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! :)

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!

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...

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!!

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...

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.

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!