A different kind of date day

We have recently started what I hope will be a monthly tradition, at least while I am still not working and the kids are still in preschool. On the first day, Alex and I brought Zoltan to school, then went off on a day of just the 2 of us.

First up - a treat at the local cafe, as it was only 9:30am and nothing we planned to do was open yet. Fortified, we went shopping for socks and tights as Alex seems to be going through a bit of a growth spurt. Then she chose trolleybus as our transport and we headed to the Russian Museum, where we have a membership.


Above she is showing me which picture is her favorite in the room. We played that game to get her to actually look at each piece of art, not just run from one room to the next.

After only about 40 minutes she was whining she was hungry - art apreciation does work up an appetite - so back on went all our winter gear and we headed out in search of lunch.

Here she is doing some coloring while I finished eating. She didn't like her plain pasta (?!?!?!) but she did like my soup - as I thought she might - so she wasn't hungry.

For getting home she chose the metro, and by the time we got home it was naptime, she was so exhausted she said she was looking forward to it! Her nap was surprisingly short, so we had time for a pedicure and a full High-5 magazine before going to pick up Zoltan. Usually with the magazine we only have time for a few of the stories, so going all the way through one is a decently big deal.

Zoltan and I had our date day later. I had planned a day of trying out all the local transits - bus, tram, metro, etc but he actually insisted in recreating Alex's day. So we brought Alex to school and off we went to the metro to go to the museum.

Learning from past mistakes, we went for treat/snack after getting off the metro, right before heading to the museum.  In the museum, he first whined about not wanting to carry his backpack, and wanting a snack, every 5 minutes. Eventually, though, he got into it. It might be because I let him carry the camera, and even take some photos. I'll have to remember that for my next outing with Alex. Unfortunately, Terry the Photographer deleted every damn one. I thought it was pretty cute that he got the bottom half of every painting and a bunch of the wall/floor. Terry was not amused.

We had gotten yelled at by a dejournaya for getting too close to one of the paintings.She said we couldn't go any closer than the "line" on the floor ... here's Zoltan carefully checking to see he's on the right side of it.

And a photo of him in front of a favorite painting.

For the return trip home, he wanted to take the trolleybus - basically a reverse of what Alex and I had done. Then he decided he didn't want to have lunch in a cafe but instead to go home for PB and J. Soon after lunch began he told me he wanted to go to nap and not finish lunch. Sure thing, baby!

Go Fish a whole new way

Today the kids got mint tea with honey at breakfast. Of course, it was served in their photo mugs, and somehow those mugs morphed into the day's beverage vessel, moving into water after the tea and later juice. At snack time the kids invented a "go fish" type game where one would ask the other if he or she had a particular color on the mug's handle (Alex's handle is a bunny with a carrot, Zoltan's is a snake).

At dinner, they continued the game. They also, as usual, ate the food they knew and liked and ignored the rest. When Zoltan asked for a color Alex didn't have and she said "go fish" I said "that means you have to take a bite of dinner." Without protest he did! And not too long later, the plate was empty.

Trying to stay one step ahead of these kids is exhausting!

Wordless Wednesday (Oops Thursday)

A day of firsts

Yesterday was a big day for me. 2 major firsts occurred:

1. I finally received the flat iron that I finally bought and finally used it. What the heck have I been waiting for?!?!?!?  If you know me personally or know anyone else with Julia Roberts-type thick wavy/frizzy hair you'll know what I mean. And this flat iron is amazing, I didn't have much time so I did really thick sections of hair and wasn't careful about getting the whole thing, but the overall effect was perfect. Better yet, it is even straighter and glossier the next day!

2. I made yogurt for the first time. A friend who left post a full year ago gave us her yogurt maker and then it sat in our closet. Yesterday I pulled it out and went for a trial run. Let's just say the minute the containers are clean again I start experimenting with rice/coconut milk yogurt recipes because this stuff, mixed with our homemade jam, is far too good for me to resist. And then things get really ugly.

[edited to add:  I indeed made Terry scrape his yogurts into other glass jars and made a small batch of coconut milk yogurt. ooooh sour milk how I have missed you!! I'll be trying again with rice milk, and again with a rice/coconut mix and will report back]

Another register update

Apparently right now is when all the superstars are racing through their Oral Exams and landing on the register ahead of my 5.47 - so I've been pushed into the high 20's on the shadow register - not a hireable place to be. And of course right now is when there are no classes in the foreseeable future to drain those ranks. And ... well, they changed the rules once and who knows if, when or how they will change the rules again.

All that leads to this: I officially accepted the extra bonus CNL points and have agreed to serve 2 tours at Russian speaking posts.

I am now #7 of 93. For perspective, when I first got on the register I was 124 of 124. When I passed language I was #17 of 73. That was about 6 weeks ago. 20 more people on the register in that time (shudder).

Wordless Wednesday

Yep, I'm a big honking geek

I have fallen in love, sort of. I've said before the Russian language has gotten its hooks into me in a bad way, and the love affair seems to only be growing, maybe in light of our impending breakup (at least temporarily). After a recent lesson on Pushkin wherein my teacher impressed upon me his significance to Russia and why he is THE poet of the country my current dream is to read (and most importantly, duh, understand) him in his mother tongue. The more Russian I know, the more Russians I speak with, the more certain I am that no translation between these 2 languages can ever properly capture the essence.

I am also once again signed up for the distance learning, but this time there is a new course - Consular Russian. I'm learning the language and idiom necessary to talk to visa applicants about their plans to visit the USA. And I am loving it.

I had said that if I passed the language test in December I'd slow way down, and it is true I no longer do much homework, but ...

Sennaya Ploschad haul

In the regular grocery stores right now, we can choose from apples, pears, oranges, and mandarins. And some globe grapes that aren't worth the necessary de-seeding for the littles.

Today we ventured to Sennaya for the first time in a long time. We got: 2 kilos kish-mish grapes; 1.5 kilos finger bananas (first time ever seeing them in Piter!); 1 kilo mandarin; 1 mango; 2 kilos granat; 2 kilos apples; 1.5 kilo pears; 1 kilo plums; and 1 fruit item I had never seen before but described to me as like an apple and sweet (1 piece was 1/2 kilo). Veggie-wise we didn't get as much, but still the kilo of zucchini, half kilo of winter squash, pack of snow peas will get us partway through the week.

Because the kids get up so early, we're in and out and back home by 10:30am, so no traffic, no parking troubles. It's a good day, and I can't wait to gobble up the fruit salad.

Wordless Wednesday

Ice skating @ Elagin

Both kids have been talking about skating lately. This is due partly to the partial thaw then re-freeze of the city a few weeks ago, which rendered all sidewalks mini-rinks. But, as Terry is hell-bent on getting Zoltan into hockey, the day will have to come sooner or later that he dons skates and hits the ice (hoping, of course, not to really "hit" the ice too hard or too often).

Elagin island - already our family favorite place - has a free, open, outdoor ice rink. I think in the summer they just call it "ground" or maybe "pond". Terry and Alex already have skates, so for the price of 400 rubles to rent skates for Z and me for an hour, the family had a great morning! Both kids said they wanted to go again, although Zoltan said another day - not again today.

 Lunch ended up taking forever so we didn't get home until deep into normal nap time, and both kids had fabulous naps. There's nothing like fresh air and exercise :-)