A new addition to the family

Just a quick explanation dear blog reader (sorry French friends, I've got to switch to English now, so you'd better get up to speed with that language :D)...

I know, I haven't updated this blog for a long long time (a bit more than one year in fact). I'm not going to blame anyone, that's just life, "c'est la vie". Two kids, a house, a garden, a job, and more importantly a very demanding wife and that's it, no more time for the blog :(

But first, here is a quick picture of my two little treasures!

Kien-Nhu is growing quickly (too quickly) and is getting cutter by the day. He is looking so much like his mother, which is a good thing I reckon given how pretty Stephanie is <3

But more importantly, he's the best and easiest baby ever! Started sleeping through the night just after two weeks, always happy and smiling, a real pleasure. We are considering having ten like him! Maybe I shouldn't speak too fast... looks like he's started throwing tantrums...

Our beloved Ai-Vy is also growing quickly (way too quickly) and is starting to look more like a little girl than a little baby. She's really cheeky and while sometimes driving us crazy :) is a little girl full of life and imagination that loves animal and horses like her mother!

And here is a little picture of us taken a few weeks ago. Getting older (who said balder??!!) but still sexy!

But who's the newest addition to our family would you ask?? Thanks for asking.
We are getting a new "Au-Pair" very soon... and this is the last time I'm using this word as we don't envisage the "Au-Pair" in the standard way it is defined.
Have a look at the offer we've put on the GreatAuPair web site:

Family's Introduction to Caregivers

We are a young active couple with two kids and two dogs. We are both French / Australian (we have the dual citizenship) and moved from the south west of France to Australia 6 years ago.

We are both sporty and active, love going out, going to the beach and national parks on weekends, four wheel driving, fishing, surfing, dog training, culture, video games, cinema and meeting people.

We live about 12 km from the Brisbane CBD, the best city in Australia where 4 months of spring follow 8 months of summer! While close to the city, in a top class suburb, and at equal distance to both the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, our house is beautiful with a unique setting, with the pool overlooking a forest with Koala, Kookaburras and Wallabies. It has a big garden, is also huge and modern and the Au-pair will have her own private room and bathroom.

Job Description

We are looking for an Au-pair to be PART OF OUR FAMILY and look after our two lovely kids (1 year old boy and 4 years old girl). It is NOT ONLY A JOB... Of course, there are requirements: you need to genuinely love kids, be playful, active and patient. We even already have cleaners, gardeners and someone to look after the pool... however we would like you to help with house duties to an equal amount as we are... not more, not less.

But more importantly we want someone fun, sociable, easy going and eager to SHARE OUR FAMILY LIFE, participate in our sport activities and curious to discover the Australian culture. Of course you will also get your own personal time and will be encouraged to go out and make friends outside of the family. We want someone who shares our values: honesty, respect, curiosity, openness, commitment, and work ethics. We are looking for someone with a good education and mature, not someone who is "just looking for a job, free food and accommodation", we want the right person with the right philosophy of life! We want someone committed to stay at least 6 months to establish a strong relationship.

Working arrangements are flexible. Accommodation and food (top class healthy food cooked with love by the daddy who's also making his own bread) is provided and "pocket money" will depend on merit and amount of time the Au-pair wants to be involved... Money will not be a problem. But you'll get richer, not only with money, but from the unique experience you'll get with us. Even if we are French, we are both fluent in English and can teach the Au-pair English if necessary and we've got lots of Australian friends.

If you recognize yourself in this offer and think you are the right person, you'll find that this is probably the best Au-pair offer you'll ever find. The position is open starting from now, but there is no urgency, we'll wait as long as needed to have the right person.

You can get in touch with me by forum email; I'll then give you my Skype ID. We'll have a chat about the position, our expectations and your desires and see if we are on the same page! Then we can meet and have a coffee together in Brisbane if you are already in Australia or have a video conference on Skype.

We are looking forward to hearing from you!

So after only one week, we've received more than 55 applications, and were spoiled for choice. Some very good candidatures (in theory, with diploma and past experience with children...).

I was in charge of interviewing the applicants (Facebook technique...). Fortunately it didn't last too long as my wife was starting to freak out seeing me chatting with that many young women!

I ended up feeling a very good connection with two young candidates, Meagan and Elizabeth, which were, by the biggest coincidence, of the same age, from the same country and from the same region (Oregon/Washington). That must mean that good crops are growing there (hope that makes sense)! It would have been very difficult to choose as they were both great and very different, but Libby wasn't available till April anyway, so that solved the dilemma for me!

So Meagan will very soon be with us. She is a young woman full of energy and enthusiasm, cute, smart, sporty, artsy and obviously with a genuine love for children. We are so much looking forward to welcoming her and strangely, while we haven't known her for such a long time, we already love her very much and believe she will bring lots of joy in her baggage!

So stay tuned as she will be posting on the blog, talking about her experience Down-under!