Ainsley Marin is one month old!  The past month went buy so quickly.  Ainsley is the sweetest baby and the best mannered newborn in the world (yes, we said that about Kaelin and then Aidan too, but they just keep getting better!).  She's weighing in at about 12lbs right now, and about 22 inches. She lost a little weight the first two weeks, but has recently made up for it.  She's still struggling to get rid of a cold she caught when she was only a couple days old, but we hope it breaks soon.  We caught her first smile at about two weeks and it started coming out more and more during weeks three and four.  We've even been able to make her giggle and "coo" a bit. She's starting to make all the cute little baby sounds, as if she wants to talk.  She loves to be held, but her most favorite spot to fall asleep is on Daddy's chest.  I think we have a third "daddy's little girl" on our hands.  She's already sleeping in 5 hour stretches during the night, so we feel very, very lucky.

Aidan Kane is almost 19 months old and his personality is getting cuter by the day (although he is starting to get a temper...isn't it too early for the "terrible twos??").  The things coming out of his mouth crack us up.  He's smart as a whip (we think so anyway!) and still  continues on his politeness streak...after someone sneezes he yells "bess you!", and when you give something to him, he not only says "tank you", but "welcome" too!  (both right in a row, we're sure he thinks it's one big word...."tank-you-welcome" ). He is enjoying the very mild winter we are having (almost 70 degrees today) and loves to run outdoors. He also loves playing "monter" (monster) with Daddy (whether being the scarer or scaree).  He just started becoming very interested in the potty and wants to sit on it every night before bed.  He hasn't yet actually done anything on it, that typically happens about 30 seconds after he hops off it (you know...those few seconds before we get a diaper back on him!).  His favorite song to sing this past months was "Frosty", although most of the words he'd sing were "Frosty, Frosty, Happy, Happy So" while dancing around.  He has the tune of the alphabet down and if someone else is signing it and stops at any given letter, he can fill in the letter.  He's very particular about songs and will tell you what he does and doesn't want to hear before he goes to bed at night.  Daddy started to tackle renovating one of the downstairs bathrooms last week and Aidan wants to get in there and help any time he can. We'll need to get him his own tool belt for his next birthday!

Kaelin Avery is 32 months old.  She is extremely fond of baby sister Ainsley and wants to help out with her all the time.  "Mommy, may I help you" or "may I hold her" come out all day long.   We often find her just sitting next to Ainsley humming a song and patting her.  In fact, when either Mommy or Daddy say they need something, Kaelin will take off running to get it and bring it back.  She becoming more and more interested in art these days, and loves to use scissors (we hide them from her some days because she'll find some paper and cut a million little pieces up!), but she always finds our hiding spots and gets her stool if they are out of reach.  We're starting to become successful of breaking her of her favorite pillow which often used to make it downstairs with her in the morning and after nap. Her purple pillow is her security blanket of sorts.  Kaelin is starting to sing a lot of songs by herself (as opposed to playing second fiddle to Keeley). She's becoming more and more independent and relying on Keeley less these days too.  She starts a dance class with Keeley in a couple weeks and is really looking forward to that.  She loves going for long walks with Auntie Kelly when she visits and always comes back with a report of what's going on around the neighborhood.  Any time Daddy is fixing or working on something, she loves to help.  She is really interested in how things work.

Keeley Shea turned the big "4" yesterday. Daddy and Mommy wanted to have a special day alone with her but she insisted on inviting Kaelin. We decided to take a trip into the city.  We took the commuter rail instead of driving so it would be more exciting for her. Once we got to South Station, we had to take a couple different subways to get to our destination at the Aquarium.  Because it was so warm outside this past weekend, and because the Aquarium probably wasn't prepared to have any cool air circulating, it seemed close to 90 degrees in the building. It was exhausting just making it to the top of the Aquarium but the girls enjoyed the lunchtime sea turtle feeding where Keeley was helping the turtles by telling them and pointing out where the lettuce was being thrown.  After we left the Aquarium, we walked to Faneuil Hall for lunch, got some ice-cream, watched some street performers and then took a horse drawn carriage ride through the city. "Chico" was our horse's name and the girls loved the ride, they even got to hold the reigns for a bit.  After our carriage ride, we took a taxi back to South Station for the trip home.  Keeley just loved all the different modes of transportation we took that day!  The following day, we had a quiet birthday celebration (Nana made a princess cake for Keeley) with Auntie Erin and the boys.  Keeley enjoyed opening all of her presents from the family and she got lots of birthday calls and wishes from Wisconsin, California and Connecticut.

Christmas 2006--SOOOO many, TOOOO many presents!  We had a great celebration, pictures tell the story (see Christmas 2006 photo folder).  Everyone got great snowsuits for Christmas, but we haven't even seen a dusting of snow yet to use them!  Aidan's big present from Santa was a train set/table and the girls got new bikes.

We had a rough week after Christmas with a stomach bug making it's way around. The only ones it didn't effect were Mommy and Keeley. For a few days in a row we were doing a couple loads of laundry a day with all the vomiting!