Given how my last posted ended, it does give the impression that the au pair moved in and murdered us with an axe in our sleep. Nothing could be further from the truth. As far as I'm aware she didn't axe murder anyone during her entire time in London – certainly not any of us.
Anyway, I'm not sure if I've just been too busy or too lazy to post for the past few months. I've a spare hour so I'll try to do a small catch-up.
The replacement au pair came and went. This one was a twenty year old from Italy. She was in London already on a course, so she decided to stay with us for six weeks as an extension of her stay. This was perfect since it was an extra two weeks beyond what we needed. She and the girl got along really well. We've even Skyped after she left so the girls could talk to each other.
While she was here our basic routine was... She got up at 8 and ate and tidied the kitchen. We got up with the girl at 10ish. She'd dress the girl and get get out of the house by 1030 or 11. Then they'd stay out til 3 or 4, back in time for the girl's nap. While they were out, we'd get whatever work we could done. When she was back, once the girl was down for a nap, her time was her own. She was taking a language course while she was with us, so she studied for that, or read, or Skyped to friends. She'd usually join us for dinner. Then she'd quietly go off to her room and eventually to bed, and L and I would work til 2 or 3. Repeat til the weekend, which she'd have off.
All in all it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. The au pair, while she didn't kill anyone, did manage to rip off almost all the childproofing in the kitchen. To the point that all my attempts to replace it have not stuck and at this point we're mostly using hope and strong language to keep the girl out of trouble. I know it wasn't on purpose, but it did irk me to have the childproofing broken. Moreso than the one time she put away the dirty dishes and I had to remember what was in the dishwasher and try to find it in the cupboards.
On the plus side, we actually got along – which is great since she was living in our house. She gave us space, often going out on weekends and a few other nights per week.
She took the girl out to parks and museums and other places, and was completely trustworthy with her. She even taught the girl to say spoon
instead of foon
, which was a lovely surprise.
We never went thought pasta as fast as we did when she was here. Or rice. I can eat a good amount of pasta or rice in a sitting, but the au pair would match me on that. Adding the daughter's increased appetite, and we went though a lot.
While it was good to have time to get work done, we were a bit tight on space for a while. We had to move all the girl's stuff into the office and our room. She slept with us and the au pair got her room. But four in the house went surprisingly smoothly in the end. And the house did feel huge once she left.
