I'm Not Progressing in Russian

[improperlyhuman]

I study foreign languages without linguistic translation, meaning that I never looking up the English equivalent of words, but rely on pictures and learning from context until my vocabulary is sophisticated enough to move on to a monolingual dictionary.

This has worked well with other languages, but I'm hitting a brick wall with Russian. I've been studying for quite some time now, and I can still barely understand a single word of the definitions in Russian dictionaries. It seems like even the simplest words are defined in complex terms. I also bought some books that are supposedly for children ages 4 -7. I was shocked to find that I couldn't read them!

To give some idea of my level, I can read the first story of unit 5 on this site, having to look up just a few words:

http://speak-russian.cie.ru/time_new/rus/library/index.php/

I'm going through the third level of Rosetta Stone Russian and a monolingual children's dictionary, but I feel like I'm just amassing useless words because I rarely come across the vocabulary that I'm learning. As I move past basic nouns and adjectives, I'm barely learning anything new because I don't understand anything in the general Russian dictionary.

Does anyone else have this problem? Can anyone recommend some monolingual learning materials I can try or something.