We are off!

Tomorrow morning we are off to visit my sisters in New York. The kids are so excited!! I will post lots of pictures when we come back.

Well, I guess it is time to change the name of the blog!

You see, "Stella and Thomas" won't do anymore because we have one more on the way!! Pretty soon our family will have Stella, Thomas and a new baby!!!

We are pretty sure that we are only adding one more to our family. I conceived the twins naturally so I was practically assaulting the ultrasound girl.

We have told the twins and they are pretty excited too!!

Tiny Dancer

Stella had her first dance lesson today and it went great. There were four other girls around the same age as Stella and the teacher really seemed to enjoy teaching young kids. Stella listened and she did everything the teach modeled for her. She was really good. I was so happy Stella was focused for 45 minutes!!



The pictures are terrible because we were taking them in a mirror or through some blinds...But Stella is the third girl back...the one in constant motion!



Stella is the second to last in the above picture. Half way through the lesson, the teacher gave the girls a couple minutes of free dance and you should have seen Stella boogie!!

I think Stella had a great morning!

First Day of Preschool

Well, Tropical Storm Fay couldn't keep us away for too long. We had our first day of preschool today.

Stella had to have Mr. Blackwell in the picture!

Can you believe that cat lets Stella carry him around like that??

New backpacks....Speed Racer for Thomas and Hello Kitty for Stella.


They do always seem to strike the same pose.


Thomas was exhausted after just one day!!



Mission Accomplished!

Meet The Teacher

Yesterday was "Meet the Teacher" at school. There are so many changes this year even though we are still at the same preschool. There are 18 kids in the twins class. 18!!! Wow! The class seems to have a much more academic feel than previous years. I had a friend tell me that the kids will learn things this year in preschool that we learned years ago in kindergarten. They gave us a 'readiness skill' checklist and included reading site words, simple spelling, pre-math skills....wow! The kids just seem so young!!




The good news was that I counted only a couple children that Thomas and Stella did not know either from preschool or church. The other great thing was their teacher from last year moved up with them this year and the second teacher in the class I met and really liked too.


Meet the Teacher 2007


Meet the Teacher 2008


The kids have changed so much this year. It feels like just yesterday I posted about "Meet the Teacher" from last year. I can not even imagine what is in store for us during this upcoming year!!!

Oh No Fay!

Tomorrow is "Meet the Teacher Day" at school. We already know one of the twins teacher but we have to meet the other teacher in their room. Then, Tuesday is the first day of school. However, there is this small storm brewing. I think Fay is going to cancel school for us on the first day!

This is me picking a fight with another mother...

I was able to meet Tony and the twins at Chick-Fil-A today for lunch. We had a nice lunch and the kids went into the play area to play. Tony and I were sitting at a table that was not immediately in front of the play area window. There were other people sitting at those tables.

Tony and I are chatting and I look over and see Stella. She is climbing up a pole using her bare feet against the window to get higher! Yuck. I am sure that the people sitting right there did not want to see an up close and personal view of Stella's feet. In fact, there was this nice woman with her daughter sitting there and Stella's feet were getting closer and closer.

I happen to catch Stella's eye and I give her my mean mom face....I tried to do the really mean mom face since she was inside the play area and could not hear me. I also motion with my finger and mouth "get down!".

She sees me and promptly ignores me. I try the face again and I keep mouthing, "get down...get down".

All of a sudden I hear the nice woman say, "get down?" and Tony nudges me. "Amy, she thinks you are talking to her!!!" That woman thought I was picking a fight with her in Chick-Fil-A!! Imagine it....me looking at you (with my mean mom face) motioning "get down!". What is that...some sort of mom-gang lingo??

I quickly pointed to Stella's feet on the inside of the window and explained I was talking to my daughter. Then....Tony and I started laughing and we could not stop. It was so funny!!

What makes my kids laugh...

So tonight Stella was having a 'moment' as she likes to call them. Thomas was trying to cheer her up. He thought up this game where I would tell him something "funny", he would run into the other room and tell Stella. Then Stella would tell him something "funny" and he would run back and tell me.

So I began.

Purple flying horses.

Thomas runs and tells Stella "purple flying horses".

She giggles.

Orange porcupines.

Thomas runs and tells me "orange porcupines".

I laugh.

So this goes on and on until we start to get really silly...a.k.a gross.

Spaghetti with boogers.

Thomas runs....

Chocolate covered worms.

Thomas runs.

Then it is my turn once again.

I say, "peanut butter poo poo". Thomas looks at me with this look and says, "mama, that is not funny".

Oh, ok. Let me try again.

Banana ear wax.

"Ok, that's funny". Off he runs.

Soooo...help me get into the mind of a four year old. How is peanut butter poo poo not funny and banana ear wax is funny??

Back to School Shoes

The kids start back at school next week. I can already feel the buzz beginning. We went and bought new backpacks and new sneakers.

Thomas picked these out:



Thomas loves, loves, loves Lightening McQueen and he is already zooming around the house in these.

Stella had to be coerced in to picking out sneakers but she finally settled on these in pink...



...and also walked out with these. You know, multi-colored sparkly shoes are so practical!!



The kids are so excited to see all their friends next week. I know Tony will be happy to have them back in school. He has run Daddy Summer Camp all summer long!!

Black or White

Last week, I wrote about parenting Stella. Well now it is Thomas' turn.

My sweet Bubba Yub Yub.

Thomas had his speech evaluation yesterday morning. It went really well. Most of his misarticulations are developmental and I knew that. However, I have noticed that more and more poeple have had to say "What?" when Thomas says something. He has so much to say and I want to make sure he is understood. So he will begin therapy twice a week for awhile.






It is so interesting to me to have given birth to two children at the same time (well, within two minutes of each other) and have their personalities be so opposite of each other. Thomas is such a sweet boy. He cares about how each of us are feeling and can be such a cuddlebum. Thomas is also a rule follower. To him, rules are black or white....there is no grey area. He also can be stubborn. Very stubborn. Again, black and white does not leave room for discussion. When he has his mind made up, it is made up.





In comparison to his sister, Thomas could be considered easier in some respects. It can be a challenge to not compare the twins. Thomas is not 'easier' or 'better' than Stella. He is different. He has his own strenghts and challenges of his own.



My sweet baby boy who is so not a baby any more.

....and you break my heart with tenderness
and I confess it's true
I never knew a love like this till you.

~Celine Dion "Miracle"

Wordless Wednesday - Puppy Princess

For more WW, visit here and here.

Soundtrack of my life

I just finished up a night out with two friends of mine. We had some dee-lish Thai food and then saw the movie, Mamma Mia. What a fabulous movie. Now I must tell you...I am not a moron. I know the movie is cheesy and overly dramatic. However, I love, love, love musicals.

I loved it!

On the way home we were trying to decide who was the nut job that sat around and listened to ABBA song after ABBA song and decided to write a screenplay. Oh, if you are curious, the story is here and she doesn't sound like a nut job. And then we were talking about the songs that would make up the soundtracks of our lives.

In high school, this song by Stevie B defines how I felt about my high school sweetheart. I swear I wanted it to be my wedding song!!

And in honor of the movie tonight, I do think there is a place for Dancing Queen in my musical. It would be me on a bar table in Geneseo with my sorority sisters. I definitely thought I was a dancing queen.

I think that the Dixie Chicks, Cowboy Take Me Away would define the time when I met and married Tony.

"...set me free oh I pray..."

I listen to Rob Thomas', Little Wonders and it defines my life since the twins have been born.

"The twist and turns of fate when times falls away but these small hours still remain."

This song still speaks to me when I think of some of the issues I have with my family...

"Forgive? Sound good. Forget? I'm not sure I could. They say time heals everything but I'm still waiting. "

...and this song reminds me of my decision to move away from my hometown.

"Would I spend forever here and not be satisfied?"

So what would be the songs to your life?