No, my daughter is not from Siberia!

Yes, I was asked if S was from Siberia today! I had to chuckle a little before answering that she was definitely not from Siberia. You see, my blood is about as tropical as it gets, growing up in Central America. And Alex....well he never wanted to live north of I-10 (although our house in Houston was about 10 miles north). Now we are thousands of miles north of I-10 and he is surviving :)

This morning while we were playing at the park it was about 50 degrees, with a breeze. This picture will explain why he asked -

I bought her this sarafan a couple days ago at the Izmailovo market. It is a traditional Russian jumper, which is supposed to be worn with a long sleeve shirt underneath. Well, to S it is just a princess dress that looks silly with anything underneath....even when its freezing cold outside. She was wearing a big coat earlier in the day, until we got on the metro and it was like 90 degrees and she quickly shed the coat.

As you can imagine we got all kinds of looks the rest of today as we walked around the streets of Moscow. Some people are really nice and just come up to me or her and ask Вам не холодно?  (are you cold?). I am quickly learning the word for cold -холодный - (and that x is tough to pronounce!) because not only does every single person stop to ask S if she is cold, but you also have to practically beg for cold drinks here at restaurants....and ice....its a foreign concept! Russians have this fixation on not being cold, which I guess, if you spend over half the year in freezing weather you want all things opposite cold, even your Coke!

Well anyways, there are also some people walking around that make it their mission to make you feel like the worst mother alive for not dressing your kids in heavy winter coats, a scarf and a beanie because the temperature dropped below 70 degrees. These lovely ladies are called babushkas around here. A new friend of mine describes them as "they are not just someone's grandma, they are everyone's grandma" (thanks for the description!). This is so true! I know they mean well....but goodness they have a way of making you feel like an awful person. One of them even started slapping her own arm out of disgrace that S didn't have sleeves on! Well, its just going to get worse for this momma because I have the world's most stubborn child and she will continue refusing to wear a coat!

We also attracted a lot of attention today because, in true S fashion, she was scooting down the sidewalks singing at the top of lungs! And we were walking down Tverskaya...an extremely busy street! She really loves to act out her inner Princess and sings a song about everything....think Brave meets Tangled and you have you little miss S! Today she made up the coffee song :) She also stops anywhere that reflects her image and spins around several times.

I will leave you with a couple images of this....so wish I would have recorded this so you could hear her singing!

And here is a cute one of her posing at home for those who don't have Facebook ;)

Oh how I miss thee....

I spent most of this morning baking some yummy goodies :) I haven't really had a chance to do that since we arrived in Moscow for several reasons -

- Our temporary place had about 1 square foot of counter space and I couldn't fit more than one pan on the stovetop at once. The oven was also quite small and I wouldn't have been able to fit any of my pans inside it.

- It has taken me about a month or more to find the typical baking items - baking soda, baking powder, proper flour, BROWN sugar, etc. I first needed to figure out the translation since some of these items aren't sold in packaging remotely similar to our american packaging (for example, baking powder comes in tiny packets in about 2 tsp amounts).

- I didn't have my proper bakeware until last week - air bake pans, 9x9 brownie pan, jelly roll pan, pastry cutter, etc. I also didn't have my nifty roll out mat that makes baking a breeze :) The only "baking" pan I used at the temporary apartment was the drip pan typically used in ovens....but it worked!

So this morning I made chocolate chip cookies for a church dinner tonight and I tried out a new recipe - Buttermilk-Blueberry Breakfast cake - with fresh blueberries! I was so excited to find fresh blueberries at my beloved Stockmann store, so I had to find a dish to try out with them.

After doing all this baking I realized there are just so many products I miss! These are items I just took for granted back home since they were always available in the grocery stores, no matter which store I went to. There aren't just baking items, they are items I used for cleaning, baking and eating.

So here goes, in no particular order -

- Bleach -  Real.Bleach. The kind that you keep away from anything with color, because one drop will ruin it, but is perfect for getting out stains in white clothing. Well apparently they don't believe in this kind of bleach here. There are a lot of German cleaning products and products that are supposed to be bleach, but they don't do anything to white clothing or colored clothing! This is quite annoying when you have two little kids who get chocolate and dirt all over their nice white clothing. I have a pile going now that is waiting to get "fixed" when I am back home in December!

- Chocolate chips and other baking chips/chocolate - I just really miss walking down the baking aisle and being able to choose between lots of different chocolate chips and other baking items! Come Christmas time, I will REALLY miss this because baking cookies, making fudge, baking pies and other Holiday treats will be much harder to make and I will need to get more creative.

- Peanut butter - Laura Scudder's smooth organic Peanut butter...YUM! I have loved Peanut Butter as long as I can remember. In fact, I used to eat two PB&J sandwiches for lunch all throughout high school! Not sure how I was ever hungry enough for two back then, but it must have had to do with all the sports I was involved in. I also have always loved PB on celery. Wonderful crunchiness of celery with the smooth peanut butter...perfect! Now they do sell PB at one store here, but its a tiny jar and costs $12...its also not the natural-you-must-stir-it kind and I really prefer that. I am currently thoroughly enjoying a jar of PB thanks to my mother reaching out to a friend of hers that traveled to Moscow recently. I may end up licking out the jar at the end....can't let any of it go to waste :)

- Clorox or Lysol wipes -Never thought I would miss something like this! I think I went through tubs and tubs of these wipes all the time back home. They are just so convenient! No need for spraying or pouring something out, just pop one out and like magic everything is clean!

- Clorox toilet cleaner - You know that kind that has the wand and you pop on the little scrubber thing at the end and clean the toilet out without touching nasty brushes. Then you just pop it off into the trash can with a click of a button. The typical toilet brushes have always grossed me out! Well now I am back to using them. And unfortunately K thinks they are a neat little toy. AAAAAAHHHH!

- All Swiffer products - These things are just so convenient! I hadn't bought a real mop, probably ever, until last week! Again, those mops with all the shag at the end just gross me out! There was one at our temporary apartment and I just wanted to throw it out the window into the nearest dumpster. Luckily I was able to find a "swiffer" style mop here with a reusable cloth. It actually works quite nice, although I do have to use a bucket and clean it out and re-wet it while mopping. This is much better than the alternative shag!

- Sponge - This goes along with toilet bowl brushes and shaggy mops....most sponges are kind of icky! Well I had a great sponge that didn't hold a bunch of water and germs along with it. It was more of brush instead of a sponge and did wonders on cleaning off built-up stuff on dishes. Well, I can't find anything like this here. My next return suitcase will be stocked up with these :)

- Ella's kitchen and Plum Organics fruit and veggie bags- My kids love these even though they are not babies :) They were also a great way to get the much loathed broccoli and peas into my kids diet. I have found some similar products here and the kids seem to like them, but there are only about 4 different kinds...not the variety i was used to!

- Glad garbage bags - drawstring, yummy smell and that special "flex" design...LOL. The garbage bags here just don't even compare :) I also miss my large stainless steel kitchen trash can that I could open with my foot.

- Diaper genie - Well we didn't bring the diaper genie...big mistake! We were technically only allowed to bring 700 lbs of stuff (which we went over), so we didn't have a lot of space. We thought, well we can survive without one for 6 months to a year, since K should be getting potty trained in that period of time. Well, needless to say, I take the trash out a lot! Little mister I-eat-everything has some nasty surprises for us at least twice a day...eeeek!

- Avocados - I love avocados and guacamole!  I have seen avocados here, the problem is they are usually almost $10 for a pack of 2 or they are mushy and over-ripe. This is another thing I will eat a lot of when I back home! Mexican food here I come!

- Cream Cheese.....oh how I miss thee! When I get back home in December I will likely be baking every single cream cheese related recipe I know, especially anything with cream cheese frosting! I LOVE cream cheese and haven't been able to find it here yet :( They have a lot of cheese options in the stores here, mascarpone being one of them, so I may need to try it as a substitute.

- Grande Non-fat Well-Stirred White Mocha (preferably enjoyed strolling down the aisles of Target, with no kids:) )- So this really isn't a grocery store product, however in the states you can shop at several grocery stores and enjoy Starbucks, so I am adding it to the list :) Plus, I really miss white mochas. Did you know that Russian Starbucks do not carry white chocolate syrup for white mochas! What a crime! I was at a loss for words when I walked in to Starbucks the first time here and tried ordering one and the barista looked at me with a puzzled face - what is white mocha? Do Russians not like super sweet coffee (this is what A calls it)? Who knows? I have learned to survive on caramel machiattos instead. They also have them at this really expensive Russian coffee placed called Coffemania and they are really sweet there, so I just really don't get the absence of white chocolate syrup here!

- Crystal Light Powdered Drinks - Specifically raspberry lemonade and strawberry-orange-banana. S misses raspberry lemonade too, apparently. I have made homemade lemonade a couple times and she always asks for the pink one. She reminded me again today when I made lemonade that I forgot to buy raspberries for her. I am sure that our homemade lemonade is much better for our bodies than Crystal light and fake sugar :)

- Nutri-grain bars - These were our go-to quick snack or breakfast. The kids also love them! I have found some really good granola bars here, but they have a large coat of chocolate and just don't quite seem right for breakfast. They still make a good snack though :)

- Marinara sauce in a jar - There was a very specific cheesy marinara sauce that we all enjoyed. I have seen a couple places with some sauce in a jar, but I can't really read what is in it, so I haven't been adventurous enough to try it. So, I just stick with making sauce from scratch, which has turned easy spaghetti night into quite the production!

Well I am sure my list will continue to get longer :) It's weird to seem some of the items I miss, but I guess you just don't know what you will miss until you don't have it available.

My goal for a future post will be to come up with an equally long list of items I have found here that we really like :)...Just to keep things more positive! On a positive note, all my cooking from scratch instead of pre-made products is probably way healthier for us :)

And the verdict is.....

I know you are all anxiously awaiting which apartment we chose....

Well wait no more ;)

The apartment the Joneses will call home for the next three or so years is.....

Apartment 2 - The One with all the Playgrounds!!!

So what do you think of our choice?!?!?

Well it ended up not being completely a "choice" but what we ended up with. It was my #2 and A's #1. We actually started rent negotiations with the One by the Zoo.... However the land lady was getting flaky and started making up hidden costs. Not only was she moving the price slowly out of our budget, but she was becoming difficult. We quickly realized we didn't want to deal with her for the next 3 years! 

On the other hand, the land lady for this apartment we chose is very nice and her daughter speaks English! Yay! We can communicate! She also honored (almost) all our requests -- microwave, toddler bed, new washer/dryer and walk in closet! We are still waiting on the washer/dryer since the new one they bought was apparently dropped when delivered. It doesn't work, so they have theoretically called on a "specialist" to fix it. The specialist has been no where in sight and we are going on one week now... 

The kids seem happy with the choice because they get to play in the sand box a lot. They also enjoy all the sliding closet doors and mirrors. S is frequently performing in front of them!

House Hunter's International Part 3

Ok, so now for part 3. As promised I will talk about two apartments in this post because both were an important part of our decision making process.

Apartment 3 - In another Life

Apartment 3 would have been the perfect choice if there were no kids involved in the decision-making process. This is the dream apartment for anyone moving to Moscow that wanted to be right in the middle of it all. I can just imagine going to the theater, fancy restaurants, shopping, etc...So, in another life, the one where we move to Moscow with no kids, and enjoy everything Moscow has to offer at our leisure and on our own schedule, we would have chosen this apartment. I know I am giving it away that we didn't choose this one, so that is why I am throwing in the 4th apartment :) So in true House Hunters style you can all sit there and wonder which one out of the 3 we chose.

Apartment 3 is located on Tverskaya, which is one of the main roads that leads directly to the center of the city (aka Red Square). This is one of the most expensive roads to rent out a place for business since it is expensive real estate. This is a picture of the outside of the building as I walked down Tverskaya towards the building. The apartment we looked at faces Tverskaya and has 3 Romeo and Juliet balconies, each located outside one of the 3 bedrooms. The other side of the building faces a large park area with two newly-built playgrounds. We played here quite a bit over the last month since our temporary place was nearby. The kids call this playground the space ship playground. One of them is built like a large ship and the other is built like a large castle....not sure why space was added to the ship, but I am sure its part of S's imagination...

The inside of the apartment wasn't really anything special. It was smaller than the others we looked at, which was to be expected given its location, but it did have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. they were just all crammed-in stacked next to each other. There were several child-unfriendly concerns which included a lot of white furniture, the squeaky floors I can't stand (we had them in our temporary place), balconies that both could probably easily fit through, and lots of glass. I am sure the squeaky floors are a neat piece of history...or they at least look like it...but they are really annoying when you are trying to not wake up kids in the middle of the night while walking around. They are hard wood floors and the planks are placed in the shape of V's or would I would call these days, chevron pattern :) But they are really old, so the planks squeak up and down next to each other as you put weight down on them. We had many screaming nights with K at the temporary place and I really didn't want a place with squeaky floors for 3+ years.

The apartment location, as I mentioned before, was just amazing. Khachapuri, Pizza Express and Cafe Pushkin are all right around the corner (some of our faves). Of course all the other main chains are nearby....and yes there is a Starbucks up the street from this place too.

So every time I walk by here I will just sigh and think of what could have been.....


Apartment 4 - By the Pond

Apartment 4 is located in a building that faces Patriarch Ponds. This is a neat little park, with a large pond in the center. The park has a nice playground area that the kids love. This is where their favorite merry-go-round is :) This is also the playground where K will go down the slide all by himself....for some reason he needs to hold my hand everywhere else. It also seems as though they have several activities every weekend at the park. So far we have seen bands playing, swing dancing and music and a mini-fair with pony rides, jumping areas and games. I also think there are a lot of expats that live in this area since I heard a lot of English spoken at the park.

This apartment isn't too far from Apartment 3 location, so there is access to a lot of restaurants, shops and stores. There are actually several little restaurants located down the street that we haven't had a chance to try yet, but they all look yummy and are always busy!

The inside of Apartment 4 didn't really peak our interest incredibly when we first walked in, but it has everything on our must-have list. This apartment has 2 real bedrooms and an office room with sliding doors. The living room is kind of small, but open to the kitchen. The kitchen has all full size appliances, including a washer/dryer. The apartment also has 1.5 bathrooms and no squeaky floors :) It also has some of the fancier amenities like warming floors and air conditioning. Really the only big negative is that is up on the third floor and the main option to get up there is stairs....tough with kids and strollers and grocery bags (this thought takes me back to college when I lived on the third floor and was always hauling stuff up and down....). And the stairs are old....so some are crooked. They are installing an elevator, but its a little scary. It is one of those elevators they install after-the fact on a building. So they cut a big hole in the wall and the elevator then sits just outside the wall of the building. They are really tiny, but its the only way to really get an elevator in a really old building without renovating the entire thing.

Here are a couple pictures of the kids playing at Patriarch Ponds

So I found some pictures of the zoo apartment.... (sorry I don't have any right now of the others)

Now stay tuned for our big decision! LOL....

House Hunter's International Part 2

The kids are in bed and Slingbox isn't working so I have some more free time to continue on with our house hunting adventure here in Moscow.

Apartment 2 - The One with all the Playgrounds

The apartment names have more to do with my perspective (and the kids) than A's perspective. This apartment could also be called Close to work if you were to ask him.

One of the nice features of Apartment 2 is how close it is to A's work. Instead of taking the metro to work, he could actually take about a 30-minute stroll through a really nice park. Now, one might think that walking a little extra to work would be a negative thing here in Moscow with the long, tough winters, however in A's point of view, its actually much better. You see, people here love, love, love their heaters, or so it seems. I am not sure why its like this, but indoors is very hot in the winter. It seems like they just turn on the heaters full blast all winter long. I have read that it is a government-controlled central heating system....so I plan to ask someone here this winter if this is true. We will probably be the only people in all of Moscow running our air conditioning in the winter to help with how hot the heaters will make our apartment. After living in Texas for so long, I am now used to the artificial environment air conditioning provides - a perfect 72 F in my opinion :)

So, now imagine walking briskly in the outdoors for about 15 minutes. You are bundled up heavily and are pretty warm from the walk. Then you go into the metro station, crowded with hundreds and hundreds of people and the heater is on full blast. It is at least 85 F but you have no space to take off your jacket, plus it would be quite the ordeal to remove your hat, scarf, gloves, jacket, etc... Thank goodness they keep it warm, but geeze, its quite uncomfortable. And that is why A likes the potential to walk to work....

Now on to my apartment title.....Apartment 2 appears to be in a large residential area. I am not sure how zoning works in Moscow, but this area of town seems more residential as opposed to our temporary apartment, which is much closer to the city center (aka Red Square, etc). The actual gated area (one door buzz in) has two playgrounds in it, and they are perfect for my kids ages. Most playgrounds here have your usuals you see in the US - swings, slides, climbing objects...but they also have sand boxes and merry-go-rounds! For those of you who are at least my age, you probably remember the little merry-go-rounds at school and park playgrounds. We would spin each other around around around to see how dizzy we could get. For some reason they seem to be a thing of the past, probably because too many kids got hurt and there were lawsuits, etc. But here in Moscow they are alive and well! My kids LOVE them! K mostly likes to push them around, but S loves to go faster, faster, faster, or as the kids here shout "speena, speena, speena", which actually just translates to spin.

On a side note, I was spinning my kids around and a couple others walked up and got on. There was a little girl laughing and yelling "speena, speena". I assumed she meant faster, faster so I went faster and faster. There were some parents that walked up to me and gave me a face like "whoa there be careful" even though the kids were smiling. So I slowed them down and let someone else spin the kids while I got out my handy dandy translator to see what they were actually yelling. Luckily it wasn't "slower, slower". It was simply "spin, spin". I should have guessed...the word speena is not too far off from spin ;)

Ok, back to the apartment....I am not too thrilled about the sand boxes due to the mess, but oh well, the merry-go-rounds sure are fun (A and I have been getting our spinning time in too!).

When we saw the pictures of the apartment before seeing it in person, we weren't very thrilled. It looked pretty plain and it was hard to see the "whole picture". When we walked in, we both had smiles on our face. It was an open floor plan, bright and light, similar to the zoo apartment. It had the entry way with the closet and warming tiles too :) It had quite a large living room area, open to the kitchen and open to an enclosed balcony. The kitchen was recently re-done with all its faux wood clad appliances and there was lots of counter space. It also had a full-size dishwasher - yay! There was a table in the corner with a missing leg and only one chair...interesting. This apartment was also a 4 room apartment. All 3 bedrooms were in an area separated by a door from the living room. One bedroom was the master bedroom, with another enclosed balcony, the second bedroom was pink with "girly" paintings still hanging on the walls and the third bedroom was all blue - walls, couch, chair, curtains....all blue. Wow! Perfect for our family! There was also a second bathroom in this area with a tub, just not a spectacular jacuzzi tub, like we had seen at many other apartments. There was also a storage closet that the land lady told us she would turn into a walk-in closet...perfect!

Again, there were a couple negatives - no bed for K, a small washer with no dryer, no microwave and the dining room table with 3 legs....again, negotiable items.

After seeing the apartment, we walked around outside to make sure there was a grocery store near by. During our grocery store hunt we saw two more playgrounds. This part of town seems to have playgrounds on every corner! One thing was for sure, if we chose this apartment we would never get bored with the same playground! We also found the grocery store close by - only downside is that its one of the stores that won't take our credit cards....still trying to figure out what the problem is there.

Another huge plus with this apartment is that there are no stairs to get into the apartment and I can get to the nearest metro station without stairs. Its on the fourth floor, but there is an elevator on the bottom level and the elevator is big enough for a stroller! This is huge for a mom, two kids and a stroller! As I mentioned before, Moscow isn't friendly to strollers, so being able to get in the metro station without stairs is a big deal! Big deal! Now stairs at the metro stations that I head to is another story :)

Stay tuned for the last installment of House Hunter's International Moscow. It will feature a bonus apartment because there are two more that are worth talking about  and I actually have pictures of one of them :)

House Hunters International - Moscow with the Joneses

I am a pretty big HGTV fan. I enjoy being nosy about the kind of homes people buy and I love getting home decor ideas from various shows. In all my HGTV watching and internet searching I have not found a House Hunters International in Moscow. I searched high and low before moving here because I felt like an episode would give me a glimpse into life here....

What kind of apartments are available - are they still reminiscent of the Soviet Era??
How big will they be? (yes we are spoiled - Everything is bigger in Texas)
Will we get one with more the one bathroom?
Will all the stuff we brought fit?
Will the kitchen be very well equipped.....???

Well, now that the apartment search is over and we just moved in to our long-term place I will re-create an episode of House Hunters for those avid viewers out there who have always been dying to see an episode from Moscow :)

Disclaimer: I know we were only taken to apartments that are rented out to foreigners, so this doesn't necessarily represent the average apartment in Moscow, just the average apartment rented to a foreigner.

We actually viewed A LOT of apartments....poor kids were dragged from one to the another, all day long with very few snacks. We actually ended up using my US-bought snacks much quicker than anticipated due to these long apartment-hunting days. But, it kept the kiddos quiet and happy so the adults could enjoy the day with no whining....well at least a little less whining.

Apartment 1 - "Zoo Apartment"

This first apartment was a hit almost immediately as we walked in......very bright and open-floorplan. We were advised to look for "light" and "bright" places since Winters are long and dark. Well, it only got better as we walked through it. We had already seen several apartments before this one and noticed several common themes in Moscow apartments (these items stood out as very different from Texas apartments).

1. There is always a fairly large coat closet upon entry - this is basically the "mudroom". Obviously there is a whole area of the house dedicated to coats and winter boots due to its frequent use - winter is extra long here :) The nicer apartments had warming tiles in this area too! And since walk-in closets do not appear to be very common here, it was always nice to see a large closet for more storage space.

2. Russians LOVE big huge jacuzzi tubs! Now "big" jacuzzi tubs are usually selling points in homes in the US. Realtors use the term separate shower and tub or large garden tub in their master bathroom descriptions all the time. But, those tubs just don't compare to these tubs. Russians spare no expense when it comes to their jacuzzi tub. They are huge.....much larger than your typical master bathroom tub that "seats 2", but really only fits 1. We saw red tubs, black tubs, white tubs, maybe even some more colors....all that would rival an outdoor hot tub. I guess when you don't have a yard to put a hot tub in, you put it in your bathroom. Well I think its great....what a great way to spend an evening after walking miles and miles all over the city in the freezing cold.

3. Apartment "rooms" count bedrooms and main rooms. It took a little while to get used to this. I would get excited when we would go see a 3 room apartment, only to then remind myself that it is only 2 bedrooms and a living room/kitchen area. The Zoo apartment was a 4 room apartment though :)

4. Security is a really big deal and selling point for rental apartments. When living in apartments in Texas, no one ever made a big deal about how many locks were on the front door or how many doors you had to "buzz" through to get into your apartment. I had also never seen an apartment with the "secret escape" exit until moving here. You know how doctor's offices have main entrances and then the "Doctors only door", so they don't have to walk through their waiting room because they always arrive late. Well they have "secret entry/exit" doors in some apartments here too. Hopefully this extra security thing is a precaution and not because its extremely dangerous around here. So far, I have always felt safe here.

5. Russian refrigerators are always clad in faux wood to match the cabinets, same goes for dishwashers (which I am super duper excited that they have them here!). I come from a world of "stainless steel" and have now entered the world of camouflage appliances. It actually looks really nice and makes the kitchens look sleek and modern. I know this exists in the US ;)....its just that here it almost seems like a bare minimum for the kitchen. It also makes the refrigerators small and easier to open....which is a problem if you have a toddler.... Counters are lower and knobs/oven/stovetop are all easy access....also a problem with a toddler...

6. And to answer one of my big questions pre-Moscow trip.....no they aren't all reminiscent of the Soviet era. All these landlords have completely renovated their apartments. Many of the outside buildings still look super old and dingy, but the insides are beautiful. As I understand it, many buildings are not privately owned, so there is little-to-no maintenance. This includes the elevators! Some elevators were really scary! But, the home owners take a lot of care of their individual apartments. There are some privately owned buildings and you can really tell the difference between those and the others.

Ok, back to the "zoo apartment"....As I mentioned, it kept getting better as we walked through it. 4 rooms, 3 bathrooms (I am pretty sure it was the only one with 3 bathrooms we saw) and one of the rooms was specifically designed for a little girl. It included a large flower shaped "mood light" cut into the ceiling, walls with pink flower wall paper (oh I forgot about this one above, Wall paper business is alive and booming in Russia!) and a child bathroom! The bathroom had a little kid toilet, sink and shower/tub kids can easily get into. As we walked through this room, I could already picture little miss S living here in her own little Princess domain! Then.....drum roll....we walked into the enclosed balcony and looked out the window to see the camels roaming around in their little camel world at the zoo (now you see how we named the apartment...clever huh?)! Little miss S squealed with excitement and little man asked "What those, mom?" After we told him they were camels he couldn't stop saying "Camel, mom, I see camel, MOM!" We don't have camels at the Houston zoo.

The apartment had a very nice kitchen with a lot of counter space, including faux wood clad refrigerator and full size-dishwasher. The land lady was also leaving the espresso machine (key because there isn't a Starbucks around the corner). She was also still living in the apartment, so there were lots and lots and lots of perfume bottles everywhere...she must collect them.

The two negatives for the apartment were that the third bedroom didn't have a bed, just a pull out couch, and the washing machine was small and was only a washer - no dryer. The good news, everything is usually negotiable and these things can be changed before move-in.

So needless to say, the apartment is around the corner from the zoo. There are also two metro stations close by (key when living in Moscow with no car), some parks and a preschool. The kids couldn't stop talking about this apartment as we went to view others that day and I don't think I remember much else from that day besides this apartment. So, it made it on our list of 3 top choices. This was also two days after we arrived, so some of the blur is related to jet lag :)

Ok, so that is the first apartment...stay tuned for the next apartment..... (the kids will be up from naps really soon!)

I feel like I just ran a marathon....

I feel like I just ran a marathon....

I have never run a marathon, but I am convinced it would feel like this!

All I did this morning was cover a total distance of 12 miles...Ha! I even used the metro which took care of probably 10 miles of it. But.......I had little miss cranky pants with me and the sweet little man in the stroller AND we left during rush hour. We left at 8:45 am and didn't return until about 1........just in time for lunch and naps. This is all a recipe for one tired momma!

For those of you who have never been to Moscow let me show through the eyes of a mother of two small children......

Rush hour in the morning, as I understand it, is around 7 - 9 am. I am not sure when it peaks, but leaving at 8:45 did not spare us of the mass of people moving in unison up and down the street and through the metro station.

Everyone is in a hurry and the sidewalks are too narrow for the amount of people trying to get by. Add to this, random holes, construction work, water puddles (soon to be ice and snow) and the gazillion cars that park on every inch of the sidewalk (and ramps) and you have quite the maze to walk through. Now imagine trying to get a stroller and a cranky 3 year old, who insists on riding a scooter, through the crowd. Luckily, before we moved here we were warned that Moscow was quite the stroller-unfriendly place. So, I left behind my beloved double stroller and we only brought an umbrella stroller, which was not designed for the off-roading it goes through around here. Thank goodness, because the umbrella stroller is too wide at times! I am thinking about starting a petition to the government for more ramps and not allowing parking 15 feet from each street corner.

Now on to getting on and off the metro AND going through TWO transfer stations with little miss cranky pants and another in a stroller.....

The metro here is actually amazing. Once you get past the intimidating, very steep escalator "tunnel"that takes you deep down under the city, it is a wonderful form of transportation. To boost, a lot of the stations are incredible works of art.

However, when you have kids and something on wheels with you, it is a whole other story.To get down to all metro trains we have ridden thus far, there are stairs involved. Lots and lots and lots of them. Of course, there are no ramps. And "transfer station" = more and more stairs. Some of the stairways have these ramps that were placed after-the-fact, that look like they are an attempt at making Moscow more wheelchair accessible. Most of these ramps have three different "tracks". I hope they are measured to the correct width of wheelchairs so that someone can benefit from them, because the only way to get a stroller down one is with herculean strength as you balance the stroller on one set of wheels, as the wheels try to go every way but down. It is usually easier to carry the stroller (if you are A) or ask the child to get out and walk down the stairs so you can carry the stroller (that would be me).

I have encountered numerous sweet, helpful people as I trek through these metro stations with my crew. One of my first Russian words was спасибо (thank you), which has been vital to my survival here! It is the only way I can repay the kindness of all these strangers. I am pretty sure my face screams "Please Help, I am a mother in distress!" when I am out and about with miss cranky pants. Russians may not smile to strangers as they walk past them on the street, but they smile at kids and are always willing to help you out when it comes to kids.

So, between sweet people carrying one of the kids or the stroller, we made it through the transfer stations. All 3 of us made it through. ALIVE. I was pretty sure we were going to lose miss cranky pants a couple times. She refused to hold my hand as we walked or on the escalator, she screamed at the nice people who were trying to help out (as in big major freak out) and she likes to go off on her own in the middle of the crowd and dance around. Sometimes I don't think the Russian people understand miss cranky pants - how can she have such an attitude, why doesn't she behave on the escalator, why does she wander away from her mom? I have yet to see a Russian kid act like little miss S.

Once we conquered the metro station, little miss cranky pants brought up a much dreaded word for a mom walking around in Moscow....the potty! A clean, public restroom seems to be a foreign concept. There are a couple places like McDonalds and Starbucks that have them, but other than that, you are left with rarely-serviced icky port-a-potties. AND....you have to pay to use them...YIKES! Little Miss S, was "dying" to use the potty. After roaming around some in an area of Moscow we had never been, I saw the line of pay-to-use port-a-potties. The first time I saw these things I couldn't even wrap my head around the concept. I also vowed to never use them. One stall is occupied at all times by the "cashier" who collects the money. It is quite interesting...they seem to almost make a home out of the place. They probably eat in there too....eeeek! Well one short sight of the inside of one of these places and little miss S lost all impulse to go! I didn't try to talk her in to it much because I put her in a pull up for our adventure out since I had a sneaking suspicion we might run into this problem!

It was quite a morning! Needless to say the rest of the day was at home, movies and naps. We may be taking it easy for a few more days to recover :)