Miss Christy Day

Today is Miss Christy Day!  In our house, that is the anniversary of our nanny's first day with us. 

Christy has been working with us and for us for 7 years now.  It's amazing to me that it's been that long so fast!  The day she came to interview, we received a phone call from her 20 minutes before her interview time.  "Where do I go?" she asked.  I tried to give her directions.  She hung up after the first few sentences.  Two minutes later, she called back, with a similar outcome.  It happened EVERY TWO MINUTES for the next fifteen.  I was already exhausted and I hadn't even met her yet.  It got so frustrating that we tried to cancel the interview.

No luck.  She came anyway, and it turns out that we were the lucky ones.  Christy had a special needs daughter with similar problems to Connor's.  She spoke to us about her May-May, and how she cared for her.  Then she asked if she could hold Connor, and she knew immediately what to do with him.  We hired her.

On her first day, she arrived early, we headed to work, and I called home at least 4 times to check in.  At the end of the day, she told us that Connor had vomited all over her at lunch.  She cleaned them both up, and moved on.  The second day, he did the same thing.  We couldn't believe she kept coming back.  The third day, she was ready for him, and now it's been years since he's been able to pull that trick on her.

When Drew and Tucker were born, Christy was the first non-medical, non-family to hold our boys.  She has helped raise them from their first days, and every evening, when she heads to the door, they holler out "HUG AND KISS" and drop whatever they are working on to go hug and kiss her good-bye.  This morning, when she came up the steps to the porch, Tucker crouched on the sofa by the door.  When she opened the door, he sprung up and yelled, "Happy anniversary, Miss Christy!"  She taught them both their alphabets at a very young age, and counting too.  For children who spent a large portion of their developmental stages with a caregiver for whom English is a second language, they have enormous, at times hilarious vocabularies.  Their success is her success, and she lets them know how proud she is of what they can do.

In a year, Tucker will be going to kindergarten and we won't need a full-time nanny anymore.  I do not know how life will be without her.  She is a part of our family now, and not seeing her every day will be so strange to all of us.  I know Connor will miss her.  They have a very special bond.  Two Christmases into our time together, she brought gifts for the two boys (No Tucker yet) and when we sat together to exchange gifts, she broke down crying about how much she loves our boys.  I know they are not perfect, and that at times they are bad for her, just as they are for us, but for all my boys Miss Christy is as constant as the sun.  We will be lucky to have another year with her, and then help her find a new family who needs her special skills.  And hopefully, see her every once in a while so she doesn't forget us.