Happy Lunar New Year!

Happy Lunar New Year, everyone!

Mom's tradition on Chinese New Year is to clean and organize the apartment, get new shoes, and get a haircut before the new year, and then eat jiao-zhi (dumplings) on new year day. Well, I guess you could say that we did all that last weekend, only -- in typical Mama style -- two days late on all the pre-new year arrangements, and uh...skipped the whole "cleaning the apartment" part altogether! But we did get out to eat some tasty dumplings and of course we did that right on schedule!

Here are some photos of my new furniture, hanging out on the new year weekend in my new shoes, and my haircut. We were too busy eating to take any pictures of the dumplings (sorry).

Handyman helping Daddy put together my new table and chairs!

The end result...FRESH!

Hanging out on a sunny LA afternoon in my new shoes!

And my favorite Thomas the Train Engine shirt that I got from Ian...

For some unknown reason Daddy and Mama decided they would buy haircutting scissors and do my haircut themselves. I was nervous because I saw Mama go on the internet and she Googled, "how to give a boy's haircut." That was not a good sign. But you judge for yourself. Here is my BEFORE shot:

Mama cut the front of my hair. I have to admit, "not bad for someone who normally crumbles into a withering piece of uselessness when I'm wailing at the top of my lungs" -- and I was letting her know I was NOT happy as she was cutting my hair. But she stuck through it without sticking anyone with the scissors. God bless. Below is the AFTER shot of my haircut. Actually, I think it's quite stylish with a shaggy twist in the bangs, perhaps a little more thinning needed on the sides, and I'm not sure the sideburns thing suits me at this age. But all in all, a decent effort and at least it's even. HOORAY for Mama! She also cut the back of my hair, but after she left the bathroom, Daddy took over to do a little retouching. I noticed that he had NOT read the online information about how to cut hair because this was the end result:

No worries about the red splotches on my back, that's the aftermath of another heat rash/eczyma breakout I had last week when it was really hot here in LA -- at least that is covered by my shirt when I'm dressed. I actually have to go out in public looking like my head was sent through a woodchipper.

Someone told my Daddy, "yeah, that's why hairstylists and barbers have LICENSES."