Princess of Awesomeness

On the second to last day of the first July of this century and this millenium, the Princess of Awesomeness was born, making us parents. Since that first July of the millenium, the Princess of Awesomeness has insisted on having a birthday each and every year. This coming July will signify the eleventh such event. Last July was the tenth. What does all of this mean? It means we are old.

Some people reading this might object to the claim that we are old, while others may be picking their jaws up from the floor after exclaiming, "Holy, Methuselah!" Allow me to explain my reasoning. Think of the oldest living person you know who has children. I guarantee that their children's ages are in the double digits. I am certain that no living person on earth today has a child whose age is in the triple digits. Well, the Princess of Awesomeness has had a double digit age for nearly a year, officially making as old as the oldest living person on earth!

The Princess of Awesomeness, in fact, is old for her age. Certainly some of you may object to that statement, saying you cannot be old for your age; you either are your age or you are not. Now some of you may be objecting to that statement, saying you cannot not be your age. Some of you may now be objecting to the fact that I don't make any sense.

Regardless, the Princess of Awesomeness is old for her age. How? She is about to finish the 6th grade. Most people are 12 years old, or will very soon be, when they finish 6th grade. The Princess of Awesomeness, as I mentioned before, will soon be 11 years old, thus making her old for her age. Or maybe that makes her young for her age since she is younger than the next youngest 6th-grader by a whole year. Or is she old for her age because she is finishing the grade above all of the other 10- and 11-year-olds? Or is she old because she has the same number of digits in her age as the oldest person in the world who still has living parents? Regardless, we are old!

You may be wondering why the Princess of Awesomeness is finishing 6th grade instead of 5th grade with all of the other 10- and 11-year-old. The answer should be obvious: she did 5th grade last year! Some of you may be wondering why she didn't do 4th grade last year with all of the other 9- and 10-year olds. The answer should really be obvious: she did 4th grade the year before. A few of you may be wondering why she didn't do 3rd grade the year before with all of the other 8- and 9-year olds. Well, because she did 3rd grade the year before that! A couple of you may be wondering why she didn't do 2nd grade the year before that with all of the other 7- and 8-year-olds. Because she started 2nd grade with all of the other 6- and 7-year-olds!

One of you just shouted, "What do you mean the other 6- and 7-year-olds??? 2nd graders are 7 and 8 years old!" Not in England! The Princess of Awesomeness started school at the ripe old age of 4 with all of her 4-year-old British neighbors (pardon me, neighbours; Brits have extra U's that we don't have. I mean, Briuts hauve euxtra Uu'su thaut weu doun't hauve).

So the Princess of Awesomeness has gone to school on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean Pond. Whether here or there, she has always been at the top of her class. (Academically speaking. Being physically at the top of her class would require very impressive levitation skills!) Having dominated her class in two separate countries on two separate sides of the world, I think we can officially say she has conquered the world. So yes, when next you see her, the proper greeting is to bow down to your ruler.

And, because she started school in England, the Princess of Awesomeness is now young or old for her age, while her British counterparts are still their age for their age, and we are still old. I mean ould.

Wizard

This is our second oldest child, whom we'll call "Wizard." Wizard's favorite things in the whole world are Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Pokemon. Harry Potter is the newest addition to this list of favorites, but it is also probably the biggest on that list. Why? Because one day Wizard discovered that books can actually be enjoyable! (*gasp!*)

For the longest time, Wizard considered reading to be something akin to enduring hot pokers while stretched out on a rack. That all changed when we read The Indian in the Cupboard as a family. Wizard was captivated, and started reading ahead of the rest of us. He loved it, and we thought he had surely changed his opinion about reading. Wrong! Apparently, The Indian in the Cupboard was the lone exception to the medieval torture called reading.

Then Wizard learned that his cousin in Kansas, who is his all time favorite person in the world, was not only reading the Harry Potter books, but actually enjoying them! All his cousin ever wanted to talk about was the books, and Wizard soon learned that his knowledge of wizards and muggles gleaned from the movies was woefully inadequate compared to the wealth of knowledge his cousin possessed. That got Wizard thinking that perhaps there might be something to books after all, and so he decided to try reading the first Harry Potter book.

Suddenly we were facing situations we had never confronted with Wizard. The following is a word for word example from when Sherrie went to check on the boys one night after they had been in bed for a couple of hours:

Sherrie: You'll never guess what I just saw.

Jay: What's that?

Sherrie: Wizard is still awake.

Jay: That's not too unusual.

Sherrie: Yeah, but he has a flashlight in bed, and he's...reading!

Jay:...*plunk* (That was the sound of Jay hitting the floor after he passed out from shock.)

We have now gotten very accustomed to the sight of Wizard with his nose in a book at all hours of the day. He has read all seven Harry Potter books, and wants to buy the Tales of Beedle the Bard. We're so used to it now, that Jay doesn't even feel the slightest bit woozy at the sight.

And so, Wizard is obsessed with Harry Potter now. One of the most common activities in our house is to see the kids running around with sticks, spoons, or anything else remotely resembling a wand as they shout things such as, "Stupefy!", "Protego!", and, yes, even "Avada Kedavra!" Actually, that last one is by far the most common. Do you suppose we should ban the use of killing curses in the house?

Having finished the entire Harry Potter series, we were excited to see which books Wizard would try next. He eagerly picked up the first Fablehaven book, read the opening line, "Kendra stared out the side window of the SUV, watching foliage blur past" and promptly screamed, "AAAAGH! I'M STRETCHED ON A RACK AND BEING BURNED BY HOT POKERS!!!!"

Well, at least he likes some reading, right?

Wizard with his "Buckbeak the Hippogriff" pinewood derby car

Mr. Mister

This is our third child, Mr. Mister. As you can see from these pictures, the kid has the most expressive face ever! Those big blue eyes of his are going to get him into trouble; they're probably going to be the thing to get him back out of trouble, too!

Mr. Mister has had a very eventful year. A few weeks ago, he lost his first tooth! He was really excited. Shortly after that, we went to the circus, where he won a bike! ("Yea!" for free bikes!) As if that wasn't enough excitement to last a life time, Mr. Mister just turned the ripe old age of six. Does life get any better?

Mr. Mister is one of the funniest people on the planet. On the way home from church today, he informed us that he wants to be the President of the United States. Awesome! Why does he want to be president? "The president has body guards!!!" Is there a more noble motive for civil service? His older sister, the Princess of Awesomeness, informed him that the Constitution dictates that the president must be at least 35 years old. Mr. Mister sighed dejectedly and said, "I wish I was 35." Maybe someday he'll get those body guards.

Of course, this does raise an interesting point. Just what on earth does a six-year-old need body guards for? Kindergarten recess must be a lot tougher than it was when we were kids!

Which reminds me, yesterday he said he wished he could turn invisible. Now what would you do if you could turn invisible? Mr. Mister knows exactly what he would do; he said he would sneak into the school unseen (since he's invisible, after all), wait till recess (who knows what he's doing in the mean time; maybe just learning without the teacher seeing him), then bump into kids so they would say, "Ahh! A ghost!" Now isn't that a great way to use the power of invisibility?

But we're glad he's not invisible; he's too darn cute!

Need we say more?

Rock Star

This is our fourth child, whom we will call "Rock Star." We call him Rock Star because he was apparently born with an internal sound track that only he can hear, and he feels compelled to bust out with ridiculously amazing moves on a regular basis. This kid was born with rhythm. We're pretty sure music just courses through the boy's veins.

It is always fun to hear him belting out the most random songs. He has quite a repertoire, too. We will be getting dinner ready and Rock Star will groove into the kitchen belting out, "You've got blood on your face, you big disgrace! Kickin' your can all over the place", at which point Buddy Boy will join in, belting at the top of his lungs, "We will, we will rock you!" Or we'll be enjoying a quiet afternoon in the living room, and suddenly Rock Star will boogie in singing "Standing on the rooftops, everybody scream your heart out!" Or we'll be driving in the car and he'll be jiving in his car seat, singing "Swing, swing from the tangles of my heart!" (Does anybody recognize the Lego Rockband playlist in all of these?)

One of our family traditions is Friday night movie night. And one of the very best things about Friday night movie night is getting to the ending credits of whichever movie we are watching. Why? Because typically, the ending credits of most movies have some great music, and Rock Star simply cannot resist the music. As soon as the credits start rolling, Rock Star leaps up from his seat and entertains us all until the last note has played. We love it!

Here is just a glimpse of some of Rock Star's killer moves.

He rocks.

Shoe-On

This is our fifth child, "Buddy Boy." He is just a few months shy of being a fully independent two-year-old. As with most children his age, he is pretty sure that he knows what is best, and we, as his parents, don't have a clue. Actually, does that condition ever go away for kids?

Part of Buddy's all-knowing wisdom includes the fact that he must be wearing shoes at all times. And not just any shoes; no, they have to be the right shoes. Although he owns more than one pair, the only ones that will do are his church shoes, which he calls "shoe-on." He has decided that his "shoe-on" goes with every outfit, to include pajamas. Because seriously, would pajamas look good with tennis shoes? Of course not! No, only a nice pair of black shoes with a fake buckle (velcro, of course) will work with pajamas. And although his pajama top may not match the pajama bottoms, he just wouldn't feel right without his "shoe-on."

Buddy Boy's "Shoe-On"

And when we say he has to ALWAYS wear his shoes, we are talking ALWAYS! Including to bed. He will scream and shout if we try to put him to bed without his shoes on. So if you think it looks uncomfortable to sleep all night with your shoes on, that is just further evidence of the fact that you just aren't as wise and all-knowing as an almost-two-year-old!

Our Little Angel

Here are some photos of our Little Angel at three weeks of age. Where does the time go? She is absolutely perfect. We love her lots!

New Introduction

We used to use this blog exclusively for our photography, and another blog as our family blog. We've decided, however, that as awesome as we are at blogging, we really didn't need two blogs to not update. So, we are consolidating in hopes to be better at keeping up to date. We will use this blog to post our adventures in photography as well as our adventures in real life.

So here we are! Watch this space for exciting updates! Or at the very least mundane updates (we have six kids; there will probably be updates about bodily functions, and those qualify as exciting. Or gross. We might give a disclaimer at the beginning of those posts for the squeamish out there).

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Our tree, by the way, really looks nice from about two feet up and above (this picture was definitely taken from above that two-foot limit). Our Christmas ornaments have suffered many casualties this year thanks to This Kid:

OK, we'll come up with more creative names to use for our kids online later! :)

-Sherrie and Jay