As I mentioned, we recently made the trip up to PA to visit Scott's family. We knew it was a gamble doing the 10 hour drive overnight, but we figured we'd never know how it would go until we tried.  So, Wednesday night, we had dinner, did baths for Addison and Fischer, gave them their pre-bedtime snack, then put them in the car. Fischer started crying immediately, so we were worried it would be a long night. Luckily, as soon as we were all in the car he stopped. I think he was confused!  Here they are, ready to get on the road!

We were pleasantly surprised at how well Addison and Fischer did on the trip. They fell asleep about an hour into the drive, and woke up only a couple of times throughout the entire 10 hours.  We arrived at Scott's mom's house shortly after 5 am. Scott and I were exhausted, but Addison and Fischer were well rested and ready to play. We managed to stay awake until their  9 am nap time, then we took naps as well.

After naps, we went to lunch so Addison and Fischer could try their first cheese steak sandwiches. I think they loved them!

After lunch, we just spent time with Scott's mom for the rest of the day. We went to a park close to her house, which is always fun.

It was a fun day, but we were all pretty tired from our long night of driving. Needless to say, we went to bed early so we could rest up for Friday!

Addison and Fischer played with shaving cream today. They had a great time!

We just got back from a trip to Pennsylvania to visit Scott's family.  We drove overnight both there and back, and it was a success. Addison and Fischer did awesome, and I was so proud of them! I will post more about our trip soon!

While we were there, Addison and Fischer turned 18 months old. 18 months. A year and a half. I can't believe it. Now we are creeping up on them turning 2, which sort of terrifies me. :)  Here they are,  on their 18 month "birthday" playing on the porch at Grandma K's house.

At 18 months, they seem to be doing great. We don't have their checkup for a few more weeks, so I won't have their "stats" or official information until then.

Here are a few updates:

I think Fischer weighs more than Addison, and I know that he is taller than her.
They are both wearing 12-18 month clothes and size 4 shoes.
They wear size 4 diapers during the day, and size 5 at night.
Fischer has 16 teeth and Addison has her 14th coming in.
They both love food and love to drink water.
They still don't drink much juice at all.
They still get milk 3 times a day... Addison is still drinking soy milk. We are planning to try her on whole milk again this week or next week. We will just put a little whole milk in with her soy milk, and slowly increase the amount to see how she tolerates it.
They still nap twice a day.
They are sleeping pretty well - one will occasionally wake up, but it's been better over the past few weeks. They go to bed around 7:30 and wake up between 6:30 and 7.
They love watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Sesame Street.

I think their differences are becoming more and more clear each day as they get older. Fischer seems to be all boy, and wants to play rough most of the time. He loves playing with dirt and rocks when we go outside. Addison seems to be all girl, and loves cuddling toys and stuffed animals. She has even started saying "awww" or "ohhhh baby" as she holds them. And she will cuddle almost anything. The other day at lunch, they were eating lo mein. She took a noodle, held it against her stomach, wrapped her arms around it and cuddled it. Yep, a noodle. Then she ate it. :)  She is slowly filling up her crib with her "babies" so it's getting quite crowded in there. Right now, she is napping with Minnie Mouse, her turtle, her pig, her bear, her blanket and her wubbie.

Another difference I've noticed is how they react to us telling them "no." Fischer will go to do something he knows he isn't supposed to do, look at us, and walk away as soon as we say no (most of the time). Addison, on the other hand, looks at us and gives us a big smile while continuing to do whatever it is she isn't supposed to be doing! And it is SOO hard to keep a straight face when she does that.

They are saying more and more words these days (their newest being "nano" for piano, since Grandma K has a piano). Fischer also has his own little language that he talks in a lot.  Addison has also said a couple of two word phrases: "oh baby" as mentioned above, and "bye bye, bear."  They are both very stubborn about saying "please" and "thank you" but we are continuing to work on that.

These updates could go on and on, since they are doing so much right now, but I will stop for now.

Stay tuned for pictures from our trip!

Are we getting close to potty-training time? I have no idea. But, I do know that Addison has told me 3 times over the past 2 days that her diaper was dirty. The first time, she stopped playing, waited a second (I'm assuming this is when she peed), said "uh-oh" then pointed to her diaper.  The second and third times, she alerted me when she went number 2, and pulled at her diaper.

To be honest, I have barely read anything about potty-training. I know there is a checklist floating around out there that shows signs to look for showing that they are ready, but I haven't really looked at it. I don't want to put too much pressure on the issue, and I just don't know if Scott and I are ready to tackle the task. I guess we'll just see what happens next!

I know that was probably too much information for some of you, but these are things I want to remember. :)

In other news, Addison now has tooth number 13. She is getting close to having a mouth full of teeth, just like her brother! Speaking of Fischer, it is becoming very clear just how much he loves being outside. With the weather cooling off just a little (it's been in the low 90s) we've been spending more time outside. He gets so excited and loves running around. Addison enjoys it too, but I'm farily sure that Fischer would stay out all day if we let him. Addison will eventually walk up to the backdoor, knock on it, and call for Bo. :)  I suppose this is her signal that she's ready to go in! They definitely keep me laughing. :)

Monday again.... the weekends go by so fast! We didn't do much over the weekend, but it was nice! We did managed to play outside some, despite the heat. On Saturday, we played in the rain for a little while. Addison just kept laughing as it hit her head. I think Fischer would stay outside for hours if we let him. Hopefully when it finally cools off, we can stay out for much longer!

We are gearing up for a road trip this week to see Grandma Komarnicki... we are going to attempt to leave at Addison and Fischer's bedtime and drive all night. I'm nervous, but we won't know how it is until we actually try it. Depending on how it goes will determine what time we leave for our drive home next week. We have some fun things planned during our trip, and I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures.

Addison and Fischer have been staying busy chattering away (although we don't understand most of what they are saying).  Addison has been on an "uh-oh" kick and must say it at least 100 times a day. She has also started to really love stuffed animals. She is currently napping with a turtle, pig, and a bear, along with her wubbie and a blanket. Her crib is getting quite crowded. It's so cute to see her hug and kiss her stuffed animals, and call them baby "bebe."

A funny story about the stuffed bear she is sleeping with... it has a button where you press the paw and make it snore. Once she insisted on taking it to bed with her, we took the batteries out so that we wouldn't hear it snoring at all hours of the night (there wasn't an on/off swtich).  Then the other night, after baths, we heard her saying "hi" over and over in her crib.  We walked in and she was holding the battery case (while hanging out of the bear by wires) up to her ear and using it as a cell phone. So Scott had to further operate on the bear and cut all of the wires out. She still loves and cuddles the bear though, even without his insides. :)

The kids make me laugh more and more everyday!!

We took Fischer to get his first "real" hair cut today. You may recall that Scott gave him a trim back in March, but we decided to have it done professionally this time.  Fischer did such a good job, and didn't cry one single tear. I am so proud of our big boy!

They gave him a Sesame Street toy (which he loved!) and some animal crackers (which he didn't care for) to keep him entertained! His stylist worked very fast - I guess she has some experience with squirmy little boys. :)

He has some challenging hair to work with, but I think it looks good and he looks like such a little boy and not a baby. We knew he had 3 cow licks, but we found out about a 4th one today. He will have these forever! She told us that we need to train his hair in the front to fall to the side in order to work with the cow licks.

Addison went along too, but just for moral support. They both got to play in the waiting area until Fischer's name was called. Next time we go, whenever that may be, she will be getting a trim of her own!

Here they are in the play area:

Finally they called Fischer's name. Here he is getting all strapped in...

Addison sat quietly in her stroller and watched (and ate a few animal crackers)...

His stylist, Yolanda, got to work. He kept leaning to the sides, but she would just follow him with the scissors...

All done...

Time to go get some lunch. Fischer is tired from getting his hair cut. :)

Raising two toddlers does not come without challenges.  Some days I feel like a broken record... "No, Addison." "No, Fischer." "No, No, No, No...." You get the point. I try my best to redirect their attention, but that's not always easy.  They are very determined little things!

Fights over toys have emerged as well, so the lessons on sharing have started. I don't think they understand the concept of sharing just yet, but it can't hurt anything by trying to teach them about it! These toy arguments can get quite heated - I think we have two stubborn children on our hands!

There are also some yucky things that have started - we are now dealing with nose-picking. This is one thing that I can't stand, so I'm trying hard to curb this behavior! Fischer has recently started gagging himself too. Where did he learn to do that?! And why does he think it's funny?! Addison has done it a couple times, but I think she is just doing the whole copy-cat thing. They tend to do that a lot too.

And lastly, biting has reared its ugly head again. After taking at least a month off from biting, Fischer has started again. I have no idea why he quit (although I'd like to say it was due to my parenting skills :) ), and I have no idea why he started again. We are just trying to stay on top of it, and hopefully it will go away sooner rather than later.

While there are challenges, there are also many rewards. There is nothing like watching Addison and Fischer give each other a kiss goodnight.  Or walking into a room to find them playing well and giggling together.  Or finding them quietly sitting on the couch reading a book to themselves. And when they say new words, without any prompting, it is very gratifying! And I love it when they come across the room just to crawl in my lap or give me a kiss.  These rewards always outweigh the challenges!