Waking up on the Wrong Side of the Crib

We had an internet outage yesterday that prevented me from uploading some of the shots from our afternoon stroll. You might imagine that hours without computer access forces me into some sort of wierd withdrawal ;)

While yesterday we were hopeful that things might be improving, today Miss Mia seems fairly disagreeable. She arose early filling up our bedroom with a noxious odor. Unlike Sasha who seems content to wallow in his own filth for hours, Mia prefers to be 'fresh'. So we all got up, got dressed, made breakfast and played with Mia in the living room. She really has little interest in toys and, even when being held, she has complaints about the service. Ah .. the adjustment period continues.

Our walk yesterday was far better. It's amazing how much longer the walk seemed with Mia screaming all the way. I would've told you it was at least a couple of miles on Friday.

I think that part of the challenge is that when it's hot and you have to bundle your child up for a potential freak blizzard, your little bundle gets HOT. Her back was sweating on Friday so I decided to just opt for the Pooh sweater instead of a coat. She seemed better tempered and fortunately, there wasn't any surprise snow storm so we were good.

I've added some photos of Novy Arbat so that if you stay on this street, you'll benefit for our trials here. Anything with a 24 yaca means that it's 24 hours which usually is a clue that there is a grocery store there.

The closest grocery store to our apartment is the 'fancy grocery store'. I immediately fell in love with it's trendy Euro flavor unfortunately it comes with a trendy Euro price tag as well. It is located in the Becha (I think it means Spring and is a department store) building and this is the entrance where you can find the elevator to take you to the basement where this grocery store is located. Very nice.

If you walk a bit further down the block, you'll come to the 'cheap' grocery store. This area caters to ex pats so this grocery store has signs in Russian and English over the aisles. Very helpful.

Many of the grocery stores here are connected into a shopping mall kind of concept. When you look at the picture below, it's not immediately obvious that a grocery store is here but it is. Go through these front doors and you'll see it in the back.

Just a quick note on grocery stores. They always have a well dressed man with an ear piece serving as a sort of guard. On our first adoption, the 'guard' scolded me for bringing in my stroller. I didn't speak Russian so I spoke back in English and he eventually gave up and allowed us in. The carts here don't have a place for a baby so you'll need to take your stroller in with you. We haven't had any issue with the 'guards' in these two grocery stores. I think they know that we're Americans and have no clue on their protocol.

There is a Starbucks on Old Arbat which is really close to Novy Arbat but this place (photo on the left) is far closer. We are not brave enough to take Mia there but they do have fairly good coffee. Remember Russian coffee is more typically European so it's STRONG (which is just what you need when you're adjusting to your newest family member :)

Today is Mia's first dress day. We will ultimately have to change her when we go out as the dress obviously shows too much skin but we thought it was cute on her. I'm telling you, anything with bloomers is CUTE!

I'm already bummed that Nathan is leaving on Tuesday. He's always far more adventurous than I am and he won't allow Miss Mia to keep us locked up in our apartment for days on end. I find getting outside for just an hour or so and walking around really is a mood booster. Nathan has promised to help me fill up the apartment with necessities as traversing the walk way that goes under Novy Arbat (picture two flights of stairs, a big walkway then four flights of stairs to get up to the other side) with a stroller by myself would be too challenging. (Note for others that will come to Moscow later: Most major streets have this kind of underground foot crossing so if you don't see folks crossing the street, look for the stairs that lead to the walkway. We found the one around Red Square to be the most confusing as it also connects to the Metro.)

I hear the princess is awake now. This is the day that we try our luck walking over to Old Arbat. I'm scared just thinking about it.