Mojo-Mojo-Chan

When I was little, I couldn't fall asleep unless I nibbled on the black collar of the hanten jacket I had snatched from my father.
My younger sister always used to fall asleep while pinching my mother's throat, or neck, or somewhere around there, so I suppose children have some sort of 'Linus blanket'—whether it's an object or an action—that they hold onto.

Well, for my two-year-old eldest son, Chimisuke, that something seems to be putting his hand inside the sleeve of the clothes I'm wearing and wiggling it around.

When I'm putting him to sleep, it's his habit to stick his hand into the sleeve of the mother sleeping next to him and wiggle it, and I used to say, 'What's this? Wiggling away. Are you a little Mojo-Mojo-Chan?'
He seemed to like the name, and at some point, he started coming over and saying, 'I'm doing Mojo-Mojo-Chan' all on his own.
If I'm wearing a sleeveless top, he complains, 'Hey! Put on a shirt! I can't do Mojo-Mojo-Chan!'

And before I knew it, he started doing it even when he wasn't sleepy.
This happens mostly when I'm nearby, especially during meals.
Since his hands are often dirty from touching food, I'd get annoyed when he touched my clothes with those hands, but perhaps my annoyance tickled his mischievous side, as I suspect he does it on purpose.

But I also feel like it's increased since his sister was born, so I think it might be his way of asking for attention.

Anyway, this Mojo-Mojo-Chan,
gets irritating when it goes on for a long time.

Having my upper arm tickled by his small hands is ticklish, and when he puts his hand inside and grabs hold, I can't move.
I hate that my clothes might get stretched out, and I hate it even more if his hands are dirty.
It's one thing when I'm putting him to sleep, but when I have things to do during the day, especially during meals, I get frustrated and think,
'Stop doing that and just eat already!!'
and I start to get annoyed.

One day, frustrated by the slow meal, the sleeve stretched by dirty hands, and the unpleasant tickling, I tried to tease him to hide my irritation.
'Chimi-chan, why do you do that? Do you love Mommy that much?'
Then Chimisuke answered with a huge smile,

'Yeah! I love you!'

My irritation melted away.

I see, so you love me.
Well, then I guess it can't be helped. (I'm such a pushover.)

Since then, whenever I get to the point of 'Aaaaaah! What is it already!' from being Mojo-Mojo-ed too much,
I've decided to ask him the same thing.

And now, even without me asking,
while he's doing the Mojo-Mojo,
'Chimi-chan loves Mommy, so I'm doing the Mojo-Mojo,' he says.

...Hmph, you cute little thing.

Fine, go ahead and Mojo-Mojo as much as you want!

Chimi's Meal
・Tonkatsu-style
・Hijiki seaweed
・Carrot shirishiri
・Potatoes from the nikujaga

For the Tonkatsu-style, I used deep-fried tofu (aburaage) as the coating instead of breadcrumbs.
I finely chopped some pork bits, kneaded in potato starch, sake, salt, and pepper, and stuffed them inside the inside-out aburaage!
I pan-fried them in a generous amount of oil.
The coating is crispy!
For the child, I used a sweet children's sauce.
For the adults, I mixed ground sesame and miso into the sauce. I sprinkled some green onions on top for the adults to add some color, but I left them off for the child since he won't eat anything with green on it.