8 Months

Emily turned 8 months one week ago. She's replaced screeching with panting when she wants something. Which is way better then the former! Still prefers holding our hands and walking around over trying to crawl. No teeth, but tons of drool.

Post Script

So while my last post said there are no rules in Russia, there actually are. It's just that when you break them you can pay off the police and move on with your life. Case in point. On our way back to Chekhov from Moscow last weekend our driver was pulled over by the police. Now "pulled over" may not be the correct term. Because the police officer was standing in a booth and we're not sure if he just waived our driver over or what. All we knew was that our driver pulled over, grabbed what I assume was his license and then stepped outside to go talk to the officer. He came back a few minutes later and said to Brian "money," or however you say it in Russian. Brian handed over 3000 rubles, the equivalent to about $100 US. He then walked back to the officer, must of talked a little, came back, and then we were on our way. I mean, we had heard people just pay off the police but it was another thing to see it happen. Kind of awesome. Felt like a real Russian citizen at that moment. Russia is like Chicago in the 1920's  I guess. 

There Are No Rules In Russia...

...and other curiosities.

Want to ride your horse down the sidewalk? No problem. Go for it!

That is not a street to the left of that parked car. That is a sidewalk. No need to look for parking. Just park your car anywhere you please!

Now, its hard to see from this photo, but that lady in our "water closet,"is checking our water heater. Now you'll need to use your imagination a bit, but just picture that old lady from the Hansel and Gretel story. Babushka and everything. Even the crooked teeth. Then you'll have a good idea of what this lady looked like. She's very pushy and demanding and you'll tell her 18 times in Russian that you don't speak Russian but she'll continue to talk to you like you do. The only one in our family who wasn't a little freaked out by her was Emily. I think she was entranced by her sparkly gold replacement teeth. 

Here are some observations I've made on my daily walks around town:

• Even though it's 20 degrees out, no adult wears gloves. My hands are freezing in my double layered mittens, how do they do this? Is this so you can easily chain-smoke?
• It's totally cool to leave your 7 year old in the drivers seat with the car on while you run into the store. 
• All the babies here sleep so well in their strollers. How do they do this? Emily has a freak out after 10 minutes unless it's her nap time. 
• Rules of the road are totally optional.
• If you walk up to an elevator (or escalator, entrance, etc.), don't be surprised if someone from behind just nudges their way in front of you to get on as soon as the doors open. Doesn't matter if you have a baby attached to you. You are not special enough to get on first! 
• Stray dogs are very good at crossing the street and avoid getting hit by buses and cars.
• There are two car speeds in Russia. Fast and Stopped. I've never witnessed a car slooooow doooown. It's go as fast as you can and then SLAM on your breaks at the stop light/pedestrian crossing. 
• The babushkas here have got grillz y'all. Lost your teeth to decay? No worries! There's plenty of gold teeth to go around to replace them!

Fun with Dad

Hey guys! It's me Emily. Thought I'd share some fun photos of me with my dad from these past couple of weeks.

Here's dad cleaning me up after eating and making a mess of things.

"Good morning!"

"Yeah, we go to the same barber. It's a great cut, you got a problem with that?"

This is me being coy. 

"Mom's chest isn't this hairy."

"Yee-haw, giddee-up!"

3 for 3

Brian has scored a goal at all three of the games Emily and I have gone to since we got here. We are definitely his good luck charms. The first two games he scored during the first period when Emily and I were in attendance. (We have to leave after the first period to meet Emily's bedtime needs). Tonight he scored the game winner! First win for the team in a loooooong time. Way to go Brian! Wish I'd been there to see it but was still psyched to see it on the game report online.

Here's are some self-portraits of me and Emily at the game. It is butt cold in Chekhov so no matter how much I bundle Emily up for our walk to the rink her cheeks are so pink from the chilly air. Plus, her cheeks can not be contained in any kind of hat/head cover. Ha!

 "Hey guys, I'm at a hockey game."

Thanksgiving in Russia

It was weird to celebrate Thanksgiving in another country. Back home everyone had the day off and was visiting with family and friends and it just felt like another day here, except I was going to attempt to make some kind of dinner related to Thanksgiving dinner. There are no turkeys here in Russia, so I knew I'd be making a roast chicken. And as much as I wanted to make the bird with all the trimmings they just don't have those ingredients here and if they did I wouldn't know because it is very hard to decode the Cyrillic alphabet!

Here is how I made the roast chicken. I preheated the oven to a 7. Yes, 7. I have no idea what that temperature correlates to in Celsius or Fahrenheit. I'm just guessing somewhere around 400 degrees because the the numbers only go up to a 9 and I'm guessing 9 is around 500 Fahrenheit??? So we'll go with about an hour and 30 minutes in the oven. For the potatoes and carrots I had no roasting pan, so I had to boil those vegetables first and then saute them with butter, salt, and pepper. We did find some frozen crescent rolls but nothing even close to a pumpkin or pecan pie. Instead some kind of cake roll from the bakery had to do. Overall, even though I couldn't make all my favorite side dishes or a turkey, the dinner turned out better then I had expected. I was just happy the chicken was cooked through and the vegetables hadn't turned to mush! Oh, and there was gravy. Not the best I ever put on the table but it was still pretty good. Have to have gravy!

While the meal wasn't my finest, it was wonderful to be here with Brian and Emily. I'm so glad that the three of us were able to spend the day together and it will be a memorable Thanksgiving, one we'll laugh about in the years to come. Brian helped make the day special for me and I think I helped make it special for him. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

The table.

Emily's scoping out the goods.

Now it's my turn for a photo.

"No thanks dad, I'll just keep sucking on this teething ring."

Baby Jail

Emily started screeching a few weeks ago when she is frustrated or upset and it is horrible. It's the equivalent of someone raking their fingernails down a chalkboard. It drives me nuts. I've tried to shush her, ignore her, whatever, but nothing works other then figuring out what the cause is in the first place.

We've started putting her in "baby jail," as punishment.

Moscow

Last Sunday, Brian had the day off so we headed up to Moscow for a one night stay. It was great to get out of Chekhov and into a real city. Moscow is actually a pretty city as a lot of its early architecture was influenced by what you'd find in Paris, France. We stayed at the Ritz in Moscow, right across from the Kremlin and Red Square. Since it was only for a night and we found a good deal we thought we'd splurge, feeling like we deserved it since the rest of our time would be spent in depressing Chekhov.

Brian and Emily in the lobby.

Walking into the lobby of this hotel felt like walking onto the set of a James Bond movie. You weren't sure who might have been an arms dealer, top mobster or Russian oil baron. Mixed in were ladies with their fur stoles in beautiful dresses dripping in diamonds. And there we were. In our Patagonia coats and muddy winter boots with a baby. 

Here we are in front of St. Basil's Cathedral.

I loved seeing St. Basil's. It is a truly unique and beautiful cathedral. The inside had all these stucco walls adorned with different patterns. We actually walked in on Sunday morning while they had a service going on and we could hear the choir singing. (Tourists are allowed in while this is going on. They have a clear glass wall separating you from the inside where the patrons are). 

I don't remember what this building was called or used for. It's pretty though, right?!

To my right (your left) is the GUM, (pronounced goom). It's this gorgeous building that is now a mall. It is huge and absolutely stunning inside and out. By far the most beautiful place to shop that I have ever been to. 

"I got this bed!"

We ate at the lounge on the top floor of the hotel. It was perfect for bringing a baby to, loud music could drown out any of her noises. I'm holding the lion they gave Emily and she's chewing on the scarf that had been on the lion. 

This picture doesn't do justice of the view from the restaurant. You could see all of Red Square lit up. 

Emily loved her luxurious bath that night. Got a little too relaxed...left a little present for us to clean up when she was done. Bad baby!

One day was not long enough to see all that Moscow has to offer. We're hoping to make a return trip if Brian has a few more days off in December. I still want to check out the jewels and precious stones they have at one of the museums. Brian is a great curator too, you never have to read up on anything since he already has and is my personal tour guide. It's great! You can sit back and he'll point out all the points of interest and tell you some little fact or anecdote about it. I should start calling him Fodors or Rick. 

P.S. Moscow is expensive! One cocktail cost $30 US. Another couple said the neighborhood restaurant they ate at didn't have one bottle of wine on their menu under $100. I guess that's one thing Chekhov has going for it. It's cheap!

7 Months!

Here are some photos from Emily's 7th month photo shoot. She was really interested in the sticker on her tee which is why it looks all scrunched in most photos.

Not too much changed this month, still enjoying sitting and playing. Not interested in crawling and still trying to figure out that sippy cup. She prefers to drink out of one of our glasses or water bottle when we hold it up to her mouth. Her other favorite pastime is having one of us hold her hands while she steps around the apartment.

"What is this?"

"haha, gonna rip this sticker right off."

Reaching for the iPhone.

Not pulling herself up but likes hanging on to the couch or other furniture.

Loves looking at books with me and Brian. Wish I had brought more then 5 with me to Russia, so tired of all of them already! Good thing Emily enjoys hearing the same one over and over and over...

First Snow!

It was about 4 days into my trip when it snowed here in Chekhov. The blanket of white actually made this soviet-era town look almost pretty. ALMOST.

We made it!

I was so anxious about the two flights over here and thank the Lord, both went great. Our first flight left O'Hare around 8PM which is when Em usually goes to bed anyways, so she was so sleepy as we were boarding. She fell asleep after take-off and woke up about an hour later (which is unusual) but after that went right back to sleep and slept till they turned the cabin lights on about 1 1/2 before landing. Everyone on the plane was so happy with her, including me! Once we landed, she just kind of hanged with me at the Zurich airport and then was so tired that she fell asleep again for about two hours on our way to Moscow which made me very happy.

Here's me and a very tired Emily right before take-off. 

There was also this troupe of clowns on my flight from Zurich to Moscow, over one of their shoulders I read that they were apart of some Patch Adams Clown tour of Russia. They were from all over, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland and loved trying to entertain Emily when she was awake. At first I was a little freaked out by the group of about 8 in full clown gear, but they were all nice and for some reason clowns speaking Italian and German don't freak me out as much as American, bozo type clowns.

Going through Passport control in Moscow I was just waiting to be rejected. They're so serious! And I had no clue what anyone was saying to me. Russian is not an easy language to understand, it's not like Spanish, Italian, or French where you've heard it spoken before and can kind of guess what they're trying to say to you. But it was ok, they let us in. Oh, and Customs was a joke. I literally just walked right through, had no idea if I was supposed to or not...oh well, no one stopped me!

After some searching Brian and I finally spotted each other, it was so great to see him in the sea of men trying to offer me a taxi ride. So wonderful to finally all be back together. Since I didn't sleep a wink on the flights I was exhausted and just so happy and relieved that the journey was over. Now to begin the process of adjusting to the 9 hour time change...

Happy Halloween!

"Gonna eat candy till the cows come home."

"Mooo..."

Visiting with Zumu.

I'm the dairy farmer with my cow. Yes, I know, my costume is WEAK.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Getting Ready

I haven't been able to post a lot lately since I've been getting everything together for our visit and flight over to Russia. As much as I've been anxious about having everything together and for the long flight I know that this is just one day and that it's really not so bad. We will survive!

Here's Emily riding in the Target cart for the first time. Don't worry, I wiped that thing down real well with the complimentary disinfecting wipes. She was loving being almost eye level with me. Ok, not really, "eye level," geez, I'm not that short!

Bathing Beauty

"Wait a minute Jess. Why on earth would you buy your daughter a new swimsuit in the middle of October?"

Well...there is a community center with a pool over wonder in Chekhov. So the plan is for some family swim time once we're over there. And since it was 78 degrees here in Chicago today I thought I'd try it on my little lady.

"Do these horizontal stripes make me look chubby?"

Ahhh!!! And I die.

P.S. Finding a swimsuit for your kid in October is not easy. Thank God for Amazon.com!

Competition for Biggest Fan

Brian sent me these amazing photos from a competition he was judging for, "biggest fan," back in Chekhov. It was open to young kids and apparently only boys???? I don't really know the parameters. All I know is that the prize for biggest fan was an XBOX. What kid wouldn't want that. Who knows if these kids are even fans at all!

The contestants.

This boy looks like a fan of Star Trek? Oh, wait. Must be a mini Vityaz track suit.

My favorite. Check out the splits accompanied by that gun show!

Nothing like a sailor doing some break dancing to impress an audience.

Even this dog got in on the action.

Maybe they'll let me come along and help judge the next competition. This looks very entertaining!!