Back in Each Other’s Arms

Oh yes! Us and our yaya are finally back in each other’s arms. Yihiii!!! LOL! But you know what jokes aside, I really felt so at peace when our yaya came back. Remember my horrible yaya stories? When we finally had a yaya, I was still not 100% happy about her. I don’t want to blog about it here anymore because I really want to forget about those things. Suffice it to say, I texted our first yaya, Yaya J to come back to us because of what’s been happening. I was so happy when she texted me back and told me she can go back to us by August. I was even happier when she finally texted the date she’s coming back. I gave her a salary increase and paid for her transportation going back to Manila. Now, I’m happier than ever. On the day she returned, she did three things that convinced me that I made the right decision in getting her again and the salary increase I’m giving her is so much worth it. First, she  discovered that Miya had headlice. Yes, my 18-month older (then) already had kuto! Imagine that! I felt awful because I didn’t even knew it, I thought she kept on scratching her scalp because she had flare-ups from her skin asthma on her scalp. It turned out it was headlice. And I know where she got it – from the previous yaya no less! Confession, I had headlice too after checking myself! I think, Miya got it from the yaya and in turn I got it from Miya because we co-sleep with her. Well she got it from the yaya because they’re together most of the time. Haay! I had to consult our derma on what shampoo to use on Miya. He suggested using Kwell. We used it two times on Miya – one week apart. And Yaya J also manually took out the headlice after Miya’s bath daily during those times. After more than a week, all of them were gone. Hurrah!

Also on Yaya J’s first day, she managed to start Miya on potty training. I’ve asked her not to put diaper on Miya the whole day because we’re not using our trusted brand (stocks ran out!). Since Miya’s skin is very sensitive, we can’t switch to different brands of diapers as much as my wallet wants to! So Yaya J asked Miya to say “Wiwi” when she wants to pee, they were successful a few times on her first day. Miya sometimes says “poopoo” now even if she’s only going to pee. I even brought that contraption that we can put on our toilet seat so that she won’t fall off on the bowl. It’s basically a smaller version of the toilet seat that we can put on our own toilet. We’re not 100% potty training Miya, meaning no her and on us to potty train her. One time that she’s not wearing her nappies, I asked her to tell me if she’s going to wiwi/poopoo. She kept on saying poopoo which I knew she meant she wants to pee. When I took her to the toilet, she just won’t go. When I put on her panties again, she said “poopoo” again. Since I didn’t bother checking if she wants to pee again, she peed with her panties on in our living room hahaha!

The third thing Yaya J did on her first day, she bought a gas tank for us on her own initiative – of course, I paid for it when I got home. See, our gas tank is provided to us by my parents, we only tell them to replace the tank itself. I don’t even pay them back. (Yes, I’m still living off of parents haha!) Yaya J texted me that we didn’t have gas anymore and we don’t have an extra tank. Again I blamed the yaya before her that we got into this situation. Good thing she was still able to cook lunch for her and Miya. In the afternoon, I texted her that I already bought ulam and rice for our dinner. She texted back that she already  cooked rice. I was surprised how she was able to cook rice and when I asked her, she said that she called for delivery of the gas tank. I didn’t even tell her to call, I just texted her to ask our neighbors if they knew a delivery store near us. She didn’t text me the number so I figured she didn’t get a number for delivery of the gas tank. If it was our former yaya who had to dealt with that situation, I’m pretty sure she and Miya wouldn’t have anything to eat until we got home.

To borrow some local celebrities’ words, I am now more panatag with Yaya J back with us. I never knew how much I relied on her until she left us. I never knew how fortunate we were with her until she left us. I know now how much important she is to us, and I hope she stays longer with us this time. She actually already was my mother’s househelp for 3 years when we got her. She came to our house when Miya was barely a month old. She left last May making that 14 months with us. I hope she stays with us until Miya gets married hahaha!