Hair Today...

ZBoy has got hair. Which is sort of amazing to me considering that he was practically bald until after he was a year old. Then suddenly, somewhere around four, his head decided to try out for a spot with the Beatles - mop top era.

It's absolutely straight, very thick, dark golden blonde and grows very fast. He likes his hair long, but eventually he gets tired of pushing it out of the way and asks for a haircut.

He does NOT like going to a barber. He'd rather sit in the kitchen wearing a garbage bag and have me cut his hair. He says that in the three times he's gone to a barber, he's hated every single haircut. Z would rather I do the honors.

When he was little, this was easy. I would run my fingers up over his scalp and cut off anything that stuck up. His hair was one of my finger's width long, a bit spikey and cool.

Now he wants a style. And what he wants is Nerd Style.

When did "nerd" become a style? One that people went for intentionally? I shrugged it off. Hair is a renewable resource (at least at this age) and if I messed it up, I could resort back to the "finger cut".

The hair-cutting get up... Laugh if you want, but it keeps the hair off him.

First, I cut a length all the way around. When I showed him this and told him it was a "mushroom cut" he wasn't sure whether to believe me or not. He did NOT want a "mushroom".

Then I asked him if he wanted a mullet (short on the top and sides, long in back). "No Way! Then I'd look like Jacob F!" Guess that's not a good thing. This is how long he wanted his back to be though. I could have made a mullet...

He liked what he wound up with though. Just one more test to see if it was hip enough...

Yep. Mommy got him "nerd style."

While I was cutting ZBoy's hair, Darling Man was at the sink, peeling shrimp. He was supposed to go fishing today and after leaving work, stopped off to buy some bait. He got as far as putting the tailgate down on his truck before deciding that it was just too darned cold and windy to go kayak fishing, so he brought the bait in and peeled it for dinner.

He boiled it and we had cheese grits and salad with it. When offered some shrimp, ZBoy shook his head swearing that he wouldn't be eating bait tonight, thankyouverymuch! Shrimp is shrimp, boy! Oh, well - more for me!

Darling Man made cocktail sauce to go with the shrimp and tried to entice Z to try just one with a little cocktail sauce. Suspiciously, Z questioned him about the ingredients in cocktail sauce.

"Well, it's got ketchup and a little lemon juice and horseradish. It's delicious!"

"Horseradish? What's that?"

"It's a root vegetable from Sweden!" and Darling Man proffered a shrimp with cocktail sauce on it to ZBoy. Z turned his nose up at it.

Frustrated, DM raised his voice - "Don't you want root vegetable from Sweden?????"

I just about fell off my stool, I was laughing so hard. A catch-phrase has been born.