out and about - a little bit

Our time in Moscow has not involved a lot of activity outside our apartment since we are trying to keep Meredith fairly on schedule with her usual eating and sleeping habits.

On Saturday, we tried something a little different. I wrote a journal entry about it (a journal I am intending to put into a baby/memory book for her, so it is written in that style) and I'll post that here for your enjoyment. Sorry, we didn't take pictures (but there are others below taken on other days):

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"Today we didn't have any jobs to do, so we could have stayed at the apartment all day if we had wanted to. But Mommy and Daddy thought it would be nice to go out for lunch and do a little shopping. So after your first nap was done at 10 am, we started getting ready to go out. It took longer than we expected for us to both get ready, plus change your diaper and feed you and get you dressed. We didn't leave until about 11:30! We knew you would usually take a nap at 12:00 but we thought we would put you in the stroller and see if you fell asleep there. We went to lunch and ate blinis (pancakes stuffed with filling like ham and cheese, or apples and caramel) and you didn't seem to mind at all. Since you were not fussy, we decided to do some shopping on Arbat street. We got a present for a friend and a free matrushka rattle for you, from a nice lady at one of the shops. She really liked you a lot!

As we walked home, you were falling asleep in your stroller and so we though you were ready for a nap. But when you got home, you were just cranky! We changed your diaper and fed you, but you were still unhappy that we had kept you out until almost 2:00. We finally got you down for a nap, but you didn't sleep well and you woke back up in 1/2 hour crying and crying! Daddy and I took turns trying to play with you and feed you but nothing would cheer you up. So Daddy decided to bring you outside to the park to see if you liked that better. You did stop crying, and you went on the swing with Daddy, but you still weren't very cheerful. We felt bad that we had kept you out too long after lunch because now you were overtired! We kept trying to get you to sleep again because you were rubbing your eyes, but again you only slept for a very short while and you woke up crying again. We found that you wanted some yogurt and formula, so then you felt a little better.

It was getting close to nighttime and we started trying to sing to you to help you fall asleep for the night. First, I sang some scales, and then we sang some children's songs. Finally we tried "Sing, Sing a Song" and put you in your crib. We though you were about to fall asleep, but then NO!

You started crying again. We put on some lullabye music and also put some medicine in your mouth to help with your new teeth hurting as they grow in. After a long time of carrying you and rocking you, you finally decided it was time for bed! All of us were very tired.

Mommy and Daddy decided that they would not mess with your schedule again for a long time."

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So if the pictures only show a sweet, smiley, compliant girl, it's only because we don't have the inclination to grab the camera during the wailing :) That was one rough day. Unfortunately, we will be messing with the schedule big-time by flying her to the US for 8 hours of jetlag! We ended up being unable to arrange to come home early, not because of anything with paperwork but because the plane was simply full. So we'll be heading out (and arriving home) on Thursday July 3. Only a couple more days here! We're ready to stop living out of suitcases after over 3 weeks away from home.

We did much better on the naps/outings yesterday. We wanted to get out once, but we planned ahead so that the moment she awoke from her nap, we were already completely ready and then got her ready like clockwork. Too bad it was sprinkling out - but we could not be stopped. We wanted to go to the restaurant a friend had recommended called "MY MY" (prounounced MOO MOO) - it has a cow theme and is cafeteria style so you just point to what you want (Russian style food). We put the rain shield on Meredith's stroller and off we went. Here are a couple of pics - with a new camera that we got (Samsung S760, which was not much more expensive here than in the US - we like it so far, as a very basic, small digital camera for me to carry around with me -- Rob will probably try to get the other one fixed too when we get home).

Notice that we stopped at Starbucks - a guilty pleasure at $7 for a Mocha. It's the only Starbucks drink I've had this trip though.


This is a picture of us at Moo Moo. It is funnier if you click on it to get the larger size and can see Meredith's expression. Please comment with your thoughts on the perfect caption for it! My candidate is: "I refuse to be a part of this picture". For the foodies out there, I'm eating some kind of fried mushroom and potato ravioli served with sour cream, and drinking "dried fruit compote" which has dried fruit on the bottom of the glass that looks pretty yucky.


Here are another couple of cute picks of a feeding session (we do formula for 2 meals a day and food for the other 3). The first one is the actual feeding and the second is the burping - she's generally pretty happy to be burped. In fact, Rob figured out that she also seems to like being patted rather than rubbed when she's trying to fall asleep or calm down.



And I can't resist putting this picture in. It is in my favorite sleeper outfit that we got for her. She likes to spread herself out when she's asleep, filling up as much space as possible with her little bitty body. What a cutie.