We absolutely love Natasa (and her daughter)! Natasa nannied for us from April 17 through June 17 -- and we would have kept her on for years, if we did not move back to America. She is a complete star. Our son was 13 to 16 months during this time.

Natasa was very caring and loving towards our son. He warmed up to her in hardly any time, while he can be quite shy around other people (and he is missing her dearly at the moment) and was going through a period of separation anxiety. I admire how she is always so calm and gentle, but also firm when needed.

Since I work from home and we were also packing for a move, it was very important for us to have a nanny who could take charge when a parent was around sometimes, rather than sit back and wait for instruction or just let the parent take over. We previously had two nannies who struggled with finding this balance --- and Natasa did so effortlessly. She was able to distract our son when I needed to leave a room, and also, very appropriately and intuitively knew when it was a good time to play outside or in a different part of the house. Being at home often, I was privy to hearing/seeing bits of the day unfold. Natasa was always engaged with our son -- chatting, imaginatively playing, teaching him new things, reading to him, helping him crawl and walk, but also let him play independently when he seemed keen to do so. She was very encouraging of his physical development.

Natasa quickly learned our son's ever changing schedule -- she is quite observant and is able to see fairly quickly what works and what doesn't. She has great communication skills - always asking how his morning went, when he would need a nap, what to eat, how much he ate, how long he slept, how often he was changed, whether there were any bumps and bruises during the day (from learning to walk, crawling, and general clambering about). She also provided notice far in advance of time that she needed off.

She generally worked from 10 to 5:30 for us -- sometimes just the afternoon, but usually the longer day. She was always punctual and flexible, willing to stay later than 5:30, if needed and on short notice. She is fantastic in the kitchen -- willing and able to help with food prep, cleaning, and offering a variety of snacks. Sometimes, I left her without a set food plan (just food options in the fridge) and our son was always happy and fed.

Her nearly 3 year old daughter also joined her. I was a bit unsure about this arrangement -- until the first day. It was great for our son to have another little person to be social with -- watch play and learn from. Natasa effortlessly managed both children and having her lovely daughter along only benefited my son.

I could write about how wonderful Natasa is, as both a nanny and a person, for hours. We are really sad to leave her behind as she became a part of our family and we very much would have loved for her to stay with our boy for years to come. I always felt very comfortable leaving or her leaving with our son to go out for a walk or to the park. She was one of the first to do this as all of our family lived an ocean away, and it was quite easy as I felt that she was an extension of myself. She also always shared anything that she found worked great with our son -- like dabbing his face clean after eating, instead of wiping. We learned a lot from her! Her next family will be a very lucky one!

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