Adventures of Two Sisters, One Brother, and a Mom: Back From Russia And Our Miserable Moscow Adventure.....

We are back from Russia!!! I know I have been extremely slack about updating this blog. My Internet connection in Russia was not good on this trip, and my posts kept failing to upload. It seemed like we were gone forever. My court was on May 15th. I was extremely nervous, but court went well. The Judge and Prosecutor asked question after question, but did not really grill me or anything. Court lasted from 10 am to 2:30pm (with a 1 hour recess), but it seemed to go quickly. In the end, I became Danil's Mother! He is such a good boy! His transition has been going relatively well. He is actually doing much better than I expected. The first night in the hotel, he freaked out and cried and screamed-- he was very frightened, but by the second night he was doing great. He loves to bath and brush his teeth. He hates to go to sleep, but he sleeps well by himself-- he just doesn't want to go to bed. He is not a good eater-- he eats like a bird. He is extremely small for his age-- just about a half inch taller that Little A, and he weighs 5 pounds less than she does!!! Little A is 2 1/2 years old, and Danil is 5 years old!!!!
Big A is doing very well with her new brother--although she constantly hugs and kisses him, like he's a doll or something. Even though they are the same age, he only comes up to her shoulder! Little A has not had such a smooth transition--she is extremely jealous and has been getting into a lot of trouble. She has been quite the little terror for us all. I know that this is normal, when a sibling is added to the family, but let me tell you it is not fun!!! She is heavier and stronger than "D", so she is constantly beating him up... She spends a lot of time in "time out" these days...
We got home late on May 21st-- after and 11 1/2 hour flight from Moscow. And I have been trying to upload photos since then-- they keep failing to upload, but I got a good many on this post. I will post more later. Here are some from our visit to Red Square....

Danil !!!!

We flew back into Moscow on May 18th-- we left Yuzhno at 4:33pm --flew for 9 hours--and got to Moscow at 6:30pm!!! We flew back in time!!! The Moscow leg of the trip basically sucked-- our apartment was filthy ( I'll post pics later), and we got hopelessly lost, but we made it back alive-- that is all that counts. I don't think I will be in any hurry to go back to Moscow soon...

Red Square was interesting though-- although, we had to make many stops to fix the broken wheel on our stroller-- those cobblestones are wheel destroyers!!! We didn't make it into the Kremlin, because you have to pay $20.00 per person and the kids were not behaving-- it would have been a waste of money.

My 3 Babies!!!!

"Bolshoy" Kids
(Big!!!)

Guess This Is The Red Part Of Red Square

More Red Square

The Gates To Enter Red

Square

There was a lot of security there, but the guards never even searched us-- they just let us pass by all of the security and go through a separate gate for strollers. Good for us, but probably not the best idea for their security-- a terrorist wouldn't think twice about blowing up a kid... In fact, we really didn't get searched at all in Russia... Whenever they saw us with our strollers, they just let us pass all of the security lines...

A Small Cathedral In Red Square

( I need To Look Up The Name)

St. Basil Cathedral

Seeing This Was Worth Our Making Miserable Moscow Trip

The Streets Of Red Square

My Family!!!!

Together At Last!!!

Big A Called It The "Candy Cathedral"

Inside St. Basil

Malchek Y Dvi Diavechka

(one boy and two girls)

The Ceiling of St. Basil

"Ochen Craseyvia"

(Very Beautiful)

So Much For Reverence Inside The Church

Spooky!!!

The Cathedral Exit

I Think The Staff Was Happy To See Us Leave

The Back Of St. Basil

After our visit to Red Square, the real terror began... We had taken the Metro to Red Square-- a subway ---pretty easy to get there, but our return--not so much. To give you some perspective, Red Square is a huge place. WE entered on one end and left on another--we should have backtracked. When we got out, out, I asked a Policeman where the Metro was, and he pointed in the opposite direction, so we started walking. We got to the Metro and discovered that it was the wrong line. The map was all in Russian, so we got the bright idea to try to fine the Metro station that we had come in on. So we started walking. We walked and walked--remember, we couldn't read the street signs, and no one spoke English. Well all the buildings pretty much looked the same, and pretty soon we were hopelessly lost. We walked for hours--obviously int the wrong direction. The little ones had strollers, but poor Big A had to walk like an adult. She did so well--poor thing. Finally after hours we backtracked our way back to a Metro Station-- I found someone who spoke some English and we took a series of 4 trains back to our stop. During our little trek through the Metro, Theresa, Little A, and Big A got on one train, but the doors closed on the stroller, and D and I weren't able to get on.. Fortunately Theresa was able to get off at the next stop and wait for us.... The whole experience sucked. It was seriously very frightening. But we made it home by dark and were not mugged or murdered, so I guess that is good.
The photo below sums up our experience pretty nicely...