Ainsley Marin is 9 1/2 months old!  She now has four teeth!  Loves big people food like crazy and gets really agitated when she has to eat baby food if there is big people food on the table.  She is mimicking everything these days and her personality is really starting to shine through.  She's pulling herself up onto everything and starting to "walk" with her little push mail cart.  She starting climbing up stairs too, so we now have to start locking the bottom gate on the stairs so she doesn't crawl up there!  She knows when she is doing something she shouldn't though and always looks back over her shoulder with this big grin.  Ainsley now likes the big tub now, but only if the other kids are in there with her (see photos this month--we can barely fit them all in the tub at once but they insist on it!).  She's saying "mama" and "dada" these days. She's really good at playing peek a boo and is such a good sport when the other kids try to involve her in their activities (like dressing her up like one of their dolls).  She's starting to like some of the same toys as Aidan, so he's now having to learn how to share more.  Ainsley "runs" up and down the driveway in her little walker, it's hysterical to see her chase one of the other kids. She loves watching Jeff play guitar, listening to music and standing and playing at her little music table.

Aidan Kane is 2 years and 3 month old.  We wish we could videotape an entire day of the funny things that come out of his mouth. He has such cute favorite phrases "for real?" he'll ask if he thinks you're pretending with him or "for real" after he states a command "I'm going outside...for real, okay?".  He's still a little bugger when it comes to the girls "I'm going to Home Depot, an you're not, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha" he says with a devilish smile.  But, in the same instance, he'll just out of the blue say "Daddy/Mommy, I love you", just for no reason at all or wrap his arms around Ainsley and say "Aww, Ainley so beautiful".  It's so cute.  His language skills explode more and more by the week and also his grasp of new concepts, like talking about what happened "yesterday or day before" and also saying "member when....?", and saying things like "I just a little scared at movie, not a lot scared".

Kaelin Avery is 3 years and 5 months and Keeley Shea is 4 years and 8 months old.   Both have a full schedule of activities, between Pre-School and Pre-K, dance classes and gymnastics class. Keeley is also playing Soccer (Team Wiggles!), Jeff is the team coach.  She scored her first goals this past weekend (two of the four for her team--and the teams are coed with some of the boys 5-6 inches taller than her!).  This is Kaelin's first year at her Pre-School and she is doing awesome. Keeley rejoined most of the same kids she went to Pre-School with to start Pre-School and she loves her days at school as well. The biggest challenge of these days is sticking to the tight schedule we have, especially in the morning when there are arguments about what the girls want to wear. They insist on getting really dressed up for School, tights, dress shoes, etc. They have a hard time with the concept of "play clothes". Kaelin has a new horsey outfit that she wants to wear almost every day (she's still very into horses and unicorns!) and Keeley loves her hair in braids even though Mommy is absolutely no good at making them...Kaelin is really great at computer games and would love to sit at it all day if we let her!  One computer, three kids wanting to play on it and fighting over the mouse...The girls are disappointed that we'll be closing up the pool this week.  They were in it every day this summer, rain or shine!  The last few times Keeley went in the pool, she mastered swimming across it and in just the last couple of weeks, going under water and swimming without blocking her nose! 

All the kids are looking forward to Uncle Mikey and "Auntie 2B" Tracey's wedding in two weeks, Grandma and Grandpa's visit, and our vacation in Kennebunkport.  They also can't wait until Halloween and decided to be a gang from The Wizard of Oz (it was either that or Princesses for the girls YET AGAIN...).  Keeley will be Glenda the Good Witch, Kaelin will be Dorothy (and of course, she has a basket and Toto too), Aidan will be a Lion and Aisley will be a baby scarecrow.  October's house project will be replacing the two picture windows in the Family Room, that is going to be quite a project!  We are hoping to squeeze getting the house painted and getting rid of the horrible yellow color before it gets too cold.  We had 80-90 degree weather last week (Mommy was in California and it was cooler there!) but it's started to cool down again and now seems like a typical New England Autumn.  Not much foliage action yet, and we're not sure if we'll be able to squeeze in an apple-picking weekend this year. The kids will be disappointed, but we've got a packed schedule in October. 

Upcoming birthdays & events include:

• October 5th Daddy's 36th Birthday
• October 15th Cousin Natalia's 4th Birthday
• October 30th Uncle Tony's 43rd Birthday
• November 5th Auntie Amy's 38th Birthday
• November 12th Grandma's Birthday
• November 23rd Grandma and Grandpa's 39th Wedding Anniversary
• November 30th Uncle Mikey's 34th Birthday