Happy Halloween!!

Yay! It is officially Mommy's favorite day of the year! When else can you go around knocking on doors, collecting free candy? What a brilliant concept!

Before any dressing up in costumes could occur, however, this morning Alex and Ari were dressed in their finest duds to have their official (and first!) school pictures taken. They both clearly thought they looked pretty cool:

While both were more than happy to mug for the camera at home, they were a little more hesitant in front of the professional photographer. Hopefully we got some decent pictures, but Mommy has a feeling Ari's eyes will be puffy and red in most of them. Predictably, as soon as their turn was over, they cheered up and were happy as could be. In fact, at the end when the photographer attempted to get a class picture, they were the only ones who cooperated. But what can you expect from a bunch of not even two-year olds? We ended up taking a big group picture with the kids, their teachers, AND the mommies so that the kids were somewhat happy enough for a few seconds.

After school pictures, Aunt Lori came by to play with the kids while Mommy took a trip to the hospital for some pre-admission paperwork and blood work before tomorrow's scheduled c-section. The kids didn't even notice when Mommy left and had fun with Aunt Lori before going down for a nap.

This afternoon, after running a few errands, we went to a local Halloween festival just for kids. It was a beautiful day (mid-60's and sunny) and a fun activity for the little ones. We ran into two of Alex and Ari's school friends, along with several neighborhood buddies. Alex and Ari boogied to a kids' band and collected some loot (toys, candy, coupons, etc.)

From the festival, it was back home (after a quick stop to pick up pizza) to meet Nana and Poppy for dinner followed by trick-or-treating with all of our neighborhood friends while Nana and Poppy stayed back to hand out candy. Ari took to trick-or-treating like a pro, going door to door, saying "trick-or-treat," putting the candy in her pumpkin container (which she held onto with a death grip), and laughing at even the scariest costumes and decorations. That's Mommy's girl! Alex, on the other hand, wasn't as excited. The three-headed guy spooked him in particular, and dark entryways were avoided at all costs. Mommy is hoping he'll come around in future years and appreciate Halloween as much as she and Arielle do.

Alex gets ready to head out

Arielle loves her bunny costume

Arielle with Poppy Jack

Our last night as a family of four!

Our neighborhood friends start the night out (Alex and Ari were lagging a little behind but only because their legs are shorter!)

When we got home, the kids split a small package of M&Ms (Ari's favorite- again, just like Mommy!) and then had some milk to balance out the junk food before getting their baths and heading off to bed. Now Mommy and Daddy are getting ready to head to bed, too, before waking up before the crack of dawn to head to the hospital to welcome the newest Reichmann into our family. Mommy already loves this baby because he/she cooperated and stayed put until after Halloween, allowing Mommy to enjoy the festivities.

Daddy says this is "Mommy's blog" so he'll let her update it after she's home from the hospital. So there will be no updates for a while, but anyone who reads this blog should get an email announcing the news, and if you don't, just contact someone in our family for the latest.

19 Months

Happy 19 Month birthday to Alex and Arielle! Just a quick post with their "official" 19 month picture (they are now pretty good about posing for pictures, even together) and latest accomplishments.

Both Alex and Ari continue to develop in leaps and bounds in every aspect. Their language has taken off like a rocket this past month- they repeat words and impress us with their recall after hearing a word just once or twice. Alex is putting several words together, like "all done," "new car" (or "kew car"), "come here, Arielle" and other short phrases. He will also identify different types of vehicles while we're driving- truck, bus and mailman (which encompasses the USPS trucks, Fed Ex and UPS trucks). Ari loves to have her back scratched and will command you with "back, back" to get you to scratch her back. They both love school, their gym class and playgroup and have lots of good buddies. They are quite the little social butterflies. Alex is especially outgoing, saying a cheerful "hi" to anyone within earshot and sharing his toys with his friends. Arielle is also learning to share with her friends- just today in our gym class, she gave one of her beloved stickers (Ari LOVES wearing stickers on her shirt- see below) to a friend in class. And she didn't try to take it back afterwards.

They seem excited about the new baby, although we don't think they fully understand that this baby is coming home to live with us. They are very sweet to the baby (feeding their milk to Mommy's tummy, reading books to the tummy, sharing toys, etc.) and LOVE seeing babies when we are out and about, but we'll just have to see how they do with one in the house. Alex and Ari are also SO sweet to each other- giving each other hugs, playing and laughing with each other, learning to take turns, being "nice" and sharing food with each other. It's heartwarming to watch them together.

In a way, it's bittersweet to know these are the last few days with "just the four of us." Alex and Ari are probably too young to ever remember a time when it was just the two of them with Daddy and Mommy. But in a way, that's a good thing because having a younger sibling is just going to be the norm for them, and we're hoping that the closeness in age will lead all three kids to grow up as the best of friends.

What a Weekend!

We've realized that for the foreseeable future, this particular weekend is going to be one of the busiest of our entire year. First, it's the weekend before Halloween, Mommy's favorite holiday, and the traditional time for Halloween parties like our neighborhood Halloween Parade and our multiples club's annual Halloween party. Second, at least four of our neighborhood friends (and Cousin Naomi) have their birthdays around the end of October, so their parties will likely fall on this weekend. Plus, if Mommy and Daddy ever run the Marine Corps Marathon again (like they did last year), it falls on...yes, you guessed it, this weekend. And this year we don't even get an extra hour since the end of Daylight Savings Time has been moved back a week!

So this weekend has been a busy one. We started out yesterday with friend Jeremy's third birthday party at the local fire station. Alex was particularly taken with the fire trucks and ambulances, and was very chatty with the firemen. Ari liked the equipment, but what she liked even more were the M&M's served with the cake...like Mommy, like daughter, we guess:

Alex on a fire truck

Arielle proudly displays the remnants of her M&M's

The birthday boy makes a wish

We left Jeremy's birthday party and headed straight to our multiples club Halloween Party, where Alex and Ari quickly changed into their costumes before heading inside for the fun. Ari was delighted with all of the activities; however, Alex took a little while to warm up to the commotion (guess he was somewhat of a cowardly lion this time...) Once he took it all in, though, he was running around like...well, like a kid on too much birthday cake, candy and pizza:

Ari loves being a bunny

Alex gives a big "roar"

Alex meets his lion twin

Ari meets her bunny twin

Yummm....pizza!

Alex and pal Owen (born the same day as Alex and Ari)

After the Halloween Party, we headed over to Nana and Poppy's house for some play time and dinner. Alex and Ari fell asleep on the way to their house, a testament to how pooped they were after a day of partying. But they perked up when they got to Nana and Poppy's, and were eager to get into all sorts of non-babyproofed things in their house.

This morning we went to friend Andrew's second birthday party where Alex and Ari joined their friends in a gym class, complete with parachute, instruments, music and hula hoops. Alex and Ari now know that a birthday party means cake, and they weren't disappointed:

Andrew blows out his candles with brother Justin and his mom

Ari says "Yay, more cake!"

Alex and Ari have fun on the parachute with their friends

After the party, it was home for a nap (for Alex and Ari) and then our neighborhood Halloween Parade. Mommy went to the party early to help set up and Daddy brought Alex and Ari down after their lunch. This was the third time they had the opportunity to wear their costumes- we're definitely getting our money's worth on the costumes this year! Alex and Ari got to see all of their neighborhood friends and rode in their Radio Flyer (pulled by Daddy) in the parade. They also had another chance to see a fire truck and ambulance, play some games and, of course, eat more sugar- cookies and juice.

Tired bunny calls it a day

Needless to say, this wasn't a nutritionally sound weekend, but every once in a while it can't hurt and we suppose that around Halloween, it's somewhat inevitable. We just hope that Alex and Ari don't think that we're going to be eating cake, cookies, candy and juice every day now!

Let the Festivities Begin

Even though Halloween is officially a week away, we started the festivities this week. Yesterday we joined friends Celia and Rina at a special Halloween story time at a local book store. The kids enjoyed singing songs (including two of their favorites, "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Five Little Monkeys" along with a new favorite, "The Hokey Pokey") and hearing Halloween-themed stories. Alex and Ari were happy to see their friends and to meet lots of new friends...there must have been about 40 children there in all! Here are Alex and Ari with Rina and Celia after the story time:Today we had our neighborhood play date at Darby's house and her mommy made it a special Halloween costume party and celebration of friends Lilly and Gregory's actual birthday. This was Alex and Ari's first chance to wear their costumes in public, and they were very excited to put them on (until they realized they got a little hot running around inside on an unseasonably warm October day!) Their friends also dressed up as a fairy, pirate, Deedee Doodlebop, witch, princess, doggie and other adorable characters:

Darby the Fairy
Ari the Bunny (without her ears) with Darby, Alex the Lion (background) & Katie the Princess

Alex the Lion (his hood is down) enjoys a snack with Princess Katie

Lilli eyes her cake (brother Gregory was watching from a distance)

This afternoon Aunt Lori and Uncle Sam brought Cousin Ozzie over for a visit with the kids, who were very eager to show Aunt Lori and Uncle Sam the "kew car" (new car).

So it seems as if our Halloween celebrations are off to a good start- we're looking forward to our neighborhood parade this weekend and to the "big event" next week!

Rabbits and Goats and Sheep (and Minivans), Oh My!

It was another week (partial, at least) without Daddy, as he wrapped up a busy two weeks of traveling. Luckily, he's home now for the foreseeable future...much to the relief of Mommy and the kids, who miss him very much when he's gone!

In addition to our usual activities like gym class and neighborhood playgroup, Mommy scheduled some extra activities to keep us busy while Daddy was away. Wednesday afternoon we met up with friends Mitchell and Jason at the playground and after that we joined part of the Arking clan (Vivi and "Big Alex" along with their mom) for dinner and ice cream. Thursday we went back to the gym for open play time, and Friday we took a special trip to a local farm to pick out our pumpkins. Alex and Ari each selected their own pumpkin and we also got a special tiny pumpkin for the new baby, who is scheduled to arrive the morning after Halloween.

Today we joined Cousin Naomi at her 4th birthday party, which starred a bevvy of farm animals, including some rabbits, a goat, a sheep and a pony the kids got to ride around the back yard. Alex and Ari were fascinated by the animals and not at all afraid to get into the rabbit pen, pet the goat and the sheep, and ride the pony:

After the birthday party, it was home for a nap for Alex and Ari while Daddy went out to make a big purchase: our new minivan. Yes, Mommy has entered the world of minivan-driving "soccer moms" even though she swore it would never happen. And she has to admit that it's actually a great vehicle and one that is going to make her life much easier. The kids LOVE the new car- they are captivated by the automatic sliding doors and Alex didn't want to get out of the car when we got home this evening. He already knows how to get into the car AND into his car seat by himself. Mommy is envisioning a much easier way of life, even if it is as a stereotypical suburban mom.

This week is our last full week with just the four of us, and it's shaping up to be a very busy one: classes, play dates, school and next weekend several birthday parties and Halloween celebrations. We're especially looking forward to Halloween- Alex and Ari are practicing their "trick or treat" and Mommy is anticipating all of the fun we'll have!

Happy Birthday Greg and Lilli!

It seems like just yesterday that we were celebrating friends Greg and Lilli's first birthday, so it was hard to believe that yesterday was their second birthday celebration. A lot has changed in a year, though- Greg and Lilli welcomed a new baby sister, Jessi, and this year Alex and Ari weren't just sitting around at the party while all of the other kids ran around having fun. In fact, they had their first experience in a moon bounce- and while they were hesitant to go into it without Mommy at first, it was next to impossible to get them out of it once they were inside!Combine a moon bounce with tens of hyped-up kids with cake and juice and you get two very wired kids and two very weary parents, but it was all in the name of good fun and celebration of Lilli and Greg's big milestone.

Here is one last picture of the kids earlier in the day-- you can see they were in a silly mood even before the moon bounce and sugar high:

Daddy's Back

The kids awoke on Friday morning to a pleasant surprise- Daddy decided to go into work late so that he could spend some time with Alex and Ari (and catching up on much-needed sleep!) They were visibly excited to see that Daddy was back...in fact, they didn't want to let him out of their sight!

Daddy did have to go into work, though, and Mommy had planned a play date with twin friends Isabella and Samantha (and several new sets of twin friends) so we headed out for the morning. New friends and cool new toys made leaving Daddy a little easier, but the kids were still ecstatic to see Daddy when he got home from work later that afternoon:

This morning Mommy had a baby shower to co-host/attend, so the kids had some much-anticipated quality time with Daddy while Mommy went to the shower. When she got home, the kids had lunch and we decided to head over to the local air park to watch the airplanes, as Alex and Ari's new fascination is aviation. Whenever we are outside and the kids hear an airplane, they immediately say "airplane!" and look to the sky. Even when we're inside, if they hear what they think is a plane they will either look up at the ceiling or head to the window to look outside. Alex and Ari were very interested in seeing the airplanes up close until one of the planes taxied right by our noses and Alex was a little startled by the loud noise (he insisted that the plane go "bye-bye" and be "all done!")

When we got home we took a quick trip to the tot lot to see friends Justin and Andrew before having a nice family dinner. It's nice to be a family of four (almost five!) again.

Just the Three of Us

Since one week ago, it's pretty much been Mommy and the kids on their own, as Daddy has been traveling quite a bit. He left last Thursday to visit Oma (Opa's mother and one of the kids' great-grandmothers) in Germany, as Oma hasn't been feeling that well lately. We missed Daddy but were glad that he had a chance to spend time with Oma and hope his presence cheered her up. He was supposed to get back into town on Monday afternoon, but because of a flight snafu along the way, he missed his connection in Paris and ended up taking a roundabout way home (through London), arriving late at night. Because he had to leave first thing in the morning for a business trip to Chicago, his delayed arrival meant that he didn't even get to see Alex and Ari for the few hours he was home. Luckily he will be getting home tonight, but his flight gets in after Alex and Ari's bed time and he's leaving early tomorrow morning for work, so Alex and Ari won't get to see him until late in the day tomorrow. Mommy is sure they are going to be very excited to have him home- every time we come home, they look around asking "Daddy, Daddy?!"

With Daddy gone, we had to find lots of ways to keep busy this week. On Monday, we had our My Gym class in the morning, where Alex and Ari mastered head stands and forward rolls. In the afternoon we went shopping for some supplies Mommy needed for a baby shower she's co-hosting for a friend this weekend, so we headed out to the party store and also got some grocery shopping out of the way. Later in the day, Nana and Poppy came over to visit:
Tuesday Mommy decided to take the kids out to lunch at Baja Fresh and the three of us had a really nice lunch. The kids ate so well that Mommy decided to treat them to ice cream from Maggie Moo's afterwards. Think Alex and Ari enjoyed their ice cream? After lunch and dessert, we got some more shopping done. Alex and Ari were in a very playful mood, entertaining each other in their stroller while Mommy shopped. Here is Ari playing peek-a-boo with Alex with a piece of clothing she snagged off a nearby rack: Tuesday evening Nana came over to babysit while Mommy went to a class she takes. Alex and Ari were very happy to have Nana read them some bedtime stories and put them to bed. When they woke up on Wednesday morning, they were both looking around and asking for their Nana!

Wednesday we hosted our neighborhood playgroup, but because the weather was so nice (the last unseasonably warm day we were scheduled to have in October), we held it at the tot lot across the street. Alex discovered a fun game of running away from Mommy (down the path near the tot lot), only to have her chase after him, catch him, and bring him back. It would have been a fun game if Mommy wasn't almost 37 weeks pregnant. Luckily Ari sat nicely with her friends and didn't make Mommy run in two different directions.

In the evening, we had eight of Alex and Ari's neighborhood friends and their Mommies (several of whom also had husbands who were out of town this week) over for pizza dinner. Remember that most of our neighborhood friends are "older" boys...and picture all of them in our basement, working out extra energy. Yeah, Mommy didn't think that one through too well (probably her "brightest" idea since having Daddy's entire soccer team of 13-14 year old boys over for a party) and Alex and Ari seemed to wonder what happened to their normally calm playroom. Mommy's friends were a huge help to Mommy, though, so even though it was chaotic, it was still nice to have company over and everyone had a fun time...just maybe too much fun!

Today it was back to school for Alex and Ari after a two-week hiatus due to holidays. They were so happy to be back in school with their friends, and are very proud of their grown-up status. Mommy was proud to see them sharing with all of their friends and sitting nicely during circle time (not an easy task for squirmy toddlers). They also sat very nicely during snack/story time (see below). We tried finger painting today, but Alex and Ari didn't seem too keen on getting their hands so dirty. They did create some artwork, though, with stampers and markers:

This afternoon Miri is coming over to watch Alex and Ari while Mommy goes in for her weekly doctor's appointment. We're looking forward to having Daddy home at last and to spending the weekend as a family!

Lots of Visitors

Alex and Ari had lots of visitors at the house today. First, Miri came by to play with the kids while Mommy enjoyed a much-appreciated trip to the gym. Alex and Ari got a great report from Miri, and the kids had equally rave reviews for Miri!

After their nap and lunch, Aunt Lori came by to visit with Ozzie. We all took a trip to the pet store to buy Ozzie some food, and Alex and Ari were fascinated by the fish, birds and guinea pigs in the store, not to mention the other dogs that were there doing some shopping. Before they left, Ari and Alex had lots of kisses and hugs for Aunt Lori and Ozzie:

Speaking of hugs and kisses, Alex and Ari have had a lot for each other lately. This afternoon they were being especially loving towards one another:

Later in the afternoon, Alex and Ari's older twin friends came to play and gave two (or is it four?) thumbs up to the new ball pit. After running around in the basement for a while, all of the kids had worked up an appetite so we took them to Cosi for dinner. Here are some pictures of our fun time, including a rare shot of Mommy with her daughter (Mommy doesn't think there are many pictures of just the two girls...):

We feel very lucky to have so many wonderful friends and family in our daily lives!