Just from school that is...no vacation for us grown-ups.  Even after growing up having a "February vacation" every year in school, I still don't understand it.  Geez...didn't we just get back from winter school vacation--that was two whole weeks off of school at Christmas/New Years, Martin Luther King Day in January, not to mention the Professional Day off (oh and two snow days to boot!).  So, I guess the total of like 20 days school since the last vacation is too much and that's why yet another vacation was needed.  Let's hope we have no more snow days between next week and April vacation week!  Oh, and thank you schools for giving us the gift of conjunctivitis and strep throat x's 4 (Jeff and Tara are "free" to date!) for this "february vacation".   It takes two adults to hold down one kid and pull open eye lids to get drops in a couple times a day!  I'm sure it's no pleasure for them either, but it's horrible for us! With us all getting our flu shots this year, I think (I hope) will stave off the flu in the upcoming months.

More pleasant things...we can finally see the grass for the first time in over two months and our pool cover (yes, it's still covered in what looks like an ice skating rink) but Yippee!!  We had quite a few days of 50-60 degree whether which was very cool (rather warm...).  Daddy finally got a decent day to take all the christmas lights down from the house and trees this past weekend.  Despite the hope for a quick end to winter, we decided to book a warm weather get away to Atlantis in the Bahamas later this Spring.  Still aways off, but it's something we can look forward to when it's 15 degrees out and we're waiting at the bus stop in the morning.  A trip to Target this past weekend helped the vacation case when we were inundated with bathing suits and summer gear.  How could we resist buying into all that marketing! Aidan has already packed his suitcase with his snorkle, scuba man and a plastic baggy with a lobster claw in it (his cleaned souvenir from the lobster he ate a few days ago).  

Kaelin and Aidan are enjoying their KidzArt class every Monday after school. Especially Kaelin.  She comes home with some amazing art work for a 4 year old, including proper scaling (she amazed us by on her own starting to draw things in the background as much smaller and says "those are far away") Pretty cool stuff.  Aidan's cracked us up the past couple of weeks with more of his sayings and words...like at a restaurant the other night when I told him that he couldn't have soda because we only have that on special occassions, he bursts out "That's ridiculous Mommy! You are really frustrating me!"  Again, one of those times that I'm not sure whether to pretend that he's not mine or crack up laughing.  

Keeley is getting so good at reading these days and reading everything in sight that we might have to start censoring our posts, especially around the holidays (wink, wink).  She's been very into star gazing lately and always finds that bright north star to wish upon.  She refuses to tell us what she is wishing for ("because it won't come true"). We've tried to convince her that she can tell Mommy and Daddy, but she's just not buying it, and we feel bad that the wish could come true, but can't because she won't share it with us!  Weeks later and her stubborn first loose tooth is still staring at us each day (despite loads of apples being eaten and off season corn on the cob to try to loosen it more).  

The kids are enjoying ice skating (in-door rink...no ponds for us). The festivities around Valentine's day were fun. We enjoyed spending a couple hours making valentine cards for the elderly, and Keeley had fun making valentine gift bags for her classmates.  We had a Valentine's date (all 6 of us...) at Friendly's ice-cream, with four overtired kids...no more Saddle Peak Lodge valentine's dates like in the old days (ah, what we wouldn't give some weekends to hop on a plane just for the tasting menu).  Mommy's been tempted to go when she's out in LA (nearly every week lately)..., but it just wouldn't be the same without Jeff (and we're not so sure New Zealand Elk or Antelope would make it back to MA in a doggy bag anyhow).

We added a few more fish to Aidan's tank this week - a couple guppies and a plecostomus (yup, quite funny to hear a 2, 3, 4 and 6 year old say that one!). Three years and we still have 3 of the original 4 goldfish (despite probably being well overfeed by the kids all thinking that it's "their" day to feed them several times a day on occassion).

Ainsley is singing the alphabet all the time and also counting to 16.  It's pretty cool that she not only memorized counting, but also counts the actual objects.  She loves walking up and down the stairs and counting too.  90% of the day, she doesn't simply walk around the house, she has this little skipping run, it's the cutest darn thing.  When she jumps, she catches air and can hop a good six inches off the ground, both feet at a time (for those of you who don't have kids, you won't know...but this is pretty funny).  Ainsley is beginning to be a very picky eater.  We should take stock in Barilla pasta at this point, and Land O' Lakes sweetened salted butter.  Good old pasta w/butter sauce.  Why eat at home for 10 cents a meal when we can enjoy going out to dinner every Friday night and paying 8 bucks for a bowl of pasta and butter.  But, then again, maybe it's worth the extra 7 bucks a plate to have them clean it off the floor and not us :-) Oh, and we do try to buy the multi-colored pasta (white, green and orange) to try to sneak in the tiny amount spinach or carrot that they say is in there (or is it really just food coloring to make us parents feel better?) But then we get into arguments and trading at the table when one kid wants all the orange and another the green or white!

Ainsley hasn't gotten off of her kick of singing and wanting christmas songs to be sung to her. Oh, how Mommy is tired of good old Frosty the Snowman every night and wishes he would just melt for good until next year :-)  Sorry Ainsley, I'd much rather go back to Somewhere Over the Rainbow! The late "Iz" Israel Kamakawiwo'ole sings our favorite version that we love watching on You Tube.

Here's hoping we can get through the week without Jeff and Tara catching pink-eye or strep!!

We completed a backlog of updates over the weekend (see Oct/Nov 2008 and December 2008 updates below). For historical purposes, we dated them during those months. But we wanted to highlight these additions in case you were interested in late fall happenings on the clan. 

So, on to January 2009.  We're glad the holidays are over, and we can't help but wish winter was too. It's been brutal (probably not as bad as our family in WI have had it, but bad enough). This is our third winter since moving to Boston from California and we still can't get use to the cold (Mommy is probably the biggest wimp of all, despite 28 prior years in these Massachusetts winters!).  Two more snow days this month.  We can't even recall how many we are up to at this point, but we're thinking that school will definitely be extended beyond the schedule June 19 date this year!  

We celebrated Keeley's 6th birthday on January 7th. Our first baby is 6 already!  No big party like last year when she turned five (we can hardly throw one of those every year!), just family and a High School Musical cake at home and cupcakes and cookies at school.

We are so excited that Ainsley has started to say her own name. Now, it's not that she couldn't before, she just wouldn't. She of course, has been talking up a storm for quite some time, but has always refused to say her name...to the point of saying "no like it".  Not once in two years has she even attempted to say it. We started thinking that we might need to change it at some point if she NEVER ends up wanting to say it!!!  We're not sure what the turning point was, but it did happen and now she says it all the time "Ain za lee" with a lisp between the za and lee.  She has been such a trip this month.  Especially when it comes to taking care of her baby dolls.  She plays with them like a five year old would and has the routines (from diaper changing, feeding, washing, etc.) down to a tee.  She also loves when she and Keeley play. She makes Keeley be the baby, crawling around and she pretends to be the Mommy--so cute.  When it's Aidan's turn to play with her, he's the Daddy and while Ainsley strolls her baby around the house in the pink buggy, Aidan fills the blue one up his toys (stealth bomber and figher plans, tools, balls, etc.).  Speaking of blue...when picking out his washclothe during a bath last week, we automatically assumed he wanted a blue clothe (as has been his choice for the last three years...), he suprised us by saying "I cancelled blue". When we asked what he meant, he gave us an annoyed look and said "I cancelled it, I like orange and yellow now".  Apparently, "cancelled" means he no longer likes it.  This month anyway! 

Soon after Keeley got her ear's pierced last summer, Kaelin started begging. We were going to wait until her 5th birthday in April, but she's been such a sweethart and hard worker both at school and at home that we caved in early. She is so proud (see the pics this month).  Of course, as opposed to Keeley's choice of tiny diamonds for her first earnings and piercing, Kaelin chose little gold turtles.  We knew it would be something creature or animal related! 

About a year ago during a dental visit for a cleaning, our dentist told us that Keeley had a couple loose teeth. Well, it's been a full year and she still hasn't actually lost any.  BUT, one of her bottom teeth is coming in behind one of the baby teeth (that hasn't yet fallen out!). We've been wiggling up a storm the past month with no luck yet.  We even visiting the dentist because most of the advice we've been getting is that the baby tooth should be pulled, but our dentist said to hold off another month and see if it falls out on it's own. So, in the meantime, we watch the adult tooth grow and wiggle every night.  Keeley is so ready for the tooth fairy to come and has even started making her presents for when she comes for the first time.  So...this is the start the tooth fairy coming to our house.  80 times probably. Wouldn't be suprised since the kids are so close in age if she makes a stops in a couple of our bedrooms on the same night at some point.  80 times...5 or 10 bucks a pop (we hear it's what she give now--what the heck happend to a quarter???).  Now wouldn't that $400-800 be much better spent somewhere else Miss Tooth Fairy....say, saving for braces??