Can We Catch a Break Already?

Well, here comes another “where to start” update. A month or two ago I thought I was running out of material to write about, but no more!
Unfortunately, our new landlord has yet to get us registered at this address (in true Russian fashion he keeps promising to take care of it “tomorrow,” for over a week now), and we are down to less than 24 hours before our time runs out. We don't really know what happens if we aren't appropriately registered, but we assume it would be another administrative offense accompanied by a fine. During our first encounter the police told us we had three chances to get it right before we would be kicked out of the country. It is frustrating because the law explicitly states it is our landlord's responsibility to register us (we are unable to do it ourselves), but we obviously get into trouble if it isn't done appropriately and within the required time frame! All Russians are required to register themselves, but the law is not enforced for them so many don't bother, which is probably why we are having such a hard time convincing others that it must be done. You see, Russia has loads of laws and regulations, and nearly all of them are slightly ambiguous or even contradict one another. It is impossible to be a fully law-abiding citizen here! And that seems to be by design. Even things like the metal detectors at the entrance of the metro are set to the most sensitive setting so that they beep for every single person that passes through. As such, security officers have a legitimate reason to search whomever they choose.

Our previous landlady continues to be a real gem of a person to have the pleasure of knowing. It is pretty obvious she is hard up for money as she had to take a loan from the bank to give us our security deposit back! Remember that broken oven with shards of glass protruding from the broken door? She is enraged that we had the audacity to throw it in the trash and buy a new one. She had agreed to replace the oven before we moved in, and when she didn’t we were told to just get rid of it and buy a new one. It would have been extremely dangerous to keep it anywhere in the apartment seeing as we have children running around! Anyway, she now claims it was a perfectly good oven and she had intended to buy a new door for it. Of course, she never bothered to tell us that and also apparently expected us to just deal with not having a working oven (never mind the danger) for the last nine months? Whatever lady. You crazy! Anyway, with stress levels at their max around here, we just didn’t have any fight left so we ended up giving her a wad of cash to get her off our backs. Hopefully we don’t have to hear from her again.

Finn’s health and behavior continue to confound us. After yet another bout of fever and stomach pains (for the sixth time since moving here) with no other symptoms, we took him in to a Pediatric Gastroenterologist. She was amazingly thorough in reviewing his medical history, but also stupefied. She ordered three more stool samples, two urine samples, an extensive blood panel and an ultrasound of the bladder and kidneys. So far everything has

come back negative! We have obviously been trying to google-diagnose his problems and the only thing we can come up with is Recurring Abdominal Pain, but that doesn’t seem to explain the fevers. I don’t think he is just catching stuff from school because whatever he has isn’t contagious enough for the rest of us to catch, and he never really comes down with coughs or colds, just the same 24-hour fever with complaints of stomach pain. And then there is his behavior. It is a bit of a chicken and the egg mystery; does his explosive behavior create too much stress and anxiety which in turns causes stomach pain? Or does he legitimately not feel well, causing him to be exceptionally short-tempered and irritable. Perhaps we will never know. We are doing our best to maintain a calm environment, but there obviously has been an overabundance of stress floating around. We are also wondering if school is too stressful for him, so are giving him the option of taking a break for the summer. He loves school, but some mornings he puts up a fight, and I can imagine it is really challenging to be immersed in a foreign language and culture (oh wait, I know exactly what that feels like)!

Last night on our tram ride home a very deformed lady got on the tram and sat next to me. I didn't look too closely, but it seemed like her entire torso was missing somehow! Finn was enthralled, and it was definitely one of those times we were very glad to be speaking a foreign language. "Mama, look at

that little lady!" "I was confused because I thought that she was a monkey!"

Lev is really growing up quickly. Finn got a new bike with pedals, so Lev gets to cruise around on the balance bike now and is rather fearless about it. He has lots of great phrases (courtesy of his brother) such as “sadis syuda” (sit here), “paidyom damoi” (lets go home), “now what?” “Finn, be nice!” “machina yedet” (a car is coming), "dai mnye" (give it to me), "can't walk" and “tummy hurts.” We are unfortunately far away from sleep utopia yet, as everything was set back by Finn’s latest illness. Finn tends to scream and cry off and on about his tummy from bedtime until 1 or 2 and then Lev decides to be angry with the new sleep arrangements from 3 to 5. One or two short hours after that and they are both eager to get outside and play. Oof.

In the midst of all the chaos last week we completely forgot about the scheduled 10-day, city-wide hot water shutoff. We knew it was coming, and I had intended to prepare for it by, oh, you know, taking a shower, catching up on laundry and quitting cloth diapers. Big fail on all accounts. It wasn’t pretty, but the hot water came back on yesterday and we survived. Another true Russian experience in the books!