful childcare facility.

The special event at church today was congregational lunch, but not just any lunch. It was a curry fest, with the male members of the church cooking up a curry storm. I didn't realise that there could be such a variety of south east Asian curries with most originating from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Altogether, there were 12 curries presented for judging which made for an amazing lunch!

The wonderful aroma of the curry was wafting in during the sermon which made concentrating very difficult!

Some of the curries on offer.

Presentation counts!

I am ashamed to say that I didn't know such a curry existed...even though the name is  either Malay or Indonesian

Judging is very serious business

The women contributed to dessert

Malcolm, with a lack of curry knowledge, volunteered to be a roti boy instead

Fete Accompli

The Albanys had a mission to be at Macquarie University by 8am today. As part of the University's annual open day, Mia Mia, a childcare centre attached to the Institute for Early Childhood Education was running a fete to showcase their facilities and to raise money. We were rostered on to set up for the book stall. Alas we failed. We didn't wake up early enough so we had to detour enroute in a hurry via the Vietnamese bakery to purchase our breakfast and coffee. Freshly baked bacon and cheese bread never tasted so good!

I was ready to take photos only to realise that I had forgotten to load an SD card into the DSLR. Elliot and Lara were delighted to return to the scene of their toddlerhood. With their help, the books were set up in no time. We had the advantage of having first pick at the excellent selection of books at an excellent price! The prize buy had to be "The Wonky Donkey". The included CD with a sung version of the book seemed to highly amuse the children (Malcolm included). As we rushed off to take Lara to her ballet lesson, we hurried bought some raffle tickets as part of our fund raising effort. Thus turned out to be an inspired move. We later discovered that we had won one of the hampers! And the hamper was filled with many, many goodies...

A reconstructed hamper. The children were too quick to dismantle before a photo could be taken.

Lara's motivation for dismantling the hamper

Malcolm's motivation...

Coffee beans

Tea

One for Mummy!

More gourmet goodies

Something for Jonah

The goodies continue! 1 free term of swimming lessons. 

$200 Photography voucher

Last but not least...movie tickets!

Malcolm had declared the hour that Lara was at ballet lesson to be Family Ball Sport time. So the rest of the family trooped to nearby Pymble Park to bowl, bat and catch. We were thankful to have received a lunch invitation at Mum's, complete with almond pudding and pancakes for dessert. Mmmmm. We had to go home to do some preparation for our upcoming trips to Canberra, to church camp and to America. Dinner was going to be a Costco red prawn curry at the Kohs', so we fed the children some McDonalds beforehand. The evening was a fun and enjoyable session of gaming. We were able to play Space Alert multiple times. So despite the tiredness, it is with great satisfaction that I am finishing off this post at 1:30 am in the morning. Off to sleep now for another early start and busy day tomorrow! Will aim to update this post with photos taken with the ipad and photos of Space Alert tomorrow.

Au pair affairs II

Sadly, today we had to inform Marie that we would be ending our agreement early and that we would no longer require her help after we return from Europe. Unfortunately, things have not improved significantly and have in fact gotten worse. It was not an easy conversation to have and so I was relieved that Malcolm did it.

Fortunately, Alex is able to cover for 2 weeks until the arrival of our next au pair, an American girl studying biostatistics in Boston! Will update when the time comes...

Au pair affairs

Last week, we farewelled Alessandra, our third au pair. Although she had a rough start (the Sachi whirlwind effect is a pretty tough act to follow!) both Malcolm and I feel that she has turned out to be the stand out. I was surprisingly sad to see her go. During her time here, she really has embraced all constructive criticism and tried hard to change. The difference from when she first arrived and to when she left is quite astounding. This is a great quality for one so young.

We also welcomed Marie, our new au pair from France. She appears to be a warm and hardworking girl. However, again, didn't quite start off so well. She managed to knock down our brick letterbox with The Beast. This was an inconvenience but didn't turn out to be such a big deal as the car had to be fixed from when Malcolm dinged it against the garage anyway. Luckily for us, the dings are on the same side. What was even more challenging for us was to let her know that she had a strong and offensive body odour.

This topic is one that is often discussed and the general consensus is that yes, you should tell someone with bad BO so they can do something about it. But I bet that's only because they've never had to do it! I was forced to do it when I could start smelling BO on Jonah. It was one of the hardest and most uncomfortable thing I've ever had to do in my life. She was understandably upset but maturely informed me that she was glad I was able to be honest with her. I felt so terrible after the event. She said she'll try "some things". I wasn't brave enough to push the envelope by suggesting she use deodorant. She has a fear that deodorants cause cancer. I couldn't exactly tell her that its a load of rubbissh as the chances of one developing cancer isn't that low these days...so we shall see what happens.

It has been 2 days now since we had THAT conversation. I'm glad that the awkwardness has passed and that she doesn't seem to hate me, well, not that I'm aware of anyway. She is thankfully quite efficient and obviously competent. She managed to get Jonah to sleep without problems on her first night with him alone. And like with Alex, I'm sure we'll get to grow fond of her and that we will be sad to see her go in six to nine months time. If only, things can don't have to start so badly all the time!

Mama Mia Mia

Baby Jonah started his first day of childcare at Mia Mia yesterday. My earlier confidence of previous weeks dissipated as I approached the gates of the building. I had to start leaving my baby behind with someone else.

It didn't take long for the routine of the nursery room to come flooding back. Put his bag in his locker, put the sheets on his cot, wash our hands, put his bottle away, make his breakfast and start the day! I had forgotten what a well-oiled machine Mia Mia was. The room was so well set up with such great equipment. Their processes were also well thought out and well-practiced! I was happy to notice that staff were pro-actively cleaning snot off the children's faces with a glove and tissue and then discarding it straight away.

The staff... I couldn't rave about them enough. It was nice to see familiar faces. Out of the four that was on that day, there was only one new face. Their love and dedication for their jobs clearly showed through in the way they interacted with all the children. Boundless patience, plentiful cuddles, playful banter, and all the time striving to engage the children in various ways. They didn't mind me sitting in for the whole day at all.

Jonah seemed to be very interested in his new surroundings. He was confident enough to wander outside away from me on his own and joined another toddler in emptying the baskets of their contents. He was also comfortable enough to let one of the staff put him down for his nap which was a relief for me. Lunch was a big hit. He wolfed down all of it without spitting once! This included large chunks of meat...so the little monster can chew after all!! The civility of meal times at Mia Mia always amazes me. Why can't children behave like that at home?!?!?!

Before long, it was time to go home. Malcolm, bless his soul, took today off to take up "shift" at Mia Mia with Jonah. He was asked to leave after an hour as Jonah seemed to settle in well. He didn't cry, and in fact seemed to enjoy his day. He managed to have two naps albeit short ones and really enjoyed washing his hands...He only protested upon being picked up because he didn't want to stop playing! So all in all, a good start.

It is never easy to juggle family and work but it certainly helps to know that you children are in fantastic hands. Three cheers for Mia Mia!