Ciao, Amica Mia!

I met Jaime when I came to visit Milan in November. She is from Raleigh and has been a nanny for the Thomas family for the past year. (Jobey Thomas plays for the Milan Basketball team) We instantly clicked when we met and I was so excited to see her again when I moved here! We were able to spend some time together and it was so much fun to have someone from home who is here experiencing Milan with me. 

Because of some medical problems, I found out today that she has to leave Milan tomorrow and go back to the States. She just found out today herself. We had one last dinner with her and the Thomas family tonight and it was a very tearful goodbye. It hit too close to home because I had to say the same heart-wrenching goodbyes just over a month ago. 

Funny story. Let me give you some background first: Julia calls herself "Ma Yaya" which means "my Julia." When she wants something she says, "Ma Yaya peehah!" (my Julia pizza) or "Ma Yaya go home." 

Second piece of background information. Julia can be a little rough with little Joshee. Poor kid usually has scratches and bumps from "Julia lovin'."

So, Julia, who is the mischievous one, has a book of "no no's" and

 "yes yes'" that we read to her quite often. In the book, there is a picture of a kid doing something bad (like drawing on the wall) and then a picture of him doing something good (like drawing on the paper.) The hysterical thing is Julia does almost everything in the "no no" pictures... so we are trying to brainwash her through cardboard books. When we read it, I say, "what is this?" and point to the picture. She then points and says strongly, "NO NO!" Well, at the restaurant tonight, when we got to the picture of the little boy hitting his little brother on the head, I said, "what is this??" She replied, "*gasp! Ma Yaya!!"

You probably had to be there...