• KEELEY is two years old!  She just moved up to "Group 2" at School, which means she's with the "big kids" now :-).  She loves being creative--drawing, finger painting and playing with clay (and mixing all the colors!).  Keeley loves to read books--her favorite right now is "The Little Engine That Could".  Her favorite song to be sung when she goes to bed is "Dust in the Wind."  She can count to 17 (although she skips right over 16 for some reason :-), say all of of her colors and can repeat the letters of the alphabet (although she loves to skip to "wxyz-- now I know my abc's next time won't you sing with me!".  She also likes to sing "twinkle, twinkle little star and "somewhere over the rainbow"  She's learned that Mommy's family is in Massachusetts and Daddy's is in Wisconsin--she says both state names very well!  Keeley is putting more and more short sentences each day--her language skills are exploding.   Some of her favorite sentences include "Mommy, what is that?" and "Daddy who is that?". She's becoming so inquisitive and demands on doing everything herself (from putting on her clothes to buckling herself in the carseat.  Speaking of carseats...Mommy and Daddy broke down and finally bought a (dare we say it...) minivan.  Keeley insisted on a DVD player and Daddy ("gadget-guy") wanted a navigation/GPS system, so they are both having fun with the new car and all the new electronic components.  Keeley still loves to pretend play in her kitchen and make all kinds of entrees.  Her most favorite thing is being outside and exploring new things, she loves going to the beach (which we try to do often!).  She still loves playing with all of her musical instruments and taking care of her baby "Stella."  She changes her diaper, gives her a bottle, pushes her in the doll stroller and put her to sleep at night.  She also loves pretend play--like pretending she's shopping, or grabbing her purse and putting on Mommy's shoes and pretending to go to work.  She also loves her new doctor's kit (until she has her 2 yr. shots next week, I bet!).  She's very interested in cooking and joins Mommy in the kitchen to help with almost every meal.  Keeley loves to take care of Kaelin and most of the time refers to her as "sweetie-pie" (she's also started to call some of the other infants she meets that name too!).  Her new favorite DVD is "Wizard of Oz", the likes the scene where the Lion gets introduced and she finds it funny to say "put em up, put em up!"
• KAELIN is 9 months old! She has two teeth on the bottom and four on top! She's crawling everywhere and her most favorite place to crawl is under the kitchen table where it's difficult to pull her out from!  We often find her chasing Keeley and Keeley going from room to room to hide on her.  They love this game an laugh hysterically when they find each other.  Kaelin loves "walking" holding on to her mail-push cart and Keeley's doll stroller.  She loves playing shopping with Keeley too.  She loves playing with dolls now and listening to music.  Keeley is teaching her how to dance.  She's learning more and more commands and will begin to learn baby sign language at school this month.  She's eating bits and pieces of most "big people" food.  She's so lovable and always has a smile for everyone (except for the camera!).  Kaelin loves to be outside and especially loves going for walks in the radio flyer wagon! She's saying "mama", "dada" and a few other "words"!

Upcoming birthdays & events include:

• January:  Keeley's 2nd Birthday (7th), Uncle Sean (13th)
• February:  Valentine's Day (14th!), Conor's 8th Birthday (15th)
• March:  Auntie Erin and Kelly's Birthday (5th), Uncle Brady's Birthday (26th)