shiso mama

This is the special New Year’s Eve Double Edition of Fashion Show Sunday.

This was actually from Saturday, but I think this outfit’s pretty funny. It’s the Long Island edition of Fashion Show Sunday.

It’s getting harder to take these Fashion Show Sunday pictures, since it’s colder now, and he’s just about always covered up. Here he’s wearing a brown velour tracksuit. He needs some nice, chunky gold chains and a poufier hairdo to pass for a cast member of The Sopranos.

This one’s actually from today. I had to bribe him with a cookie to go outside without his coat and sit down with his hat on. Tasty, tasty sugar makes all such tasks much easier.  His sweater has subtle little argyles on it.

Hey folks, Scrooge here. I tried my best to ruin Christmas, but the forces of good (or is it evil?) overwhelmed me.

The day was filled with presents, eating (F made his famous pancakes, then I made a rib roast for dinner), more presents, napping and relaxing, and let us not forget the presents. Otis had two sessions of unwrapping presents, since the presents, they were so many. He became completely enamored of the process of unwrapping presents, jumping up after each present, pointing at the mantle and saying, “Hai yo!” (There’s more!) This is a pretty good idea of what he was like:

It was pretty overwhelming for him, so although he received so many wonderful presents, he couldn’t really focus on any of them for too long. I’ve since put away a good many of them, and will bring them out slowly. Here he is being more civilized, with Aunt B:

This toy is my personal favorite, a beautifully made wooden airplane with three little people inside that can be removed:

I love the simple, open-ended toys because I think they’re good for developing his creativity. He actually really loves the airplane, and has been flying it around and making sound effects. Here I’ll confess that I also asked for a doll for Otis, since I thought it might be a good counterbalance to so many of the boy-oriented presents he receives at other times. I tried to explain my reasoning to Fifth Aunt Grandma K once, but she rolled her eyes and said, “Oh, I know why you’re doing it!” I was indulged.

He also got a bunch of fantastic French preppy clothes that my mom bought for him. They’re nicer than the things in my own closet. I realized something as I was studying all the new clothes - the outfits make him look like a miniature version of my father!! All the kid needs now is a pair of fine leather shoes and a suede bomber jacket. The Fashion Show Sundays for the next few weeks will all have Otis dressed up in his little old man clothes. Ooh la la! He’s really hot here:

Speaking of fashion, did you notice the leg warmers on his arms? He insisted on wearing them on his arms when we got dressed that morning. Is this kid hip or what? It’s bringing a tear to my eye just thinking about it. But then again, he did spend a good chunk of tonight trying to wear my bra on his head.

Wow, it has really been a long time.  It felt so weird to actually sit down at my worktable with scissors and paper, and it took some effort to focus.  Hopefully I’ll be getting back into the habit of collaging.

I finished the stockings and hung them over our fireplace. Otis’s is the performing seal with the balls in the air, mine is the bunny with footprints (although do they look like rabbit turds?) in the middle and F’s is the giraffe with birds flying, on the right. It’s been fun looking for little stocking stuffers.

I had been seriously considering a plastic tree, and perhaps due to this threat, F went out and brought home a humongous tree that would fit in the living room only after we moved the sofa. F and I also made felted ornaments the other night. Last year I sewed little felt animals (a blowfish and a bird) and hopefully Otis will be able to make his own in a couple of years. He’ll also be able to pick out his own yearly store-bought ornament soon. I like the idea of buying one new ornament and making one each year.

We’ve placed the presents on the mantle for now so that Otis doesn’t destroy them. Yes, that is an embarassment of presents that you see. I might even call it a disgustingly extravagant display of presents. Some of them are clothes that my parents bought and then wrapped up as Christmas presents even though they aren’t (I used to love that shit!) so it looks worse than it is. But I think that next year, we’ll have to tell Santa(s) about our new one-gift policy, just in time for the awakening of Otis’s present-receiving consciousness. Thank goodness my brother’s having a baby later this year.

I hope you’re enjoying your holidays, my friends.  Be safe and well.

I’m not sure whether to feel surprised or not that I’ve turned out to be such a sucker for traditions. The big holidays for me (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chinese New Year) seem to be all about traditions, and no matter how crazy I feel because of the sometimes elaborate preparations, I’ll still go back to them time and again.

I’ve been making candy for the winter holidays for ages. I used to try different types here and there, but now I’ve found my favorites: cashew brittle, chocolate caramels and vanilla caramels. This year I made fleur de sel caramels with some borrowed French fleur de sel that positively smelled and tasted of the very essence of the sea.  I like the granular saltiness they add.

When I’m hunched over the candy thermometer, or wrapping my endless supply of caramels, I always curse tradition and tell myself that this is the last year, but then the next season rolls around and I change my mind, especially when I remember the folks that oohed and aahed over their treats.  This year I found candy boxes and wrapped them up with some great paper, so they even look nice on the outside.

Otis is rocking the old skool. They’re so shiny and new. And here’s how you can tell I’m my mother’s daughter: Otis put on his new shoes the next morning and when he was climbing down the stairs, shoes facing down, my mother exclaimed, “Oh, the shoes! He’s going to scuff them up!”

Have I told you that I’ve been obsessed with the possibility that Otis could be color-blind? He didn’t dress himself today, though.

Do you like how we dress him as though it was actually cold here in the Bay Area?

I’m trying to find some time for crafts and collages, but I’m buried under holiday duties. This definitely needs to get done this weekend: Christmas stockings with animal silhouettes. Wish me luck.

Oh yeah, school. It’s going much better now, thanks for asking. Now he asks about “school” and “babies” and sometimes talks about his friends. While we were on the beach in Jamaica, he caught sight of a little brown-haired girl with pigtails and he excited kept screaming, “Siena! Siena! Siena!” She was his first girlfriend at school.

It’s so curious hearing about Otis’s other lives. We spend so much time together so I am usually the one telling the insignificant little vignettes that make up his everyday life. But now I hear stories from the teachers at school about his schoolyard antics. And I hear stories from Grandma R, especially about the time that he spends at their local hangout, the dim sum restaurant where he is treated as an exalted hero. And now he has friends and people who care about him outside of our home, people I don’t necessarily know, and it’s sweet and exciting and just a little sad all at the same time. And of course these little stories are not insignificant in the least, and I’m starting to understand why my family members are always calling and harassing me for even the tiniest bits of information.

Anyways, the report from school is that Otis is becoming an obsessive compulsive Casanova (though they would find a much nicer way of saying it). He’s bossy (they all are), but his bossiness has to do with cleanliness (he tells the other kids to wash their hands) and putting things back where they belong. Whereas the other kids take stuff from each other just because it’s what babies do, he prefers to take toys from the other kids to put them back in their proper place. He gets mad when his friends don’t return the toys to their rightful homes.

And there are often reports of kissings and huggings. When I took him to school today, he never strayed more than 2 feet away from clinging distance for the first 15 minutes while I helped out in the classroom. But while I was chatting with the teachers, he wandered away and I next spotted him in the corner. There was a little girl, one I had never seen before, sitting quietly against the wall and Otis was squatted next to her, kissing her repeatedly. He would go in for a kiss, turn his head and kiss again, turn his head and kiss. Then he went in for a series of hugs. Then more kisses. The entire time, she sat there, immobile and passive, her head thudding gently against the wall in between hugs. I think playing dead is also what they recommend in case of a bear attack.

It’s funny how the things we teach him play out when we’re not together. We’re very affectionate with him at home, and I guess that’s made him quite demonstrative at school. And the OCD? I’ve been working hard to get him to clean up after himself after he plays with his toys, but I think I’ve created a monster. He is definitely his maternal grandmother’s spawn.