Saturday morning we went to Baltimore to spend much of the weekend in Baltimore. Saturday the weather was still rainy and wet much of the day so we spent five hours in The Children’s Museum. The girls had a great time exploring, watching the magician/physics show, playing soccer, participating in a stage show, making a clay craft, and playing in the massive play/slide area. Saturday evening we had about an hour to relax in the condo before our dinner reservations. We said hello to Mike and Susan since they were also in Baltimore for the night. The girls had a great time with Susan! We walked to dinner in Federal Hill, a short ten minute walk, and made a vow to walk there instead of drive in the future. Dinner at Sobe was good and the girls were really well behaved.Followed by a little fro yo….

Sunday morning we walked to Federal Hill again and had a delicious breakfast at Blue Moon Cafe. It was so good and one of the few restaurants we would go back a second time! I wanted a cup of coffee for the walk back so we stopped in a donut shop across the street and while I am not the biggest donut fan, these donuts looked AMAZING! I let the girls get one and told them it would be their lunch! Sometimes it is fun to live on the edge a little and eat treats for a meal!

We walked along the harbor path to the inner harbor, which was great. It was about a half hour walk to the aquarium. The aquarium itself is just so so in my opinion. The dolphin shoe is the highlight and sadly the show we saw was beyond disappointing.  Avery used her monocular to improve her viewing experience! We enjoyed the walk back “home” to the condo and stopped at a coffee shop, Federal Hill playground, and the gift shop of the Art Museum on the way home. We had a great time and can’t wait for our next trip back.

We spent this past weekend in Baltimore where we stayed at Mike and Susan’s condo. Ludmila was off for a few days so my original plan since we didn’t have childcare Wednesday through Thursday last week was to go to Baltimore mid-week and stay through the entire weekend. But I had previously signed Avery and Emerson up for dance camp that week and I chose not to reschedule it. That meant we couldn’t leave for Baltimore until Friday afternoon. Friday evening we went to Federal Hill for dinner and ate at a Mexican Restaurant called Blue Agave. We actually went there three years ago and the girls loved the salsa and rice and beans the first time. It wasn’t so great that I felt we needed to go back, but many of the other options were bar type food and I prefer a fish taco over a burger and fries any day. Anyway, the girls ate…it was reasonably priced and we were in and out of there quickly…so a win in my book. We walked for a while and since we couldn’t find an ice-cream place for dessert, we ended up going into a restaurant and sitting at the bar Mother’s (a restaurant that Justin and I went to once pre-kids) and the girls ordered a scoop of ice-cream. Vanilla ice-cream for Avery, chocolate for Harper, and lemon sorbet (fancy, fancy) for Emerson. Emerson also told her famous joke to the waitress: “What did the pencil say to the other pencil?  You are looking sharp today.”  That caused Avery and Harper to attempt to tell a joke, which wasn’t funny, but they were cute.  The waitress in turn told the girls a joke: “Why did the banana go to the doctor?  Because it wasn’t peeling well.” Justin and I were both super proud of Eme for her courage to tell the joke to the waitress. After dinner and dessert, it was bath time for these girls at the condo. All three girls took a bath in the master jetted Jacuzzi tub where they were all giggles. Yes, that is a glass tan on Avery’s face!   And YES that face is SO Harper.  Isn’t she so stinkin adorable?  This is seriously how she looks 75% of the time making me just want to constantly eat her up and making it so easy for her to get away with everything!!!  She knows she is that cute!     

Saturday morning we woke up early and made our way to Port Discovery. We debated walking with the strollers, but the forecast was calling for rain so we decided not to chance it. We arrived at 10:30, took a lunch break at The Shake Shake (our first time with the girls). Harper slept through lunch so we stopped in Panera for a coffee and to buy a little more time for Harper to finish her nap. While we were in Panera, it started storming….the rain was literally blowing sideways. We awaited the storm to pass (Harper had woken up in the meanwhile and eaten her hot dog and fries) and then headed back to Port Discovery where we stayed until closing time! 

We ALL had an awesome time playing on the three story urban treehouse (a.k.a. massive indoor playground), making art, role playing in the gas station/convenience store, cooking and serving food in the diner, exploring the temporary Korean exhibit, playing on the train, reading, exploring, and playing all the random other games. I didn’t know how long the girls would last…I was thrilled we made it to closing time! The girls were exhausted by the end of the day!

Sunday morning we decided to go for a walk….the destination was a coffee shop but Justin and I wanted to walk long enough to get a “workout” in. With both strollers, we headed towards the inner harbor. I’m so glad we walked as we saw so much more walking the harbor from the condo. We realized that some more trips to Baltimore were in our future as there was so much more to do (paddle boating on dragon boats, touring submarines and ships, the science museum, and more!) We took a break from the heat for a few minutes. 

And we rode the carousel. We were the only ones on it and the girls were all loving life. Justin and I both rode it with them….I swear every time I am on a carousel with my girls for a few minutes in time, my mind forgets everything and the only thing on my mind is pure joy. Seeing and hearing the excitement in my girls faces and voices when they are on a carousel is so amazingly innocent and beautiful. It really was a great weekend. I love getting away because while at home, I always have the best of intentions to stop and smell the roses, I get caught up so easily in the never ending list of things that need to get done.  In Baltimore, there was no list…we didn’t have a set agenda or a schedule we were trying to meet…it was just a girl and a boy and their three little ladies.

Our nanny Ana was off for two weeks starting June 24.  My mom watched the girls an extra day each week and Justin and I took off three days the first week and took the girls to Baltimore for a mini vacation.  Since we were already taking off, we wanted to go somewhere but being as far along as I was in the pregnancy, we didn’t want to go too far.  My dad’s friend owns a condo in Baltimore that he generously let us stay at twice a few years ago and he generously let us stay there again for three nights this time with the girls.  Even though we weren’t going away for very long and we weren’t very far, our car was still packed!  We certainly don’t travel lightly these days.

We arrived at the condo around lunch time Wednesday.  We didn’t have a real goal for Wednesday other than settling in which included unpacking and going to the grocery store.  When we first got there we quickly realized that while the place was overall “child friendly” in that there weren’t a lot of breakable items, we couldn’t take an eye of the girls for even a second.  It was the little things….the metal coming off the kitchen chairs on wheels, the cleaning supplies in the unlocked kitchen cabinets, or the front door without a deadbolt allowing the girls to let themselves out of the apartment. We chuckled at the same time we cried internally!  The picture below is a nighttime view from the condo. 

Wednesday evening we took the girls to a Mexican restaurant in Federal Hill.  The menu looked amazing and while the food wasn’t bad, it didn’t meet my expectations.  I think I was expecting some awesome Mexican food like what I would find in NY City based on the menu.  It was reasonably priced and it wasn’t bad, just not great.  The girls had a good time.  Avery LOVED the black beans and she ate them with her hands which created a huge mess, but all we could do was laugh.  Justin took a few pictures unfortunately they didn’t really capture just how messy she was.

Emerson on the other hand LOVED the chips.  She is such a dipper too.  They had three types of salsa and she had to dip just like Mommy and Daddy.  Hey, whatever keeps them entertained at a restaurant! 

Thursday morning we headed to the aquarium.  It cost $35 per person to get in; thank goodness the girls were under 2 and got in free.  We didn’t take the stroller because they weren’t allowed.  Emerson was fairly lazy much of the time we were there and wanted Justin to hold her quite a bit (or sit on the ground).

Avery was a bit more adventurous and enjoyed climbing up to see the exhibits. 

At one point, Justin cut his finger and went to the bathroom to go clean it.  There was a little overlook of the harbor that was like a break room on each floor so me and the girls waited in there for Justin.  At one point Emerson started running away so I went to catch her and when I looked back at Avery she had gone from sitting by the window to standing up and hanging from the railing!  She is such my little daredevil…no fear whatsoever! 

During the rainforest exhibit there were some sort of cockroaches that two volunteers were holding and allowing people to touch.  Emerson wanted no part of it, but Avery went to reach for it.  I was holding Avery at the time and it scared the bejeezes out of me!  I screamed loud enough to scare her from continuing to touch it and for that I felt badly.

The girls were starting to get tired after a few hours so we stopped in the cafeteria and they sat down to have their snacks of raisons and agua.  We snapped a few pictures to capture the moment.

After snack time, we made our way to two interactive children’s exhibits and the girls had fun playing.

Next we made our way to the Dolphin show.  The show was relatively short and we arrived just before it started with the hope the girls would sit still long enough to see it.  Fortunately with the aid of pretzel sticks, the girls sat “still” enough for us to catch the show. 

When the Dolphin show was over, while we hadn’t seen every single exhibit (I think we missed the sting rays and the Australian Exhibit) we had been there 2 ½ hours and the girls couldn’t take a whole lot more.  Philips Seafood was right next door so we took the girls there for lunch.  After lunch, we walked back to the car where we headed back to the condo and put the girls down for a late afternoon nap. 

They had fallen asleep pretty immediately after getting in the car and they awoke by the time we got them up the elevator to the 23^rd floor, so the afternoon nap went horribly!  Since we went out for a late lunch, we decided not to go out for dinner and eat some of the food we bought the day before at Harris Teeter for dinner. The girls had a normal dinner; Justin and mine’s dinner left much to be desired.  Since we stayed in that night we had plenty of time to give the girls a bath in the big tub.  It was so big that they really couldn’t go in it themselves, so Justin (with bathing suit onJ) went in with the girls.  I tried to capture a few pictures but my photography skills are pretty pitiful sometimes and I didn’t capture a single decent picture.

Friday morning we took the girls to The Children’s Museum.  We had originally planned on going to Annapolis for the day but we realized that the girls would have much more fun doing something that was interactive.  It was awesome.  There were several exhibits / rooms that were appropriate for their age.  We basically spent our time in three rooms.  The first was the Tot Trails Room where the girls explored mazes, funneled sand, played with lightboxes, and participated in story time “Mother Goose on The Loose”.  Emerson true to form sat on Justin’s lap most of storytime/songtime taking it all in while Avery sat on my lap for only a few minutes before getting up and exploring yet still listening to what was going on. 

After about an hour in that room, we made our way to Tiny Diner, which was this awesome little diner for kids. The girls had a great time in that room! 

Next we went to the Oasis room which was more of a “quiet” room meaning there were TONS of books, stuffed animals for lounging against, and a good amount of learning toys as well. 

The girls had fun exploring this room as well while mommy and daddy took turns testing out the comfort of the lounging stuffed animals. By the time we left this room, the girls were starting to get tired.  As much as we wanted to stay, we figured it was best to head out as the prior two days their naps went horribly wrong because they were overtired.  Our tickets were valid for the day so I had been hoping that if it worked out, we could swing bye again for the last hour before it closed before dinner time if we could find a street parking spot. Turns out the girls nap went well this day, which we were grateful for because Justin and I actually napped this day as well; however, the timing didn’t allow for us to make it back before closing time. 

This was our last night here and we decided to go to Little Italy for dinner.  We went to this place called Amici’s recommended by my dad and his friend.  My expectations weren’t that high from looking at the menu but we decided to try it anyway because there weren’t that many restaurants that appeared to be kid friendly and it was about $6 cheaper per entrée than most the other restaurants in Little Italy.  There are not many restaurants that Justin and I go to where we say we would go back, but this was one of them!  It by far exceeded expectations.  Justin and I split a house salad topped with fried calamari.  He had the chicken parm and I had the chicken parm/eggplant parm combo.  We both thought it was delicious!  For the girls, I ordered plain pasta and a side of peas as I figured they would be eating bread, their raisons and they would be trying our food as they wanted.  They devoured the pasta and peas and their raisins.  Avery even ate some bites of my chicken while Emerson had her first taste of spaghetti with sauce…she LOVED it as did her clothes!  Emerson was so stuffed that she didn’t have the energy to walk to the car afterwards and wanted Daddy to hold her.  Avery thankfully walked most the way back because Mommy didn’t have the energy to carry her the whole way.

While in the condo over the course of the three days the girls had fun playing with one another.  It is really neat to see them truly start to play (and fightL) with one another. 

We enjoyed our mini vacation but I can’t exactly say that it was relaxing.  It is only going to get crazier with three kids but I’m hoping my lack of energy is truly related to being 8 months pregnant and that the older the girls get, the easier and more relaxing vacations will be.