Trekhprudny Lane

It's the small things that make this place lovable. Lula has a diaper rash and our miracle cream that Babcia brought from Poland is on the boat... what to do? The nanny, wordlessly, showed me today how it's done here. She poured sunflower oil from the kitchen cupboard into a spoon, held it over a flame on the stove, and then rubbed it all over the baby's bottom. Lula blissed out.  

At the moment, a man is in the kitchen, fixing the broken freezer -- with a blowtorch. 

(Our fridge, by the way, is Italian, while the dryer is German; to read the directions and dials I've needed several dictionaries.)

Yesterday was very hard. I had trouble getting out of bed, and I kept saying to myself, the definition of home just cannot be stretched this much. But today eventually came around, and was better, and I should trust that it will always be that way.