Forever Young

So I am not as cool as I thought I am. We happened to miss an important date a few days ago, and obviously I love Madeline more than Jessie since I got her birthday post done early. But Jessie is a big boy who ties his own shoes and everything, and furthermore he's legally stuck with me, so I'm sure he'll recover. So...Jessie had a birthday! Old geezer. I admit, I have been terrible taking pictures with the camera this year, so we don't have as many pictures of the stud as would be advised. But fortunately, we had someone better with a camera get some shots, so we will forever be reposting those. So smart of us.

See how handsomely and casually he leans upon the post? A genius in leaning. So it would be fun to lie to you about his age, but Jessie would probably catch that and get mad at me. So I'll just tell you he turned a prime number. That's right! 37! You guys are so smart. (If he tells you it's only 29 he's clearly going senile.) Since next year is a big deal, 38 being a big number and all, I keep teasing Jessie that's he's on the brink of senior citizenship. In honor of his advancing years, let's list all the ways Jessie is getting old.

• Instead of lounging around all day at the beach or working at McDonalds, he got a respectable 8-5 job where he does computer stuff all day and cares what his boss thinks and occasionally wears slacks. Boring, right? I mean, I hear rumors they play ping pong all day and throw watermelons off of buildings and stuff. But senior citizens do weird stuff like that too.
• Whenever he participates in sports he comes home with injuries. Sprained ankles, jammed fingers, almost broken noses, strained muscles. Clearly his body is falling apart after years of overuse.
• He got his dream car a couple months ago after convincing me he needed it to commute and stuff. His dream car is a Hyundai Sonata. An old people car if I ever saw one. He tried to get the turbo engine to make it seem cooler, but I was worried about the effect on his blood pressure and nixed that idea for his health.
• He has 3 1/2 children. No explanation needed here. Only old fogies have lots of children.
• He spends most nights watching television on the couch with a pregnant woman. Every night I beg him to take me clubbing or to a midnight movie or a big concert, but he always claims he's so exhuasted after a day with the children and cooking and cleaning and he has a headache and man, gestating a baby is so much work, would I just leave him the heck alone so he can recuperate! Oh wait. That might be someone else. But the point is Jessie is old.

I could go on, but let's not embarrass the old boy. He's got some avid fans around here even if he is elderly, and he's pretty much everyone's favorite. You should see the mobs when he gets home from work. Jessie is pretty awesome, and let's be honest, he makes the world go round here at the Warner household, and pretty much holds everything together with his coolness. We love him a lot. Happy 29th, I mean 37th, birthday Mr. Warner! Here's to a good year ahead.

Five for Fighting

These little milestones keep coming a little faster now. Goodness, I'm going to have to start getting ghost writers. But I suppose I can muster up a little writing frenzy, because goodness knows, this is a big one. Here's the rascal now:

This little imp has, against all odds, made it to 5. Well, technically tomorrow she'll make 5.You have to be impressed I'm this on the ball. Wow, has this girl changed our life and made things crazy, but we sure can't imagine not having her around. Hmm. So. Madeline at 5. (That sounds strange. I don't like it.) Well, here's what's up with the princess:

- She lost her first tooth. It was super traumatic. It was wiggly for weeks, and we had her all prepped and excited for it to come out. Then, of course, I go to church ten minutes early for a song practice, and in the interim Jessie loosened it up and Madeline pulled it out. And then clammed up and refused to be comforted for the next two hours. Finally she got cheered up. But the next morning, the Easter egg she had stowed it in in anticipation of putting it under her pillow was abducted by her siblings and the tooth, sadly, was lost to oblivion. But Madeline, in her infinite wisdom, decided that Tinkerbell and her snow sister must have collected it for the tooth fairy even though it wasn't under her pillow, and sure enough, when we checked it out there was money under her pillow (because she has a mother who is quick on her feet, if I do say so myself). Crisis averted. A new tooth is already growing in. Sad day. She's kind of adorable without it.

-She's a week away from graduating preschool, and off to kindergarten in the fall. I am pretty much freaked out. I'm still having nightmares about school six years out of college, and there she goes to start the whole process. On a school bus where she will probably die. With a class full of children who will probably bully her or something. In a strange situation where she'll probably have a nervous breakdown where I can't talk her down. Oh, the fun possibilities. She'll be fine. She'll be awesome. I'll be a wreck. 

-She loves, loves loves writing and art. Our house is a wasteland of letters, envelopes, pictures, and cut up paper. She has started trying to spell things on her own, with hilarious results. She likes rhyming and singing and Daniel Tiger. Everything has a Daniel Tiger ditty to go with it. We sing a song for using the bathroom, for eating dinner, for waiting, for sharing. Sometimes I want to get my little hands on Daniel Tiger and poke out his vocal cords.

-She is probably the most emotional kid west of the Mississippi. Seriously, the amount of crises we have around here in a day is staggering. Sometimes over extremely important things like her friends having to go home after hours of playing, or being asked to pick up toys after getting them out. Sometimes over even more important things like not getting a treat after every meal or getting the wrong color plate or having a one year old act like a one year old in her presence. 

Well, there's a lot more that could be said, but I feel like that's a long enough novel. Madeline is pretty awesome. Still a firecracker as she's been since day one. Still a sweetheart and stubborn as a mule. Still creative and imaginative and crazy. She continues to amaze me and astound me and drive me nuts and warm my heart. Happy birthday, crazy girl. You can stop growing now.

All that she wants, is another baby

Hey everybody! Long time no see. So I may be the queen of excuses, but trust me, this time I have a good one. So for anyone who missed it on facebook, here's our little Easter annoucement:

So, there you go. Awesome reason why blogging has not been top on my list of things to do. Basically, this has been my priority list the last few months:

1. Don't die.

2. Make sure the kids didn't die.

3. Occasionally ask Jessie if he has died.

That's pretty much it. If there's time left over after that extensive list, I might use it to try and clear up the confusion between my house and the local land fill. Through PR releases, naturally, not through actually trying to lessen any resemblance my house bears to the local land fill. Fortunately, we are approaching week 14 and the nausea is abating, so maybe in the future the house will move up the list of priorities. 

Well that just sounds rosy and excited, doesn't it? Don't get the idea that we're not excited. We are thrilled to add another little whippersnapper to the family. We are undoubtedly crazy, and of course scared to death that four children will drive us swiftly to the loony bin, but we're glad and happy and confident this is a good thing for our family. I was reading some Anne of Green Gables during my sickly convalescence and ran across this little gem that sort of sums up my feelings (and reminded me that I was glad to be puking. Glad I tell you) : "Some folks think they (babies) are luxuries,' I said, 'but at Ingleside we think they are necessities." So if I start complaining about feeling yucky feel free to throw that up in my face and I'll give you a dirty look and we'll all feel better.

Here's to October. :-)