So, Reilly turned ten today. I asked her what she wanted to do to celebrate, and she wanted to go see Ruslan. (Thank God for her. I can't imagine a sweeter ten year old). And, Thank God we left early. As soon as we hit the outdoor weather, Matt decided he wanted his long underwear, so we had to turn around and go back up to the tenth floor. We had to turn around a second time when I took a wrong turn in the subway transfer station (again). The thing about these wrong turns is that they cost a huge amount of time. You get on an escalator here and you're STUCK. There's no jumping off. It's at least three full minutes to the top. Then we had to turn around and it was another three minutes back down. So, more time lost. I was a little worried about missing the bus, but I HAD to get Reilly her favorite donuts at the bus stop. Luckily we still caught the 9:00 bus to Vorzel. They just had to sneak-eat their donuts on the bus while ducking behind the seats in front of them.
Ruslan was charming as ever. He dug through my pack for the first 20 minutes, taking everything out and laying it all over the room. One of the things they do here that makes SENSE is they charge about ten cents per bag at the grocery stores. So, I keep a few plastic bags in our backpack. Ruslan LOVED these. He took everything out of my backpack and put it all in one of the plastic grocery bags. Then he took another bag and put all our coats, hats, gloves and mittens inside. THEN, he wanted to walk, carrying both bags full of stuff.
It was tragic, what a big thrill it was for him to carry plastic grocery bags. It was also tragic, what a big pain in the neck it was for me to keep holding him upright. He 'walks' but using the walker, he really just holds his torso up, pushes, then catches his legs up from behind--as in, he really doesn't use his legs to hold himself up. It was all on me. So, we "walked" through the orphanage, outside, around, etc., with him holding the bags the whole time and smiling to split his face in two and me holding everything up. We finally saw a red car at the side of the building. He was just enamored with it. We walked around it, touched every side, touched every tire, tried to open the gas tank, tried to open the door and finally succeeded in setting off the car alarm. It was really loud. To make matters worse, when the workers came out, they saw Ruslan without a coat. That was a whole new conversation. He was fine, already wearing three shirts and a sweatshirt. He must have been melting, but nevertheless, the coat came out shortly afterward and we had to put new things in the grocery bags. He gave us all hugs and kisses before we left and gave me an extra kiss for Bill. It was a good visit.
There is a huge bazaar about two blocks before the last Metro station. I decided to go today, thinking it would be fun for the kids and I might find a big pot at a reasonable price. It was sort of like being at a county fair. There are just rows and rows of booths. The whole thing has a temporary look to it, even though it is permanent. Anyway, it was a mistake. It was all clothing and we got out of there pretty fast. I got the kids meat pies for lunch and we got back on the Metro.
We stopped by a grocery store to get stuff for Reilly's birthday dinner on the way home. She wanted chicken corn chowder. So, no problem, its like three ingredients...right? But at the checkout line, the lady in the orange vest took our corn and put it under the counter. I told the kids too run and get another can, which they did, and when I handed it to her, she put it under the counter, muttering something in Ukrainian. The woman completely got in between me and my daughter's chowder!
Luckily, Reilly likes peas, so we made chicken vegetable soup together (in three pans and mixed it all together in a plastic bowl). She was very pleased with the result, which is all that matters. We also bought a bunch of different pastries instead of one big cake. They were awful. Everybody tried a slice of each thing and then we threw the rest out. Their frosting has a crisco taste to it and it's really thick and greasy.
The highlight of the day was watching
...That's my girl.
ha, its like WHERE'S the suger? haha. Is hubby bringing food back in his checked bag? Have him bring two changes of clothes and LOADS of food :)
ReplyDeletedid you send him a shopping list?