Friday, July 30, 2010

Last week, we had to run to Wal-Mart to get a few things. While we were there, we picked up this big green ball for Addison and Fischer to play with.


As soon as we walked in the door, Scott and I both said "we should've bought two balls." I don't know why we didn't. The thought didn't even cross our minds when we were in Wal-Mart. Addison and Fischer do OK sharing toys, but with certain items (like big bouncing balls), it just helps to have two on hand. We tried letting them play with it anyway, but they immediately started fighting over it, and it was turning ugly. So, the ball had to be put away until we could go get another one.  Yesterday, we finally got another one!


They have had the best time playing with them. You can see that Addison is showing hers off to Bo, who is hanging out in the (air-conditioned) sunroom!

In other news, Addison has had a slight fever over the past couple of days. I was finally able to feel around in her mouth and found that her 4th molar has just broken through, which is probably why she has a fever. She seems fine otherwise, which is always good news.  That brings her up to 12 teeth!

They have both been saying many new words. I was trying to keep up with them, and it became stressful for me, so I stopped. I have a mental list, but have stopped worrying about writing them all down.  Fischer will repeat any word we say, and he is saying many, many words on his own.  Addison had a slower spell where she stopped using as many new words, but I've noticed that it's picking back up now. I think she was happy letting Fischer answer all the questions, and do all the talking.

Fischer is going through a waking-up-at-night phase. It's been almost nightly now for about 2 weeks. He wakes up and cries, and sounds like he's panicking some of the time.  I talked to the nurse, wondering if it was his reflux bothering him. So, we decided to start up his morning dose of Zantac again (they were both just getting it at dinner). That seemed to do the trick for 3 nights, then he was back to waking up again. So, I'm thinking it's just a phase, but hate that he might be having bad dreams or something like that. All we can do is comfort him and hopefully he'll be out of this phase soon!

We are looking forward to a weekend at home with nothing big planned. Sometimes those are the best!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Yesterday, we went swimming with my friend Melissa, and her son Brooks. Brooks is a month older than Addison and Fischer, so it was fun watching them together.  Brooks is a very tall boy, so we tried to get a picture of the 3 of them standing together to really show the height differences, but didn't have much success because they don't like to hold still. :)

 Here they are in the pool (Addison on the left, Brooks in the middle and Fischer on the right) - I couldn't get anyone to look at me!


Fischer is always happy after a dip in the pool...


Eating some lunch before playing some more...


Addison and Brooks trying to figure out what to do about the tunnel...


I'm happy that there were no arguments over toys, and no tears! The main thing I'm noticing about these play dates is that they all like to swap sippy cups. I suppose it could be worse! :)

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Last Thursday, Addison and Fischer turned 17 months old! I can't believe that in just a few short weeks, they will be 18 months old. That sounds so old.

To mark the occasion, we had a playdate with our friend, Rylan, who is 2 months younger than Addison and Fischer.  The three babies first met last July when we went to the beach.


They are so much different now. They are all very mobile, and were all over the place. They played well together, and it was very cute to watch. It gave me a little taste of what triplets would be like at this age. Here they are playing at Rylan's house, where they loved looking out the front door. I could only get one picture with all 3 of them in it!



Monday, July 26, 2010

I'll be the first to admit that we haven't been the best about letting Addison and Fischer use spoons. I always have plans to let them try eating on their own, but then I forget until well after the meal is over. So, the spoon-using has been very inconsistent.  Last week, however, I finally remembered to let them do this several times. I gave them each a bowl of yogurt, a spoon and let them work their magic. It was pretty funny.

The yogurt eating was a little slow at first...



Then, they got the hang of it and actually ate a good amount on their own...



Then, they decided spoons were slowing them down, and used their hands...



And finally, it was all gone... Addison just wanted to be extra sure she didn't leave any in her bowl...

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Now that I'm done posting about our vacation, I can post some updates about Addison and Fischer!

They did great staying with their Grandma and Grandpa Suttle while we were on vacation.  Addison was a little mad at us when we got back, but she eventually warmed up to us. :)  They especially enjoyed watching all of the deer that venture into Grandma and Grandpa's yard.. and because of that, they learned the new word "dee" while we were gone!

I was brave enough the other day to do a tooth count - it's scary sticking your fingers into those mouths! Fischer now has 16 teeth, and Addison is still holding steady at 11.  Fischer has been waking up at night lately and I think tooth #16 just broke through, so that might be why.

They are starting to take longer and longer to fall asleep for their morning naps. They lay in there and "talk" for quite awhile before eventually falling asleep.  Going to one nap a day might be in our near future.

They are talking all the time, although most of it is in their own language. I love that I can ask them to do something now, and they do it! It's amazing how much they are understanding now!

Fischer has started saying "no" which is always fun. :) He says it in context and absolutely means it. I'll say "Fischer, try a carrot!" and he just says "Nah" and refuses to put one into his mouth.  We don't force the food issue, so after trying a couple of times, if he still says "nah" I stop trying. Usually, he'll eat a few on his own anyway. The other day, Scott was across the room and said "Fischer, come over here" and Fischer said "Nah" and walked the other way. It was funny, but also scary at the same time since we now realize we are going to be hearing "nah" a lot more!

Here are Addison and Fischer in their Harvard t-shirts from our trip. They look like future Harvard students to me!



And here they are hanging out on the couch looking outside.


I can't believe it was 2 years ago today that I found out I was pregnant. Oh, how things change!!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Sunday was the last full day of our trip! We woke up and had breakfast at our hotel, then headed back to Boston. We were able to return the rental car to our hotel, so that avoided another trip to the airport! After following the incorrect Google Maps directions, we finally found our hotel (the same one we stayed in the first 2 nights).

We had planned on heading over to Harvard Square for the Bastille Day Festival that was going on all day Sunday. We hopped on the "T" and headed over...


We were able to find the festival because of the huge crowd gathered in front of a TV watching The World Cup.


The Bastille Day Festival wasn't as big as we thought it would be, so we didn't stay too long. We ate some lunch at a restaurant right by the big crowd and the TV, then headed over to walk around Harvard's campus.  We also stopped to get ourselves some t-shirts - Addison and Fischer got one too! There were some very pretty buildings and gates on campus.


We went back to the hotel to relax before heading to dinner. We tried an Italian place that my parents recommended. I had my last dozen oysters of the trip, and lobster ravioli, which was all delicious!! We decided to walk back to the hotel so we could explore the North End area a little more.


There were so many cute parks with fountains, and all had a lot of little kids playing in them. It's funny how much I pay attention to children when we are out and about now!

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Union Oyster House - the oldest restaurant in America. Scott was ready for his last bowl of chowder... and just like that, it was time to say goodbye to all of the delicious chowders and other seafood!


We stopped to listen to some live music on the way back to the hotel, but he was packing up just as we arrived. So, we headed back to pack up and get ready for our early flight home on Monday morning!

Here we are at the airport on Monday...


We could NOT wait to get home to these little ones...


Monday, July 19, 2010

Saturday morning, Scott and I "slept in" again, then headed to breakfast. We, once again, asked our concierge for a suggestion, and he suggested Becky's Diner right down the street.  Apparently it was featured on one of Rachel Ray's shows... this is actually one we didn't know about! We ate a later breakfast there, then walked back to our hotel to pack up and head to Freeport, which was only about 20 miles away!

We got there too early to check in, so we parked and walked up to the L.L. Bean area. It was huge, with 4 large L.L. Bean stores (all of which are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year). By this time, it was pouring, so we didn't have time to really look around outside, we just hurried into the first building we came to. We ended up looking around 3 or the 4 buildings, and saved the "best" for last. The "best" being the hunting and fishing one. Scott was so excited and I knew he'd spend quite some time browsing in there. So before doing that, we went to eat some lunch, then to check into our hotel.

Below is one of the L.L. Bean stores.



Later in the afternoon, after relaxing and using the hotel's indoor pool, we headed back out in the rain to the hunting and fishing store.


Along the way, we stopped by the giant L.L. Bean boot... Scott actually bought a pair of these boots while we were there, but they were normal sized, of course.


After some shopping, we went to dinner at a local brick oven pizza place. It stopped raining for the most part, so we made our way back to the L.L. Bean area because there was a free concert going on on the lawn. Once it started, it started raining a little harder, so we just stayed for a couple of songs.


We looked in some of the other outlet stores on the way back to the hotel, but we couldn't buy anything due to our suitcases already being full. Good thing!! We relaxed the rest of the night, and we were ready to head back to Boston on Sunday.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Friday morning, Scott and I "slept in" (past 8:00!). I nearly had a panic attack when I saw the clock, then realized there were no babies to take care of! We got ready, then headed back over to Quincy Market for breakfast. Since we were too full to each lunch there the day before, we wanted to try to get something there before heading out to Portland.  Forget breakfast foods - we both enjoyed a delicious lobster roll. We were excited that someone would sell us one at 10 in the morning. :)


We headed back to the hotel to meet the rental car person - they dropped our car off for us, which saved us a trip back to the airport to pick it up. Then, we hit the road. I was so excited to go to Maine, since it was somewhere new! I was really hoping to see a moose hanging out by the road on our 2 hour drive, but didn't have any luck.

We checked in to our hotel, which was a really cute local hotel. It was perfectly located so that we could walk wherever we needed to go.  Their website is www.portlandharborhotel.com if you'd like to check it out! Once we got settled, it was time to go find some lunch. Once again, we were on the hunt for a restaurant we'd seen on Anthony Bordain: No Reservations on the Travel Channel.  It was called J's Oyster and it looked like our kind of place.  A shack, right on the water, nothing fancy and most importantly, fresh seafood... also, the locals like to eat their too! We found it pretty quickly, and found 2 seats at the bar - the last 2 seats in the whole place. Scott couldn't wait to have some of their famous steamer clams (after sampling their chowder, of course). Scott ate them a lot growing up, but I'd never had them, so I was eager to give them a try. As Scott said they would be, they were very tasty!


After lunch, we walked around most of the afternoon and explored. I was amazed by this parking lot and office building. The building is pretty much just sitting on a dock, and the deck part is also the parking lot (the picture also shows where we ate lunch in the background)... it made me nervous standing there along with all of the parked cars. It just seemed to me that a dock wouldn't be able to support all of that weight!



We ate dinner at a place right across the street from the hotel. I had crab cakes and was very pleased! Scott wasn't as impressed with his braised short rib dinner, and I told him it was because he didn't get seafood! After dinner, we decided to go listen to some live music. A lot of the places along the water were having music that night. Again, we found oursleves at a place where the ENTIRE bar was on a deck right over the water. I guess you get used to it! We had a great time and stayed out until midnight!!


Then it was time to rest up for our trip to Freeport, Maine on Saturday.

*A side note - I talked to my parents several times a day to check in on Addison and Fischer, who were doing just fine. My dad also sent me daily picture texts so that I could see them. I was excited to get those!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

I think one of the best parts of our vacation was not having anything scheduled. Our daily lives are so scheduled now with Addison and Fischer, so it was nice to just go and do things as we felt like it. We did have our hotel reservations made for each city, and we had a couple restaurants in mind that we knew we wanted to try. In addition, we knew we were going to do the Harpoon Brewery tasting on Thursday, we just weren't sure if we'd do the 2:00 or 4:00 one... it just depended on how our day was going!

Thursday, we woke up and wanted to try a local diner type place for breakfast.  The concierge at our hotel recommended a pub that was close by. So, we gave it a try and it was a great suggestion!


After breakast we headed over to explore Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market.  Since the Market has so many food vendors, we were going to eat lunch there before heading to the brewery.  We walked around for awhile, and tried on some lobster hats and spent some time with the Cheers crowd.



By the time lunch time rolled around, we still weren't hungry because of our big breakfast (although Scott did try a bowl of chowder from one of the vendors). We decided to walk towards the Brewery and find something to eat along the way. We ended up at Legal Test Kitchen for lunch. Many people recommended Legal Seafood as somewhere to eat, so we thought it was neat to be able to try their test kitchen restaurant. Our food was delicious, and I especially loved eating more oysters!


After lunch, we walked along the water. The water was basically infested with jellyfish - I couldn't get over how many there were!


We knew we were getting close to the Harpoon Brewery because these were on the sidewalk...


Scott was getting excited!


We arrived early for the 2:00 tasting, so we spent some time looking at all the Harpoon merchandise. Scott bought a hat and proudly wore it during the tasting. Finally, we got our tasting glasses, and the fun began. It was an hour long tasting but there was no tour since it was during the week. In between samples, the guys would talk about the history of each beer that was on tap to taste and the history of the company. Total, there were 11 beers we could try. It was informative and fun!

Afterwards, we took a cab back to the hotel so we could take advantage of our hotel's indoor pool (which was really cold), steam room and deck. I had a great time relaxing in the sun - everyone kept saying how hot it was, but in my opinion, it was perfect!

For dinner, we went to Turner Fisheries so Scott could sample some of their award-winning chowder. I decided to have some too! It was good, but not the best we had during our trip. After that "appetizer" we headed to Chinatown, which was close to our hotel.  



We were full from dinner and tired from walking all day, so we decided to make it an early night. We were excited for our trip to Portland, Maine on Friday! 

Friday, July 16, 2010

Last Wedesnday (July 7), our vacation began! I felt like I'd been packing and getting everything organized for days (or weeks!) so I was ready to get on the road. Addison and Fischer got up at their normal time of 7 a.m. and I fed them breakfast. While I was feeding them, Scott took our furry babies to "camp." Then, we fed Addison and Fischer their morning snack a little early, around 8:30, loaded them in the car and hit the road! We left at what is normally their nap time in hopes that they'd sleep for awhile on our 3.5 hour ride to my mom and dad's house.  They did sleep for awhile, and did great in the car once they were awake! I was nervous because last time we made the trip back, I was alone with them and they screamed (not just cried, but screamed) for about 2 straight hours. Thankfully, this didn't happen again!

Here they are during our ride. Fischer is wide awake, but decided to play shy for the camera... and here is Addison being her lady-like self.



We arrived at lunch time, and we were all hungry! We ate lunch, then Addison and Fischer had fun exploring their play area. We put them down (or tried to) for their 2:00 nap time. The plan was to put them down, then leave... that way, they wouldn't actually see us leaving. They apparently weren't in the mood to nap though so they cried for awhile. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to leave while they were crying, but things don't always go as planned.  So, Scott and I left for the airport, and my parents went to "rescue" them from their naps! 

We got into Boston around 7, headed to our hotel to check-in, then took a cab to dinner. We had already planned to eat at The Barking Crab, as seen on Man v. Food (a show that we both love).  Here is a picture of The Barking Crab that I took the next day as we walked by. The yellow and red part is a big tent that is open to the water. The other half is the same menu, but indoor seating, and a separate waiting list. We sat inside since the wait was much shorter.



Scott set a goal for vacation to try as many different clam "chowdas" as he could. He then rated each one on a scale from 1-10.  Here is his very first bowl, but I can't remember what he rated any of them. I just remember that none of them scored below a 6, and his favorite was when we were in Portland, Maine. 



While he enjoyed his chowder, I enjoyed some oysters. Then, we both decided to treat ourselves to crab and lobster. It was so good. Scott wasn't wild about wearing the bib, but I made him put it on for the picture.


After dinner, we walked back to the hotel so we could rest up to explore Boston on Thursday.