Mall Day

I'm sure you already know by now that my husband is a government employee. Therefore, all of the fantastic special days are considered paid holidays. These include Washington's Birthday (thanks George) and this week's "Defender of the Fatherland Day", somewhat equivalent to our Memorial Day.

Since he was supposed to have two days off, we decided we should at least give the kids one day off of school and have some fun. For my amazing man, this meant the mall. He loves that place. I only wanted to go because of the stuff I needed at IKEA and because the kids had some Christmas money to blow. Plus, I knew it would include lunch which means slightly less time in the kitchen for me.

It was a seemingly normal Monday and the roads were moving well and freely. We arrived at the mall in very good time. IKEA was fun, as usual, and lunch was delicious and reasonably priced. Then we went into the mall to grab a couple of other things. When we passed a play area, we couldn't resist letting the kids run around for a little while. My hubby sat in a bench to supervise and I went to the OBI, the Russian version of Home Depot, for some blue painter's tape, a personal vice of mine. When I returned, we switched places so he could go check something out at another store.

While I was sitting there, a Russian couple came up to me and started talking. I could tell by their hand gestures that they were asking me to watch their stuff, and presumably, their kids. I explained kindly that I didn't speak very good Russian. They apologized and repeated, in English, "Vill you vatch our theengs? We need smoke?" What else could I say? I nodded and chuckled to myself. Their kids played around in the area and didn't even notice the absent parents. I grew up in California in the 90s when kidnapping was a really big deal. This was against everything in me to watch parents walk away from a public setting and leave their kids. But, this is Russia.

Next, we went into a store called Dyetski Mir, Children's World, which is like Toys R Us. Our kids were looking everywhere, eying the possibilities to spend their money. Four excited kids headed in four different directions. This always causes me a little bit of panic. Reasonably so. Over the loud speaker, in Russian, I could tell they were saying my name and the word for daughter. I started rushing around the store trying to find where the heck I was supposed to retrieve my daughter and which one had been found doing what? I bumped into my hubby on the way and he struggled to understand my peril. Just then, announcement number two came over and my family began to pop out of Lego and Barbie aisles. We eventually left the store, all six of us.