Ainsley Marin is 5 months old!  Rolling, rolling everywhere!  Turn your head and she's across the room.  She is also sitting up by herself and when on her tummy she is really stretching to reach for toys.  We tried a bit of rice cereal today for the first time and she did NOT like it.  Just two little choo choo train spoons into her month so she'd open up the tunnel and she caught on pretty quickly and wouldn't open back up.  We'll keep trying!  Her favorite toy right now is her door bouncy jumper. She jumps so high it's hysterical to watch her.  Daddy calls her a little jack rabbit.  Her hair is getting thicker and longer, almost time for a little trim.  She's growing so big, we are hoping she fits into her Christening gown when we finally find some time to schedule that!

Aidan Kane is 23 months old.  His big boy bed is working out very well. Just two days ago he realized that he can get out of it by himself...(instead of just screaming "Key-yeh, Kay-yin!" in the morning, now he goes in their room to wake them up. Some mornings he and Keeley will go downstairs and play for quite some time by themselves before we even realize they are down there.  He continues to make us laugh more and more everyday.  When he doesn't want to do something he says "No, I too tired" (even when he is definitely NOT tired).  He's also getting very nosy and starting to ask a lot of questions "Mommy, what you doing?  and become opinionated "I no want that" or "No way Hoday" (he's trying to say Jose), he says "Cuz" alot when he doesn't want to answer and the cutest is his "Oh my Gawd" when he is surprised.  At night, he use to make Mommy sing "Danny Boy" to him, but now he insists on singing it himself.  His comedic side comes out more and more each week. He's always commanding attention and is now starting to put together more than one sentence "Mommy, look at me!  I make circle!"  He loves his "Wiggleworm" class and has really opened up with other kids.  During the name song, when it comes to his turn, he yells out his name as "Aidan Kane!"  We rarely use his middle name, but he always adds it.

Kaelin Avery is 3 years and 1 month. She has been so in love with all animals lately.  Very attached to all of her horse figurines, she'll carry them all around the house with her and in car rides.  She's very imaginative with naming her animals...her brown horse is named "browny", white horse "whitey" and the one with black and brown on it is called "browny blacky" (you get the picture).  Kaelin, Keeley and Aidan all have stuffed golden retriever-like dogs of different shades and sizes but they all insist on calling them the same name "Goldie".  Kaelin has also been drawing more and more lately, taking pride in her pictures and wanting to have them hung all around the house.  She's been doing great at gymnastics the past two weeks and has even been getting invited in to Keeley's Gymnastics Academy class with the bigger kids.

Keeley Shea is 4 years and 4 months old. She is finishing up her first year of preschool this week (she has one more year of preschool prior to Kindergarten). This week we have a little graduation at the local zoo for her class.  She is getting excited for her gymnastics recital in a couple of weeks, practicing like crazy.  We signed her and Kaelin up for the summer program, so she'll get to continue her jumping! She has become the best big sister ever.  She is always making sure Ainsley is okay and has everything she needs and will stop whatever fun she is having to tend to her.

Auntie Amy and Natalia came to visit us two weeks ago. We had a blast, and it was great to have them (see photos)! We've been busy around the house with spring clean-up and Jeff starting working again on the backyard (expanding it so the kids can have more room to play and run--they are anxious to start using their big sandbox once we nestle it between some of the big boulders out back for them.  He's had bad cases of poison ivy on and off (mostly on) the past two months.  We're glad to have been able to clear that.  We haven't opened the pool yet, but hope to in the next couple of weeks.  We'd like to get it heated this year so we can get more use out of it (adding that to the ever growing project list!).  And soon the kids will be starting up their swimming lessons again.

Ainsley Marin is 18 weeks old!  She just had her 4 month doctor's visit yesterday and is doing great. She's at about the 100% for height and weight and is on track for all of her milestones.  She had four shots, two in each leg...ouch.  We moved her into her crib last night and she loves all the new room.  Her bassinet was getting very, very, small for her!  Rolling is few and far between, but she is sitting up for a minute or two on her own and when on her belly she really moves her legs like she's pushing to crawl.  She loves looking at books and grabs the pages like she's trying to turn them.  Of course, the baby face book is her favorite, as is the color book.  She's still drooling tons, but no sign of a first tooth yet.

Aidan Kane is 22 months old.  He just moved into a big boy full size bed and loves it like crazy.  Last night he rolled off of it twice and was in the middle of his bedroom floor.  Luckily, we just have the mattress on the ground for the next couple of days while he gets use to it.  We thought he'd wake up bright and early, but he slept in until about 8:30am, an hour longer than usual.  Although we typically don't allow toys upstairs, he's managed to smuggle a few of them to his new bed. His new favorite thing to snuggle is "scuba man!", a 12 inch plastic man in a scuba suit with a tank on his back (any influence from Daddy there??).  Although, since he flies scuba man around the house, we're not sure he knows the man should be under water.  He loves helicopters and airplanes--when he sees one he yells "Mommy, a aiplane, forafornia" (Mommy on airplane to California).

Kaelin Avery celebrated her 3rd birthday last week.  She got so many presents, new clothes and toys.  Her favorite was a stuffed unicorn (she named "rainbow purple") which Keeley picked out for her.  She just had her 3 year old check up and  is right on track.  The pediatrician was surprised though at how high she could jump (must be those gymnastics classes!).  She's in a really lovable stage and will just out of the blue come up to us and ask "Mommy, may I give you a kiss" and just say "I love you" for no reason at all. 

Keeley Shea is 4 years and 3 months old. She seems to have grown up so much the past couple of months. She's finally out of her phase of whining when she wants something or doesn't get her way. She's really become such a great big sister and role model for the rest of the gang.  Keeley still enjoys her regular gymnastics class at Arnold's Gymnastics Academy and Kaelin will be joining her there in a couple of months as soon as she's old enough.  Keeley said that white is her new favorite color because "white is for weddings" and "I'm going to marry Aidan, Ryan (her cousin) and Arthur (her friend in CA)" she then went on to say that she was in love with them all.  Mommy and Keeley have a mother/daughter tea on Friday at Keeley's school and next week she'll be learning about safety and visiting the local police station on her first school bus. 

Grandma and Grandpa visited us for week last week (see folder of pics) and got to celebrate Kaelin's birthday with us.  Unfortunately, we had a Nor'easter going through Massachusetts and it poured rain the whole time they were here, we played lots of indoor games, read lots of books, did lots of schoolwork and had some tea parties.  Grandma and Grandpa stayed in a hotel that had a heated pool and the kids loved swimming in it (now they are spoiled from the warm water and want the pool in our back yard to be heated).  We got everyone out at the same time, only once, for everyone's favorite food--Mexican.  Grandpa and Daddy built the kids a big sandbox, now we just need to decide where to put it (oh, and purchase hundreds of dollars worth of play sand!).  Daddy is still clearing out some woods in the back of the house, and trying to get our grass as green as all the neighbors....so we may wait until the yard is in better shape before deciding.  The gang loves all the puzzles, toys, books and clothes that Grandma and Grandpa brought, but a favorite is the puppet theatre as you can tell from the photos.

The weather has been beautiful the past few days and we've been outside a lot, on the swing set, riding toy cars and bikes, digging in the dirt, picking flowers, looking at worms and salamanders.  Spring is in the air!  Auntie Amy and cousin Natalia are coming to visit us in a couple weeks.  We're so excited to see them!

Upcoming birthdays & events include:

• April 25th Mommy's 36th Birthday
• June 13th Aidan's 2nd Birthday
• June 22nd Auntie Amy and Uncle Cary's Wedding Anniversary
• July 1st Nana's 64th Birthday

Ainsley Marin is 17 weeks old!  She surprised us by rolling over two days ago.  Twice in a row!  We've only seen it two times since then, but she's on her way. Her back is getting so strong and she can sit in her boppy pillow toy for quite some time without falling forward.  She's staying awake for hours in a row during the day and is somewhat starting to get a regular morning and afternoon nap schedule.  She seems to be wanting to feed less these days, although she doesn't appear to be losing any weight. 

Aidan Kane is 22 months old.  His word of the week is "alright". He ends every statement and question with that word "Hey guys, hurry, alright."  He's enjoying his "wiggle worm" class at Maplewood.  Learning lots of new songs and playing with other boys, which is nice because he has three sisters to compete with each day).  When it's time to go into the gym halfway through class, he heads straight for the basketball hoop and football bin even though there are about 15 other activities in the gym, from a bouncy house to slides, rings, climbing toys, etc. etc.  He loves football!

Kaelin Avery is looking forward to her 3rd birthday tomorrow.  She wanted a "my pretty pony" cake and is very into horses these days, so we have a few horsey presents for her (she wants a real one, but that will have to wait!).  We always have to drive very slowly by the farm a couple miles away when we pass it so she can scream "my horsey, my brown horsey!" when she sees her favorites.  It looks like they have riding lessons there so we might have to look into that in a few years.  Kaelin and Keeley have been doing great in the class they starting taking together at Maplewood, it's called "Head over Heels" and is all about gymnastics, tumbling, balance, etc.

Keeley Shea is 4 years and 3 months old. She seems to have grown up so much the past couple of months. She's finally out of her phase of whining when she wants something or doesn't get her way. She's really become such a great big sister and role model for the rest of the gang.  Keeley still enjoys her regular gymnastics class at Arnold's Gymnastics Academy and Kaelin will be joining her there in a couple of months as soon as she's old enough.  Keeley said that white is her new favorite color because "white is for weddings" and "I'm going to marry Aidan, Ryan (her cousin) and Arthur (her friend in CA)" she then went on to say that she was in love with them all.

The kids had a great Easter. Ainsley's first and the rest of the gang's most memorable Easter so far. We had the O'Shea clan over and the Easter Bunny brought lots of candy and some presents too (Keeley was very curious about how he could possible carry everything, especially the gymnastic mats, since he doesn't have elves or a sleigh). We got see Mikey and Tracey for the first time since they got engaged in Paris in February, they are planning an October 2007 wedding on the coast in Maine.  Grandma and Grandpa Pierzchalski will be starting their drive from Wisconsin tomorrow, stopping in Ohio for a night, and we'll see them in two days!