Tuesdays With Mooch and Fuss: Command Center (Photos)
The Command Center is finished! It’s sooo cute and, therefore, inspiring. It really makes the kids want to pick up a broom and do a chore. Here are the pics:
Close ups in the gallery below
There’s a calendar for our monthly menu (that’ll start February 1st). Right now it just has key dates and events to remember. There is also a homemade dry erase board containing each person’s morning and evening schedules, a mailbox for each of us and a chore chart. I added a few photos to embellish, and one can’t help but stare at the wall when walking by.
MOOCH
Mooch has had ups and downs in the last week. She shot a Toyota commercial and did extraordinarily well. I was super proud. It was my first time seeing her really work lines and comedic timing. She also took direction well, and I can’t wait to see the finished product.
Saturday night, however, when Hannibal and I went Chicago Steppin’ for his birthday, Mooch acted out with the baby sitter. She was rude (read: snatching the phone from the sitter’s hand and asking if the caller was her boyfriend). She even made up a bunch of lies. For example, “My mom always lets me take a bath with my sister” and “she lets me wash her, too.” This resulted in Mooch pouring water all over an excited Fuss and almost drowning her by accident. She played Glee Karaoke on the Wii with the sitter and wouldn’t let the sitter sing her songs. It was awful. To add icing she stated, “I bet you’re only baby sitting us for the money.”
Let’s be clear. Mooch loves the sitter. She is always so enthused that they’ll be able to play and read together. I think she just got a little beside herself. Anyway, Mooch is not allowed to watch TV or play video games for four weeks. She also wrote a three paged letter to the sitter and had to read it to her in front of her family. Lastly, we made Mooch pay the sitter by taking the contents of her piggy bank to CoinStar. We simply could not let her believe this behavior was acceptable.
FUSS
Fuss is super helpful around the house. She cleans up. She puts things away. She offers support. She is even doing a very good job taking care of her fish and her plant. I really like how she is turning out.
Lately, unless she super sleepy or hungry, I haven’t had the issue of her going from zero to tantrum in less than two seconds. She’s using her humongous vocabulary to express herself. I added a feelings poster to the first wall of the classroom, and that has helped tremendously. She is able to identify the various feelings as they are happening. Sometimes she confuses the tenses or just plain mixes up the words, but we get what she’s trying to say. For example, she’ll often say, “I’m mean. I’m mean right now.” She really means she’s angry. It is very clear, though.
Academically, she’s been very interested in her abacus for the past couple of weeks. She uses it to count, and she usually stops at about thirty-five and moves on to something else. We count everything throughout the day (steps, utensils, beans, people in a room, tires on the car), and she thoroughly enjoys this. None of her classroom experiences have decreased her interests in technology (read: Hannibal’s ipad and my phone), but she is definitely very balanced between the two, and I think that’s just fine.
Marital Mondays: Step in the Name of Love
“You want to build the foundation. Then you can add the style and flavor. Once you have the foundation, you can do this dance for a lifetime and always come up with new combinations — new ways to move together.”
When I led a timid, confused Hannibal onto the glossy hardwood floor of a surprise “Urban Ballroom” dance lesson, I expected to lock hands, get into the groove, and learn — you know, kinesthetically. It turned out that everyone usually arrives a little late, so we ended up getting a fairly private lesson. I could feel my impatience boiling beneath the surface of my forced smile as the instructor talked and talked before we even got to do the first step.
Then I put my excitement on pause, and really tried to live in the moment. Maybe this fast talking, middle-aged cat from the south side of Chicago had a message that I could apply off of the dance floor. He never made any assumptions, nor did he reference marriage at any point, but the tools necessary to carry out “steppin’” gracefully seemed to parallel those of a relationship so well — once I got over trying to hurry up and get my boogie on.
“Relax your shoulder.” “Let him lead.” “Live in the pauses.” “Trust your partner.”
While Hannibal focused on my waist and nearly busted two blood vessels in his forehead trying to stay on count, I had my own set of issues. I had to fight back my desire to take over and turn that “mutha” out, not break into the cha-cha, relax my elbow on my turn, keep the beat with my feet like a metronome, and somehow enjoy myself in the process. Umm … yeah. My hips still hurt just thinking about it. Did I mention that I wore 5 inch zebra print heels trying to be cute?
Sometimes marriage is like that. Each party is doing their own thing, and even though they are communicating, they forget to enjoy the pauses. The trust gets muddied when we think, “Well, I know she slips in this area, so let me just pick up the slack for her without even letting her know what I’m about to do” or “He doesn’t do this part as well as I do, so let me put some of my expertise on it for him, even though it might cause him to accidentally stumble in another area.” In both the dance and the relationship, we are each in control of our respective areas, and we must maintain that while still being aware of the other’s responsibilities. It’s all enough to make a person get too nervous and just sit down, but while managing all of the aspects, both parties have to look and feel relaxed. Let’s just say, I became aware early in the lesson that Hannibal and I are still very much newlyweds — both on the dance floor and in our daily lives.
The amazing thing is that we actually did learn a lot of dancing! He was building the foundation with both lecture and kinesthetics. While it wasn’t necessarily the way I would have delivered the lesson, I learned so much more than Chicago Steppin’. The teacher had achieved his goal of “not building a house of cards,” and he even managed to teach us a few turns. By the last half hour, we were sent onto the floor to practice our new technique alongside the intermediate/advanced latecomers. I’m not sure I’ve mastered “staying in my lane” (in any aspect of my live), but we had a lot of fun laughing at ourselves and feeling on each other.
Staring at Hannibal’s pelvis for two hours wasn’t bad either.
Film Fridays: A Must Watch If You Have a Daughter … Or Son
Thematic Thursdays: Info-Graphics R’ Us
So, as a writer for Komplicated.com, I often run across info-graphics, but never info-graphics regarding kids. Until yesterday. I was just reading links in my Google Reader and ran across this, which I thought was hilarious.
I thought to myself, there have to be more of these out there. You’re welcome.
I also created one of my own.
Workin’ Wednesdays: Command Center
I’m designing a website right now for Renaissance Mujer, so there’s not much to show just yet. I’m also reorganizing my office space to incorporate my new crafting addictions (Yes, there are multiple ones). I must sign up for a sewing class, though. Seriously.
Lately, I feel like my main job is chauffeur. I can end up with a Santa Monica to Studio City route without even blinking some days. Mooch just booked a Toyota commercial, and that shoots Thursday, so we’ll see where that takes me. Oh, and I’ll have to put on my “Stage Mom” hat that day (read: sit in the trailer with a nice good book).
At home, I’m working on my Command Center. Mooch and I came up with morning and afternoon schedules for everyone in the house. Now I’m working on kitchen inventory, mailboxes for each family member and other sections. Once we’ve compiled and designed everything, it will go on the kitchen wall. Here are some of my inspiration photos:
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