17 Months!!!

Here we are yet again, another month older! We've been celebrating all week with lots of activities...

Sunday afternoon we had our monthly neighborhood barbecue at the Gold's house. It was great to catch up with them after their summer at camp and to see all of our other neighbor friends.

Monday morning we went to a story time that incorporated sign language, which Ari and Alex use quite frequently (they are masters at "more," "please," "thank you," "help," "all done," "drink," and "hungry"). We ran into twin friends Ivy and Brooke and their mommy, along with another set of twin friends Kyle and Brandon, so Alex and Ari were happy to see some familiar faces. In typical fashion, Alex wasn't shy at all: he helped the teacher read the book to the group (Brown Bear, a favorite) and ran around playing with the toys in the room, including a pretend kitchen. Meanwhile, Ari preferred to stay near Mommy and watch what was going on around her. Here is Alex helping with the story and playing with Brooke in the kitchen:

Monday afternoon Mommy took Ari back to the physical therapist for another appointment. The PT thinks Ari is making great progress, even though she's still not comfortable with walking. Part of her hesitation appears to be psychological, as she's afraid to let go of Mommy. We're working on both the physical part (with exercises and games) and the psychological part (this part's a little harder!)

Tuesday morning we met our twin friends Isabella and Samantha at the lake to feed the ducks. Later that afternoon, we went over to visit the Arking family and play with Vivi and Zach ("big" Alex was still in school).

Today, of course, is Alex and Ari's 17-month birthday! To celebrate, we hosted our weekly neighborhood playgroup and had a huge showing, including friends Ivy and Brooke (even though they don't live in our neighborhood, we're not an exclusive club and are happy to have non-neighbors participate!). In all, we had about 15 kids in the house, ranging in age from the very new Jessi (6-week old sibling to twin friends Lilli and Gregory!) to the new preschoolers (almost three years old).

Ari's "twin," pal Gillian

Alex asks Tess, "Who are ya calling?"

Ivy gives Ari a hug

So what are Ari and Alex up to at 17 months?

Ari is turning into quite the diva. She knows what she wants and no one can convince her otherwise. She is very strong-willed, especially when it comes to eating. One of her new favorite ways to bug Mommy is by slowly dropping food, piece by piece, off her tray while watching Mommy with a sly grin. Still, she's a sweetie pie and loves kissing the baby in Mommy's belly. We're working hard on helping her gain confidence with her walking, although again she is strong-willed and won't walk anywhere if she doesn't want to. She is still very attached to Mommy, which Mommy hopes will change in the next ten weeks. She's becoming more verbal, and one of her favorite words is "no."

"Piglet, eat my lunch while Mommy isn't looking so I won't have to"

Alex has also become amazingly more verbal over the past month. He will now repeat words he hears and has picked up the word "hungry" in particular. Alex is always "hungry." Unlike his sister, he's a great eater and will try almost any new food. His new favorite food (and word) is grape ("gape"). His other new words include Nana, Poppy ("Pop"), Miri ("Mi"), and Opa. He's swift on his feet, and climbs ladders, steps, and anything else climbable within seconds. He can also walk backwards, go up the steps holding onto the banister and spin around in circles.

This is a really fun time and it's so wonderful to watch all of Alex and Ari's developments and to celebrate their milestones. Fellow parents always tell us to appreciate every moment, because it goes by so quickly, and we are certainly trying our best to take that advice to heart!

Happy Birthday Caroline!

Happy 2nd birthday to our friend Caroline! We all had a great time at her party today, catching up with neighborhood friends, playing with all of the fun toys and eating cake and cookies. We did make the mistake of walking over to her house with the kids riding in the Radio Flyer-- even though it's only a five-minute walk, that five minutes felt like an eternity in the 100+ degree weather today!

Ari sits in Caroline's pink chair at the party as she stays hydrated

Alex tries out the pink chair (notice he's on his way out of the pink chair)

The birthday girl and her mommy

This week we enjoyed getting back into our social schedule now that the kids have fully recovered from their bout with the croup. On Wednesday we went to a well-attended neighborhood playdate at friend Darby's house. Thursday morning Aunt Lori and Cousin Ozzie came over to visit and play before nap time.

We also took Ari to visit a Physical Therapist (PT) this week just for an assessment to make sure that there isn't anything we should be doing to help her progress on the walking front (she's still hesitant to take more than a few steps on her own, although she'll walk greater distances holding Mommy or Daddy's hand). Mommy dropped Alex off at Miri and Opa's house while she took Ari to the PT's office. Ari clearly wasn't used to being without her brother, as she kept looking around the car for him, asking, "Ayex, Ayex?!" In the meantime, "Ayex" was enjoying his time with Miri and Opa, eating a snack and playing piano.

According to the PT, Ari has "low tone," which basically means that her leg muscles are weak and she is compensating by putting all of her weight into her joints, namely her ankles and knees. As a result, she's unsteady on her feet and could be causing harm to her joints. The PT said it's a very typical (and a relatively minor) problem and expects her to be running around within the next two months. In the meantime, Ari was fitted for better shoes (high tops to help support her ankles) and orthotics (both high top orthotics and a flat version). We will also be doing exercises with her to help her learn to rely on and strengthen her muscles. The goal is to have her steady on her feet before the new baby arrives, so we're hoping the PT's assessment of how long it will take for her to master walking/running is accurate!

Anyway, we'll be spending the rest of the day indoors, keeping cool. Daddy is reading stories (notice Ari's new shoes!) and we'll find other activities to keep the kids busy that don't involve going outside!

All Better!

We're happy to report that everyone is back to (almost) 100% and MUCH happier...what a relief after a tough, tough week!

Alex and Ari are back to their happy, smiling selves even though they still have a little lingering cough. What a difference from this past week. Here are Alex and Daddy mid-week:


And here are Alex and Ari playing in the backyard yesterday afternoon:
Alex and Ari have clearly been catching up on much-needed sleep they missed out on when they were sick. Saturday morning they slept until almost 8:30, which is unheard of (they usually get up around 7:00). Then they napped for three hours later in the day and still went to bed by 7:00 p.m. Mommy and Daddy were very grateful for the extra rest.

We were cautious about doing too much at once, but we were all eager to get out after a week of being cooped up in the house so yesterday we took an outing to Costco. Today we celebrated our friend Zach's third birthday with a party at his parent's house. The kids enjoyed playing on the swingset and climbing gym and chasing Kayak the doggie. Alex ate lots of pizza (Ari wasn't as crazy about it) and both kids ate plenty of ice cream cake and candy from the pinata broken by the big kids (although Alex did take a swing with a little help from Daddy!) Talk about a sugar high! No wonder they didn't want to take a nap this afternoon...

Tonight Mommy was supposed to go to dinner with a group of friends, so Daddy took Alex and Ari out to a deli dinner with their granparents, aunt, uncle and cousins. But Mommy, who's clearly still catching up on sleep, left her only pair of car keys in the diaper bag that Daddy took with them, which meant she was stranded at home with no way of getting to dinner on time. Luckily, her good friend took pity on her and came by to take Mommy out for dessert and some much appreciated "girl time."

One other notable mention for today: Aunt Lori completed her first Iron Girl triathlon! Yay Aunt Lori!!! This is the triathlon Mommy planned to do until she got pregnant (riding a bike at seven months pregnant is not advisable!) so she was very disappointed not to be able to share the experience with Aunt Lori, but we're all SO proud of her for finishing under her goal time of three hours. Mommy is hoping Aunt Lori will give her some good advice and training so that she can do the race in 2008.

After a restful weekend we're looking forward to getting back into the swing of things this week. And hoping that we don't have to go through another experience like that for a very LONG time!

Tough Week

It's been a tough week around here. Alex and Ari developed a terrible cough ("the croup") and fever, starting with Ari on Monday afternoon and following with Alex on Tuesday. Luckily, the kids have had very few illnesses in their 16-month history: a few colds, a few fevers, but that's been about it. This one has knocked the wind out of all of us.

The weekend was actually the calm before the storm, with Daddy taking Alex and Ari to the pool at "the club" while Mommy held a meeting for her parents of multiples club. Alex and Ari had a great time playing in the pool, and Mommy met up with everyone else after her meeting for a nice dinner (thanks to Miri for the pictures!):
Monday morning we had four other sets of twin friends over for a playdate. Ari was acting clingy, but nothing else tipped Mommy off to the fact that she was starting to show signs of what was to come. She woke up from her nap that afternoon feeling feverish, and by late afternoon she was coughing, hoarse, and definitely not her smiling self. Dr. Miri came over to check her and Alex out, and told Mommy to brace for a difficult evening (with Ari), as she was likely coming down with a respiratory virus.

Well, Ari slept through the night (somehow) but Alex devleoped the same symptoms and was up, off and on, for most of the night. Since then, it's been a week full of tears, coughs, fevers, little sleep (at least during naptime, somehow they seem to sleep better at night) and the kids have just been sad sacks in general. Mommy and Daddy feel so helpless and Ari and Alex clearly don't understand what's going on to make them feel so crummy.

We are hoping to turn a corner soon but it looks like we're in this for the long haul. Hopefully we'll return to our regularly scheduled program by next week.

Family Time

The last few days have been filled with quality family time, as Daddy returned home from a week in Houston where he coached the GOLD MEDAL WINNING U14 Boys Soccer Team at the JCC Maccabi Games!! Mommy, Alex and Ari all eagerly awaited his return on Friday after a long week apart.

Backing up a day, Thursday (August 9) was Mommy and Daddy's ninth wedding anniversary and, coincidentally, the two year anniversary of the news that we were expecting Alex and Ari (although at the time, Mommy and Daddy didn't know two babies were on the way!) Two years ago Mommy and Daddy were also away at the JCC Maccabi Games (in San Antonio), as the annual event typically takes place over their wedding anniversary. So now the day holds extra special meaning. [In an interesting twist of fate, a good friend of Mommy's just adopted a new baby girl in San Antonio on August 9-- there must be something about San Antonio in August that brings good baby news!]

Although Mommy and Daddy spent the day hundreds of miles apart, our families made sure to make the day special. Miri and Opa came over to play with Alex and Ari and give Mommy a little break in her week of "single parenting." Later in the evening, Nana and Poppy Jack took us all out to dinner at Fuddruckers, where Alex and Ari were extremely well-behaved and ate a big dinner of grilled cheese, french fries and, of course, a cookie. Alex enjoyed the food almost as much as he enjoyed dancing in his high chair to the music played in the restaurant.

Even though we had fun celebrating without Daddy, we were all happy when he got home and looked forward to celebrating as a family as soon as we all caught up on much-needed sleep. Today we all took a trip to the neighborhood pool and enjoyed the beautiful (drier, cooler) day:

On the way to the pool in the Radio Flyer
Ari poses for the camera

Mommy and Alex

Daddy, Alex, and the "noodle"

This evening we went to dinner at Guapo's, the same restaurant that Mommy and Daddy and all of their friends hung out at the evening before their wedding nine years ago. It was a beautiful evening, so we ate outside and enjoyed the live music playing nearby. Alex ate like a champ...his new word is "hungry" and he kept telling us that he was hungry on the way to the restaurant. Turns out he wasn't kidding- Alex ate chips, salsa, quesadilla, french fries, tomatoes (a new discovery!), rice, black beans (another new food), and chocolate ice cream for dessert. Ari ate her share of chips and salsa (she insisted on dipping the chips in the salsa herself), french fries, a few pieces of quesadilla, and chocolate ice cream. She really wanted to try the radish that came as a garnish on Mommy's plate, but one taste and she decided that it wasn't as good as it looked.

Hmmmm...this doesn't taste as good as it looks

Alex says "don't interrupt my eating to take a picture!"

Ari dips her chip in the salsa

After dinner Ari was very excited to watch the ducks in the lake, and we all enjoyed the live "oldies" band playing along the waterfront. The hotel where Mommy and Daddy were married is next to the lake, so we made sure to get a family picture with the hotel in the background:

It was a perfect celebration and we're all very happy to be back together as a family again.

One final picture for today- Alex and Ari have been very sweet to each other this week, and often will kiss or hug each other. Here's a shot of a big sibling hug:

102 in the Shade

It's been a scorcher of a week here- today we broke the record high with a temperature of 102 degrees, and that wasn't counting humidity (the "heat index") which was supposedly between 105 and 110. Needless to say, we have been spending little time outside and that time we have been outside has been in the shade.

Yesterday we had a playdate with our twin friends Rina and Celia (indoors, of course!) before Nana came over to visit at dinnertime. Today was another playdate, although we did venture to meet outside for part of it-- in the early morning, though, and in the shade. We met newly 3-year old twin friends Sadie and Gabriel at the lake to feed the ducks before heading over to Corner Bakery for a belated birthday celebration and morning snack.
This afternoon we tried out our local My Gym- a preview class before our own class starts in September- and Ari and Alex enjoyed it as much (if not more!) as they did the first time in Florida. Ari was a lot more adventurous this time, venturing out on her own and trying out a lot of the climbing equipment and slides. She spotted her old favorite the ball pit from across the room, though, and her eyes lit up immediately. Mommy was relieved to find that she could handle both kids on her own in the class, since last time she had the luxury of Aunt Candy's extra set of hands.

The class we took today included an "independent play" time when the Mommies are asked to step back to the edge of the room to let the kids play on their own with each other and the teachers. This time is supposed to introduce the kids to being on their own or with adults different than their parents. Truth be told, Mommy was worried that Alex and Ari (especially Ari!) wouldn't like this concept, but to her amazement (and making her a little teary-eyed), they immediately took to playing on their own with the kids and to interacting with the teachers. It was a very weird feeling for Mommy to sit on the sidelines and watch her little "babies" play independently, but it made her very proud to watch them playing nicely and even offering to share the toys with other kids in the class. Plus, it gave her an opportunity to take some pictures of Alex and Ari playing with their new friends:
This evening we had a quick visit from Nana and then Aunt Lori, Uncle Sam and Cousin Ozzie came over for bath time. After a busy (and hot!) day, Alex and Ari were definitely ready to turn in for the night after kisses from Aunt Lori and Uncle Sam and a big lick from Cousin Ozzie.

Playdate and Future Playmate

After hanging out around the house this morning while some of our carpets were cleaned, we headed over to the Arkings' house for a playdate and a dip in the pool (much needed but not much of a relief on this horribly hot, humid day!) While visiting, we got some very exciting news: there will be a fourth Arking child to keep the third Reichmann child company!! Yes, the Arkings are expecting their fourth child in February, just three months after our expected arrival. We are all hoping for an uneventful and healthy next three/six months and that the newest arrivals become very good friends for years to come, just like those who came before them.

Alex and Ari enjoyed playing with their older friends, and Ari was especially enchanted with Vivi:
This evening, Miri came by to play with the kids and visit for a bit before bedtime. After a long, hot day, Alex and Ari were very ready for bed and are currently fast asleep, resting up for another big day tomorrow!

Week(end) in Review

How quickly a whole week goes by! Last week we spent a lot of time doing our "regular" activities: playing at the tot lot, in the backyard alligator pool, at a bi-monthly kids' performance series near our house, walks at the lake to feed the ducks and geese, etc.

This weekend has been a very busy one. Yesterday morning Mommy had a Board retreat for our parents of multiples club (she is the Vice President this year) so Daddy spent the morning entertaining Alex and Ari, and did a very good job. He took Alex and Ari to a new playground and then to the lake to see the ducks (we wonder if Alex and Ari are getting sick of the ducks at the lake- it's been a favorite activity of ours this summer!)

When Mommy returned after lunch, we all started to prepare to host a big BBQ/party for Daddy's JCC Maccabi soccer team and their families. We had 26 guests in all, including 10 athletes (13-14 year old boys) and 16 of their parents. Alex very much wanted to play with all of the big kids and even showed off his soccer skills by kicking around a ball. For those of you interested, it appears that Alex (for now, at least) is a lefty kicker.

Today we took advantage of the somewhat cooler weather (yesterday's high was 98 degrees!) to take a trip to the tot lot in the morning, followed by our weekly grocery shopping trip where Alex and Ari got to ride in the cart with the double car in the front. This afternoon, Aunt Lori and Uncle Sam came by for a visit and a trip to the neighborhood pool:

In other developments this week, Alex has learned to climb into his highchair by himself. This is a good way for him to tell us he's hungry (which is quite often) but it's also a reason for Mommy to start putting the tray back on the chair so he can't climb up- or, more importantly, jump off after climbing up- when Mommy's back is turned:


We also enrolled Alex and Ari in a My Gym class this week, so we're looking forward to another activity starting in September.

We have a busy week ahead so we're resting up this evening in anticipation!