bye bye, maria and jillian

Today was Maria's last day, and yesterday was our last day of sharecare with Jillian. Waaah!

Maria has decided to move back to Barcelona, and is leaving next Wednesday. Jillian is going to be starting school full time in January and was going to be leaving the share care anyway, so she just ended a little bit earlier than she would have otherwise.

This sharecare was really great and I'm really going to miss both Maria and Jillian. Maria was great to work with and took excellent care of the girls. She took Charli to all kinds of places, made her food and straightened up after her, and was really accomodating to our schedule (which can only loosely be called a "schedule" - usually when Maria arrived, Charli would be eating or just finishing eating, but sometimes Maria would show up and Charli would still be asleep, in which case Maria would have to feed her breakfast and get her dressed). She was easy to talk to, and could dispense advice without being annoying or accusative - a necessary skill in a nanny! I never had any worries about Charli when she was with Maria - I have way more worries when she is with us.

I really liked having an older girl with Charli, to show her how to do things and inspire her and be like a big sister, and Jillian was terrific. She was really affectionate with Charli, and her mom said how spending time with Charli changed her - she was more gentle at home and always thinking of Charli, and she really tried to help take care of Charli when she was here. She was always reminding Maria to take the keys when they went out ("keys, Mina", after the time Maria forgot them), and telling Maria "Charli's hungry. Charli needs a diaper change. Charli wants that." She came up with the nickname "baby Charli", and introduced her to everyone at the parks, and named her dolls that. She recognized where we live, and every time they drove by on the way to somewhere else, she would wave in the car and say hi to baby Charli - and if she missed it because she was distracted or something, she would want her mom to go back so she could try it again. I'm sure she's going to have a great time going to school full time (coincidentally, her school is just a couple of blocks away, at the German preschool that our other nanny, Nina, used to work at until she quit to take care of Bella), and we're really going to miss her and we'll have to plan some playdates together.

We (Jillian's family and us) took Maria out for dinner last night, and it was fun and a little sad... Mostly fun. We wish her the best in Spain, and are happy she's going to be with her family, even if we are a little envious.

p.s. For those of you who are wondering what we're doing for daycare in the meantime, my parents are coming out next Wednesday and staying until next year, so that takes care of any immediate needs. In January, we will be starting with Nina 3 days a week and probably hiring a friend of Maria's, Carolina, for Tuesdays and Thursdays. Carolina already knows Charli, because she brings her current share care kids to meet up with Maria and Charli and Jillian at various parks. So convenient!