3 Weeks

1st Nov 2006, Brenda (our maid) became part of our family. It took about 1 month for Charlotte to accept her at the start. Time flies, Brenda has almost completed her 2 years contract with us. Her 2nd year work permit was renewed till Sept 2008 because of her passport validity. So, she will be going to back this Saturday for a 3 weeks home leave.

She has agreed to return after her home leave and has made her promise. We renewed her passport and work permit again a couple of months back. We cross our fingers (and toes too) that we will see her at the arrival hall after 3 weeks.

I am not sure if I look forward to the 3 weeks full time off from work and be a full time stay-at-home-mom. I had been a stay-at-home-wife for 7 months a few years back. That's when Pat had his assignment in the US, we just got married and I decided to join him. The first few months were full of excitements and happily enjoying the shopping, explorations, vacations, workouts, cooking, sleeping, and all that fun, fun, fun. Things started to slow down at the 5th months, 6th months...I feel like I was rotting and getting lazier each day. We eat out more and more, stayed up later and later, woke up later and later too. We had a lot of fun with friends and events that we planned, but maybe because I didn't have Charlotte back then and when I was all by myself (when Pat goes to work) I feel like it was just too quiet. So I started to search for job and I was very lucky that I got the job a couple of weeks after and I came home.

Now that I have a very active and demanding toddler, I'm not so sure if I am able to deal with it all by myself. One part of me is looking forward to that no-rushing-with-time privilege, other part of me is worrying about all that 24x7 baby sitting and house chores running job. Charlotte isn't very attached to Brenda, only when mommy is not around or when I got really mad at her (Auntie Brenda is always there to rescue her mah). So I have one thing less to worry about. We have planned get-aways and that's all accommodating Charlotte's interests. My only hope is that vacations will be something less stressful than staying at home.

The other thing that we are worrying is that what do we tell Charlotte when she realizes Auntie Brenda is gone? She understands more things now and it is not easy to just brush things aside when she mentions it. She is also at the stage where she wants that particular things more especially when we are not able to give it to her. I am sure that I can't tell her Auntie Brenda has gone home I bet she would insist to follow. Just like if anyone visited us, they can never go home without Charlotte crying and wanting to follow. Although I know I should not be lying to her, Pat and I are thinking of what excuse to tell her that won't make her very interested but yet good enough to keep her on her feet and not a bad thing to say. Any recommendation :) ?

Oh God! I really pray for Brenda to show up after 3 weeks. I put a carrot in front for her that we promised her a close to 18% increment and PAID home leave and on top of that we will give her 1 month bonus when she returns (this valid for the subsequence years too). But I also know that she has 3 daughters at home, family influence would be something that holds her back. Oh....