In the van, on the way to kindergarten:

Mom?

What, babe?

Why did you sign me up for Karate?

Because I thought you might have fun.

But, can I use it on bad guys? Like if someone breaks in the house?

Jack, if there’s a break-in, you’re my go-to guy.

Can I wear a mask like a Ninja?

Yup.

But if it turns out to be a spider, I’ll just punch it.

???

Shrimp. Grits.

Totally southern. Totally amazing, especially the incarnation I had tonight. Here’s a pretty good basic recipe.* But the ones I had at Chuck’s Fish (horrible name, but unbelievably good food) were elevated to a new level through the addition of fresh jalapenos instead of ground red pepper, a little pimiento, and probably substituting some heavy cream for 1/4 to 1/2  of the milk. I had to have the waitress take the plate and put the rest in a to go box before I embarrassed myself by face-planting in the dish. Jason and I both agreed that when faced with corn in any incarnation**, we’ll pretty much eat until we’re sick. That’s how you know you’re done.

*This one calls for coarsely ground cornmeal. Is that yankee speak for Stone Ground Grits? I dunno, but I’m telling you that’s what you want for this dish.

**With the exception of instant grits. These are an abomination and should be relegated to the pantries of starving college students where they’ll probably be served with Bacos stirred in.  Like most college experiences, we all acknowledge having done stuff like this once or twice, but we’re still pretty embarrassed about the whole thing.

So it’s a rainy Monday here in kid world, but I’m not here to talk about them this morning…well, maybe just to clarify the following:

Cutting yourself with your safety scissors? Accident.

Slicing your pants to ribbons? NOT an accident.

Spilling your cereal? Accident.

Pouring your juice in the mess to see the colors run? NOT an accident.

Bumping into your brother? Accident.

Biting the #@$% out of him? Again, NOT an accident.

Glad we could clear this up.

No…what I’m really here for this morning is to tell you how absolutely, indisputably, freaking cute I look today. And I know that sounds horrible, but it’s been a long time coming so let me revel in it. Basically, I let up on the whole “no buying clothes that fit, just lose 15 lbs.” rule. And it was kind of like where you ban sugar from your diet then freak out and eat an entire pie.

Last Saturday, I hit Ann Taylor Loft like the Vikings hit northern England. I’m not kidding, there was some serious 9th century pillaging happening. I found pants that fit in a size that doesn’t wound my pride (thank you vanity sizing!). And tons of cute tops that skim over the problem areas without veering into the maternity top look. A much harder trick to pull off than you might think. In fact, I look an awful lot like this right now — only, you know…older and shorter and…well I’m wearing this top, at least.

Also cardigans. I’m in a cardigan phase right now, and they fed the urge admirably. Check out this one with the sparkles. Own it! And am wearing it with the aforementioned top and my new boyfriend crop jeans. Comfy and fabulous. Cannot beat it.

O.k. — so that’s my ME moment. Now I have to go take the boys to pre-school. To any of my local peeps, I’ve got tons of coupons that they gave me for next month’s big sale. As I won’t be able to shop again for the next six months (at least), I’ll happily pass these along so you can enjoy your own Viking moment. Only, don’t light anything on fire. They get really weird about that.

It’s been a non-stop fun ride here at the Burrus Zoo. In addition to surviving almost three solid weeks of sickness, fevers, ER visits, projectile vomiting, etc., etc., we’ve also had some pretty huge milestones come and go. Jack has started kindergarten, and it’s been great so far. Sure there was some whining and crying (on both our parts), but now that we’ve gotten in the swing of it, things are really looking up.

A side effect that I wasn’t expecting was the positive influence his new grown up lifestyle would have on the trips. While he does his homework (i.e. color sheets or practice words), the trips do homework, too. And I try to keep it on a similar vein. As a result, Will and Tom are “reading” Goodnight Moon almost word for word and recognizing simple sight words elsewhere.

And because we’ve been forced to be more regimented and organized in the morning (7:30 drop-off comes REALLY early), the whole morning madness has calmed considerably. The trips are really proud to help get themselves dressed just like their big brother does. And thanks to a fortunate find at Target, everyone has their own shoe bin in the kitchen. That alone has made our world a MUCH better place.

There’ve been funny moments and poignant ones. And I wish I could document more, but I’m kind of caught up in living it right now. Don’t know how often blogging is going to factor into the madness, but I’m working on it. I promise.