Sunday, April 21, 2013

For a spoonful of sugar..

She was only three when I came to look after her. Her prior (male) nanny Morgan showed me around on my first day in Portland, Oregon. He was really nice and he and Natalie bonded well. Morgan was there on a temporary basis though. Natalie's parents had applied for a European au pair. They wanted their little girl to have the best education possible and they thought some discipline could do no harm.

Natalie Ann Scott was cute. She was a doll. She was very smart too. I remember how she could read and write short words and she was only 3! Her private school provided with a French teacher by the name of Denise and having no more than 6 other kiddos to play with in your class, is a unique situation for a kindergarten. I would take Natalie to school in the morning and pick her up for lunch. I liked to prepare special kid's lunches for her. I would make little faces out of bread, that I would dress up with pieces of fruit and greens. Grated cheese was great for creating a perfect hairdo and some nuts would keep the brain working. After lunch, Natalie would take a nap and I would pick up toys and clean up the kitchen. As soon as Natalie would open her eyes, she would ask me to play one of her favorite DVD's, that we would play downstairs in the basement, where I had a whole floor to myself. Well, that is, for Natalie and I. I didn't mind sharing the space with her. We loved to sit on the sofa together and watch Mary Poppins. Natalie is the girl who taught me how to say: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and cinnamon. Can you believe I had a hard time saying "cin-na-mon"? To me, it was more of a tong twister than the Mary Poppins-line. Natalie would curl up laughing when once again, I would wrongly say: cim-ma-non.. It became our little joke..

I loved watching Mary Poppins. I never thought I would ever see the movie again, once I left Portland. Only a few years later, I had two daughters of my own. Our little one had a favorite movie... Exactly.. Mary Poppins was back! We watched the DVD, on the couch, together. Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.. I cannot count the number of times we sang that song, without ever getting bored. Mary Poppins is of all times..

I wonder what has become of Natalie. She should be about 24 now. What kind of education would she have had? Is she seeing someone seriously? How about her parents? I remember how happy they were with their little girl.. Did Natalie ever get siblings? Maybe I should try to locate her on Facebook. Don't know if she would remember me. I have scrapbooks full of pictures and stories on her. It would be nice to show her some day..

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