Gymboree Take 2

Happy boy on the parachute (6 mos)

The moms went to Gymboree again and it was a success! Went to the right location and everything. Beau will enjoy it more once he's able to sit up on his own, but it was still fun for him, I think. All those bright colors and new toys. And good for him to see other babies; good for me to see other mommies.

Augusta and Zoe (both around 12 mos) playing with some shakers.

Zoe crawling and oblivious to the bubbles stuck to her head.

Good news and bad news

I'll start with the bad and just get it out of the way. 

Yesterday I made a stir fry for dinner, which is one of my go-to dinners. Fail-safe most of the time.

The plan was to get chicken, but at the last minute I saw a package of beef all cut up and perfect-like for a stir fry, so I went for it. Mind you, I had no idea what the label said (of course it was in Russian, and I didn't recognize any of the words), but I knew it was definitely beef because it was in the section with the little cow. :) So how bad could it be?

So here's what my stir fry looked like. Not bad.

And my sauce smelled great: fresh garlic, ginger, onions.

That's where things went downhill. The meat was SO tough. Scott and I were chew-chew-chewing each bite and the whole thing was very unsatisfying!! All that chopping and marinating for nothing. Should have gone with the chicken. Boo. :(

Score, to date...
Moscow: 25,001 CB: 0

Okay, now on to the good! This one was a HUGE SCORE for Miss Siena!

There's a school behind our apartment building and they have this sport court (rectangular and self-contained, a little smaller than a tennis court). It's got 4 walls and seems very secure (ie no openings for someone to squeeze her little body through) and looks absolutely perfect for, yep, you guessed it, ball-throwing and running and general dog romping fun stuff. Whenever I'd considered it before, it appeared to be all locked up. Well yesterday I took a closer look at the gate and while there was in fact a padlock, it wasn't actually locked! Woohoo!

Here's her majesty's first freedom run (video) in our new "dog park." Such joy, this little dog has for living. 

And here's another fun video (longer). This sweet girl always cheers me right up.

Updated score, to date...
Moscow: 25,001 CB (and Siena): 2

Good Times at the Dog Park Again

Another day, another good trip to the dog park.

Things started out on thin ice because there was a big, burly, rough-looking dog already inside when we arrived. I followed protocol and approached slowly, asking, "можно?" ("Possible?"). The owner was decent and gestured for me to give him 10 more minutes.

So we took a walk around the 'hood, which, as I've said before, is very nice. When we returned about 6 minutes later, they were leaving. And for the record, the dog had a muzzle on when he left. Yikes.

Then we had the place to ourselves!

So I threw the ball a few times and worked with Siena on some agility tricks - climbing stairs, balancing on a thin balance-beam-type structure - which she mastered without issue.

Fun!! Note that there's NOT a drop of snow on the ground anymore!

Then, just when I thought maybe it was time to go, someone else showed up! And both the owner and the dog were friendly! YAY!!

Typical Siena, saying hello to the Person first. :)

New friends racing around the park.

These new friends only stayed about 10 minutes, but luckily...ANOTHER dog arrived. This time it was the same big fluffy white dog with whom Siena has already played twice. DOUBLE YAY!

The two dogs had a lot of fun racing around and reconnecting (I think it'd been about 12 days since they've seen each other). The only photo I was able to capture was when Siena finally pooped out and lay down. :) Fluffy kept dancing around her, as if to say, "What, that's it?! Come on, we need to run some more; we were just getting started!"

The only slightly negative thing about this trip to the dog park was the discovery of a dead bird (seemed too big to be a pigeon) lying on the other side of the fence. Gross.

Of course Siena noticed it immediately and kept trying to squeeze her head through the bars to get a better whiff / taste of this delectable creature. Thank goodness it was on the OUTSIDE of the fence. But, with TWO dog friends in the park to distract her, it wasn't too bad. I just hope it's not still there the next time we go!

Springtime at the Dog Park - hooray!

Finally, finally, the snow has melted to reveal the true face of the dog park.

Siena and I went today and she had a nice time exploring all the newly exposed nooks and crannies of dirt. I threw the ball, she chased it and then ran in the other direction without "retrieving," all the usual fun dog park stuff.

After about 20 minutes it started to rain (as predicted - I just knew Siena really needed some exercise so we risked it) so we left to find the driver. Unfortunately he was no where to be found, but fortunately the rain never got to be more than a strong drizzle so we meandered for about 10 minutes in the neighborhood by the park (which is pretty quiet and nice). By the time we circled back to the park, the drizzle had subsided and there were two dogs inside! Yippee!

other dogs at the dog park = happy girl

This time the dogs were reddish brown like Siena. One was huge and a little scary and the other was a daschund. Since I learned my lesson from last time, I knew we needed to proceed with caution. We slowly and loudly approached the dog park fence and I waved to the owner. He came over and asked in fast Russian if Siena was a "devatchka" (девочка) or girl [dog]. I said "da" (до - yes) and the big dog came over to sniff hello through the fence.

Then the owner said something else that I missed, came closer to the gate, clipped his leash back onto the big dog's collar and very graciously opened the gate to the park for us. Yay! Proper Russia dog park etiquette had been achieved!

Then everything went fine. Once inside, the three dogs made their initial sniffy greetings in which Siena rolled over on her back, her usual wimpy submission to the other dogs. The little dog, as is often the case, was a lot feistier than the big one. He wanted nothing to do with Siena and really just stuck close to his dad with a continuous low growl in his little throat. Not ideal but his owner was very aware of it so I felt we were safe. The big dog wasn't all that much friendlier but he was okay with sharing the park.

After about 10-12 minutes it started to rain again so I decided to leave before anyone got too soaked. I also didn't want to press my luck with the little dog since he seemed to have less patience than the big one.

Once we left I still couldn't find the driver, so we waited under a doorway for a while. Everyone who came and went was very happy to see Siena and give her a pat. All in all a very nice outing.

my sweet mushy-ball tired girl :)

Dog Park, Russia-Style REDUX!

So Siena and I went back to the infamous scary dog park for a 2nd round and...woohoo! We had the place to ourselves!

Perhaps it was because the temperature had risen enough to make the place a big soupy mess, but we didn't care! Wet, slushy snow....bring it! My girl loves to run, and wet snow makes it all the more invigorating!

Even M the Driver got in on the action and threw the ball a few times for Ms. S in between smokes (below).

The only thing that would have made this outing better would have been if that cute, white, fluffy dog friend from our first trip had shown up to hang out and play too. His owner probably wised up about the melting snow and took a pass. But Siena loved it just the same and I was happy for her.

Sopping wet, happy girl.