Tuesdays With Mooch & Fuss: Mooch Turns 8
First of all, brace yourself, because Mooch’s birthday was a three-day affair. She didn’t have a party this year (Again, I only do parties for milestone years — 1,3,5,10, 13, 16, and 18), but she certainly had fun. I’ll try to keep it brief so you can just look at all of the pictures — you know, photo journal style.
Saturday, Mooch took a roller skating class at World on Wheels, and then skated with two of her Rites of Passage sisters — Ayo and Zen. Ayo got Mooch the book Dork Diaries, which is kind of like Diary of a Wimpy Kid for girls. Then the girls went for lunch at Vegan Glory, where I fell in love with Larb (Laab) Tofu salad. Next, I came home and washed/blow-dried her hair, so my friend, Saudeka, could press and curl it. Mooch requested “the same two ponytails from the wedding.” It looked really good, and it is actually lasting well.
When she got home from getting her hair done, she was surprised by this brand new bike and a hallway full of yellow balloons. She was shocked, because “it was so random.”
The next day, she and Zen (who shares a close birthday — January 8th) went to K-1 Speed in Torrance to go go-cart racing. These aren’t your mama’s little put put go-carts. Mooch felt like she was in Nascar.
We fed the girls pizza and surprised them with non-vegan chocolate treats after their race. They exchanged gifts that night and here is what Zen got for Mooch. We got her skinny jeans, shoes, and a Barbie Doll.
Monday, Mooch’s class went on a walking tour of downtown Los Angeles. She learned the history of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Million Dollar Theater, Pershing Square, and Angel’s Flight, which she rode. Her teacher took them ice skating on her dime at Pershing Square as a treat for being so attentive during the tour! I don’t have pictures of that. Sorry.
On her actual birthday, she wore a yellow shirt, blue crinoline skirt and pink and black tights to school. When I picked her up, the music box she’s been asking for was waiting in the seat (Well, technically she asked for a music box with a black fairy in it, but they don’t make those, so I had to get a Princess Tiana one from Sears. Go ahead and check if you’d like). I love random surprises and treats. I also took her to Veggie Grill and got her favorite kids’ meal, but we ate in the car on the way home, because if you stay in Santa Monica past four, you won’t get home without a traffic headache.
Tonight we ate cupcakes, and did our family birthday circle tradition, where the child carries the globe around a candle representing the sun. Mooch went around eight times, and we talked about her life at each age. Then she opened a few more presents — clothes and coupons from us for time alone with each parent.
I told her that she had advanced to an allowance, so we would no longer be doing our store set-up. I, therefore, gave her its remaining few contents for her birthday today, and we’ll start fresh with her allowance next week once I get the responsibilities chart together. The store had left in it a trivia game, Hello Kitty earrings, two clipboards, pens, and a pencil holder.
I ran her a special birthday bubble bath with candles and tucked her in.
Thematic Thursdays: Bike Hunt
So, January is the month when my life is consumed with family, because everyone in this house is a FREAKING CAPRICORN!!! I’ve finished Fuss’ birthday, and I already know what I’m doing for Hannibal, but I must find Mooch a bicycle that fits this time. Seriously.
I bought her a beautiful yellow beach cruiser last year, and now it’s my beautiful yellow beach cruiser, because apparently beautiful yellow beach cruisers are fucking heavy! Also, her feet couldn’t really reach the pedals.
Now I’m looking for a 20-24″ wheel, but the problem is I need it to have multiple gears (she’s really into that, because my neighbor told her all the cool bikes have at least 7 gears). Thanks, neighbor! Anyway, it also has to be cute, because that’s just who we are — both form and function matter. Rhinestones, baby! Rhinestones.
So, I’ve taken ten minutes out of my extensive bike research to rant about scouring the trendiest Westside bike shops, University Village (near USC), Target, Toys R’ Us, and a couple of online spots. Nothing suited my fancy. Yeah. I’m going to get back to it, in that her birthday is in LESS THAN TEN DAYS!!!
Tuesdays With Mooch & Fuss: Broken Teeth
FUSS
I found out today that Fuss may need to have her tooth extracted. She fell a couple of weeks ago, and it just isn’t healing properly. Damn hardwood floors! They’re so beautiful, yet they are so dangerous for the little ones. Fuss is so independent and headstrong, and over the past couple of weeks, I’ve watched her hesitate when trying new things. Her accident really scared her. She reaches for my hand now when she’s walking down the stairs instead of saying, “I’ve got it, Mommy.” She makes sure to take her socks off before entering the house now, so she won’t slip.
She will bounce back. The puss oozing from her gums is only temporary, and soon she’ll have a permanent tooth to fill the space if the tooth is pulled. It just kinda sucks. Her smile is one of my favorite things. Fortunately, smiling is one of the things she hasn’t stopped doing — even as she periodically utters, “My teeth hurt, Mommy.”
MOOCH
Mooch has become quite the artist over the past few weeks, embracing a new side of herself to overcome the pain caused by abandonment. She’s graduated from refrigerator art with her new therapeutic venture. I was motivated to go to Aaron Brother’s and purchase actual frames. The first one hangs just inside the hallway outside of the kitchen. She also painted a David Hockney inspired surf board piece, which will likely hang in our bedroom.
I’m very proud that she is handling her increased workload at school very well. Mooch is becoming more organized and analytical. Her morning and nightly routines have been fairly maintained, and she has been earning Baba Bucks to shop our home store.
Tuesdays With Mooch & Fuss: Title Goes Here :)
We were busy bees today. Mooch had no time to shoot Tuesdays With Mooch (TWM), as we were preparing for the first day of school tomorrow. You know, hair, 1st day picnic, farmer’s market. Even Fuss was a little neglected today, strewing puzzle pieces and Cheerios here and there. Fortunately, she’s well into her homeschooling pattern and was able to go and get her activities with little direction. She still working on scooping, pouring, buttoning, and the sounds “mah” and “ah.” You may know them as the letters “m” and “a.” We’re doing sandpaper letter tracing and finding things that start with those letters.
Speaking of sounds and language, Mooch has been learning Spanish via Skype from a friend of ours, who is bartering with me for design work. She’s having a lot of fun. Those lessons are in the evenings while I’m preparing dinner. It is very cute to listen to her discuss her day in Spanish. She’s struggling with that double “r,” though. 
We should be back in the swing of things by next week. Feel free to watch her old videos here, and check out more about Fuss here.
Tuesdays With Mooch & Fuss: Back to School For 1
Mooch is all jazzed to head back to school on the 7th. In this video, she shares about her supplies.
Fuss has already gone back to school — homeschool that is. We started Monday with a rich Montessori curriculum, and she’s enjoying every moment. I guess she was bored all summer. :-/
Anyway, her favorite activities are transferring water from one container to another using a sponge, pouring and scooping grains, and ordering the numbers 1-10 (a precursor to the 100 board). She stays focused for super long during each activity, and I share vocabulary throughout.
Fuss knows the alphabet, but hasn’t shown much interest in the sounds yet — only the shapes of them. She gravitates towards puzzles and practical activities. She enjoys stacking her blocks and sorting shapes and colors. She doesn’t always say the correct names of colors, but she definitely likes putting the correct ones together.
I am also keeping this log at teachingfuss.tumblr.com with many more pictures than the one you see below.
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