The girls.

Py, Linna, and Ady at a show on Sentosa.

We really aren't sure how to title these two. They go by "the girls", "Ady and Py", "our live-in babysitters", "the two American girls living with us while the complete their internship in Singapore", etc., etc. It's probably time to formally introduce you to Ady (Adelina) and Py (Pyline), since we literally get questions about them daily.

I was introduced to Ady and Py through a network of Singapore expat wives. One of the wives had a friend back home whose daughter (Ady) was moving to Singapore for the summer with her friend (Py), to do an architecture internship. Both of the girls are students at Rice University in Texas. Ady is actually Bulgarian, and Py is Thai, but both of their families live in the US. Ady and Py were looking for a place to stay during their internship in Singapore, and since we have an extra bedroom/bathroom that we don't use, we thought this would be great for both the girls and us! We chatted with the girls via email, and asked if they'd be interested in doing some babysitting for us while they were here, and they said "yes". Awesome! We would have live-in babysitters over the summer, and we could give these girls a nice and safe place to stay in Singapore. Perfect. So after a Skype session, lots of emails with the girls and their parents, we all agreed that this plan would work well for all five of us (Py, Ady, AJ, Linna and I). Ady and Py arrived in Singapore in the beginning of May, and will be staying with us until the beginning of August.

The thought of opening our home to people we had never actually met in person, was intimidating. Did these girls have us fooled? Were they going to be complete party animals, slob-kebabs, or irresponsible "youngsters"?! God I'm old. The truth is, these girls have been nothing but pleasant, and they are very fun to have around. They are so smart, down to earth, funny (hilarious actually), respectful, and the best part is that Linna loves them. She calls Ady and Py "the girls". It took Linna a week or so to really warm up to the girls, but now the three of them play together, eat together, watch cartoons together, and even swim together. Ady and Py have helped us out so much, especially during my birthday BBQ when they watched and played with Linna, so AJ and I could cook and entertain. The girls even cooked my drunk friends a meal at 1:30 a.m. Thanks again for that one girls;)

It's so nice to know that AJ and I can put Linna to bed, and we have two responsible adults in the house to look after Linna if we decide to go out.

Ady playing with Linna after Linna's nap.

Looks like Linna was lunging when Py and Ady babysat her last night.
Thanks for the fun pics girls!

Last night, AJ and I went to a movie, and we actually left Linna with the girls and asked them to put her to bed. Every night, Mama or Papa Saigh puts Linna to bed, and other than family members, we haven't let anyone else do this (it's kind of my thing). Ady and Py were Linna's first REAL babysitters. You can see photos of their struggle to get Linna to bed, on Ady and Py's "Life of Py" blog (which is hysterical by the way). The girls basically fell for Linna's "no" routine at bedtime. They would ask her to go to bed, and Linna would say "no". Linna was still up when we got home at 10 p.m.! To be fair, I told them I'd rather have Linna awake and happy when we got home, rather than crying and in her crib:)

The five of us have become a little Singapore family, and I am really going to be sad to leave Ady and Py when Linna and I head back to Minnesota for a visit at the end of the month (oh, I will miss AJ too - hehe). I love watching these explore Singapore, and hearing their crazy stories about their adventures. Even better, they document their babysitting experiences with Linna on their blog, so I can see what happened while we were out. The girls keep us young, and we are really luck to have them in our lives!

One of the funniest photos from their blog. They document
sleeping Asians in Singapore very well!