Saturday, Roger and Cleo attended Cleo's first art class of the term. She decorated a tin can; it's quite cute. I will take a picture and post it. I took Sidney on errands; we mailed my mom (Cleo calls her Noma & Sidney insists on calling her Mona) her birthday package and got some essentials at Target. Sidney really enjoys shopping. At one point, I let him get out of the cart seat and he put his hand on the side of the cart and pretended to help me push the cart along.

We went home and Cleo and Sidney had lunch and took naps. Then, we went to our friend Lillian and Guillermo's son Tyson's 3rd birthday. It was great. It was held at a government center that housed a fire station and police station. We got a tour of the fire station and the kids got to climb on a fire truck. We took tons of photos and we will post them soon. Sidney would not go on the fire truck but Cleo was quite game and we got some nice photos of her posing. Later, we had dinner at Figo, a nice little Italian restaurant chain. Then, we had dessert at Coldstone Creamery. At the ice cream store, there was a little shih tzu with its masters. Sidney loves animals and went up to the dog and said, "Hello doggy. How you doin'? Good?" Cleo and Sidney petted the dog, her name was Cookie (she looked like an Oreo cookie). Cleo seems to be overcoming her fear of animals. Sidney is fearless.

Sunday we relaxed around the house. The kids had an early lunch and nap. We then took them to Kohl's because I had to return a dress. We got Cleo some super cute Levi's skinny jeans. She looks so adorable and grown up in them. Then we got the kids Happy Meals - Cleo got a cheeseburger and Sidney got 3 chicken mcnuggets. The Happy Meals now come with apples and french fries. It's smart because I am sure all of the kids were ordering fries and never ordering apples. The french fries are a smaller portion than used to come with Happy Meals.

We are leaving for Hilton Head tomorrow (Tuesday) after work. I am leaving work a little early and will pick the kids up from daycare. We will then pack up the car. We hope to hit the road by 5:00/5:30pm. Hilton Head is a 5 hour drive from Atlanta. Roger's mom and aunt arrived there today. We promise to take a lot of photos. I got Sidney a Thomas the Train beach chair and today Roger found two princess ones - one for Cleo and one for Kaelin. I am sure they won't be sitting much at the beach but it will be good for when they want to take a break to drink some water or eat a snack.

Roger's mom, GramLin to Cleo and Leenda to Sidney, sent the kids super cute rain gear which they broke in yesterday during our rainy Atlanta afternoon. Now when it rains, they can go on the deck and play.

We head to Hilton Head Sept. 28-Oct. 3. We cannot wait. The Toys R Us near my job is having a super moving sale and we bought some sand toys, pails, shovels, etc. We already had some but now they have more to enjoy. Roger's mom, aunt Connye, sister and our little niece Kaelin are joining us.

Saturday, we are going to my friend Lillian and Guillermo's son Tyson's 3rd birthday party at a fire station. Sidney loves fire trucks so it should be a fun time. Cleo loves parties so she will be sure to enjoy it as well. Prior to the party, Cleo will go to her 10 am art class at the Southwest Arts Center. The session starts tomorrow. We will wait until Sidney is 3 to sign him up; we don't think he has the attention span for a one hour sit down class right now.

We had a great weekend. Saturday, Cleo and I went to her school friend Angelina's 5th birthday party at KangaZoom. It's a fun bouncehouse not too far from our house. Cleo had a great time. She spent a lot of time with her school pal Braedon because Braedon and Cleo were the first kids to arrive (at 11am when the party was scheduled to start); all the other kids arrived around 11:45am.


Braedon has two mommies. I chatted with Braedon's more talkative mommy, Tracy. Her other mom is Shawn. Tracy went to Georgetown but grew up in Atlanta. I don't meet too many native Atlantans.

Braedon lives in our subdivision. Braedon turned 5 in Sept. but Atlanta's cut-off for kindergarten is in August so she's starting kindergarten in Aug. 2012, when Cleo starts (I know, can you believe Cleo is even anywhere close to attending kindergarten????AGH!!!!). The elementary school that Cleo & Braedon are zoned for is Deerwood Academy. It was named in the testing scandal but not as one of the worst offenders and the teachers identified were not permanent instructors there. The principal was named but supposedly she was recently cleared. On a very positive note, the school has a French language institute staffed by highly qualified people. And, in 2001, the school was awarded an International Baccalaureate Certification, which is highly sought after and provides for an enhanced curriculum. Deerwood also has a gifted program which Roger and I will ensure Cleo is enrolled in prior to her stepping foot in the school doors. All around, I am feeling better about the great likelihood that Cleo will have to attend public school.


Saturday evening, we had a spaghetti dinner gathering at Kim, Derrick & Kennedy Bell's house. Our pals Kevin, Keishe & their 3 kids joined us. They have a 4 year-old son, Bryce, and one year-old twins (Olivia and Lauren). It was really nice to see all of them.


Sunday, we went to Japan Fest. It's held at the Gwinnett Civic Center - around a 50 minute drive from our house. I got free tickets from work - my company had a booth for kids (basically bobbing for balloons with a little metal hook) and one of my company's subsidiaries had a booth. We got Sidney a little wooden snake that he enjoyed playing with. In the parking lot, koi sellers had set up so we saw super large goldfish and some little ones. Cleo and Sidney really enjoyed that. We went home for naps then out again to get Cleo a Halloween costume at Kids R Us. She selected an off-white Ariel gown - it was $15, not bad for a nice costume. We got her a tiara and wand too. We tried to talk her into a more glitzier pink one but she was set on the off-white one. We tried it on and she does look nice in it. We are hunting for a Percy costume. We have seen Thomas the Train ones. There are Percy ones for sale on-line but Roger is contemplating making one. More to come on that.


Sidney seems to be fully recovered from his Sept. 2 surgery. He's eating all sorts of things and seems happy and normal. He's chatting up a storm. He wants to play with Cleo a lot but then resists following her rules.


Have a good week.

We had a busy weekend doing water color, coloring in the kids' "journals", playing with playdough, wading in the kiddie pool, playing with trains, assembling puzzles, and watching various kid-oriented television shows and movies. Roger and Cleo made burgers, (purple) fries and ketchup out of playdough. Cleo's is the one with cheese in the corner of the pan.

Roger and Cleo made cupcakes for a second weekend in a row. Cleo helped Roger ice them too, which was cute to watch. Cleo has finished her dinner each night so far this week and earned herself a cupcake, which she thoroughly enjoys. Sidney tells her "good job" when she finishes her dinner. Sidney rarely finishes his dinner these days.

Sidney got progressively better all weekend and returned to school today. We did not get a call from the daycare center so I assume the day went fine. He was not pleased about being left there this morning but I left him in the loving arms of Ms. Simpson, one of the teachers there who acts as a breakfast attendant. Sidney is very familiar with her. UPDATE (9/14): daycare went fine and Sidney confirmed when asked that his three teachers (Ms. Whatley, Ms. Long and Ms. Weaver) gave him big hugs when they saw him.

Yesterday, Cleo recited the Pledge of Allegience over the school's loudspeaker. She was the first one from her class to do it and all of the children in her class will have a chance to do it. She's beyond smart. Cleo demonstrated how she did it and Sidney then imitated how she had her right hand on her heart and he said, "America." That's it. Pretty cute. The first time she recited it for us, he chirped, "triceratops!" As if to point out that he too was very smart and could say something impressive.

This weekend we are going to Japan Fest. My company provided us with free tickets. I will report next week on how it was. I am sure Cleo and Sidney will enjoy themselves.

Behold Cleo's awesome drawing. She is so talented. I am not biased at all. Also, see the poster that Sidney's classmates and teachers made for him. He LOVED it and dragged it around with him for a half an hour everywhere he went in the house. I picked it up from his class yesterday when I picked Cleo up from school.

Sidney was doing fine yesterday but wasn't doing great this morning. I hope he has an okay day. I will check in with Roger later today. Roger has been taking fabulous care of our little guy. It requires a lot of patience to be home with a sick child and I am very thankful that Roger has been doing this for our little family.

If Sidney is feeling okay, we are going sneaker shopping this weekend for him. He has grown out of his size 6.5 shoes and needs some size 7 sneakers. Cleo needs some skirts - for the weekend and school. She prefers to wear skirts all the time now, including to school. She wears tights or knee high socks with them now that it's gotten a little cooler here - it was 53 degrees this morning.

In late August when Hurricane Irene was heading to and hammering NYC, Cleo's class was studying New York. Cleo drew this drawing on August 29. I think it's awesome and I hope you do too.

Cleo was very excited to go to NYC and was sorely disappointed when she, Sidney and I were unable to go.

Sidney is doing fine. He has had 2 good days. He has not thrown up since we started him on the Zofran. As per doctor's office orders, he is not taking it the rest of the day to see how he does. Yesterday when Cleo and I got home, he was extremely chatty. He narrated the goings-on in the house and continued to do it this morning. He asked whether he was going to school and I told him that he was staying home with Daddy and that Cleo was going to school and I was going to work. A few times this morning he would point to me and inform me that I was going to work and told Cleo she was going to school. It's like the surgery and recovery have aged him. He is even more observant and involved in everything that goes on at home. He was playful and cheerful yesterday and this morning. Let's hope it continues!

Have a good day!

This is a picture of Cleo at her pals Alexandria and Quintin's 4th birthday party on Saturday. She's our little guitarist in training.

Friday, Sept. 2, Sidney had his tonsils and adenoids taken out. The surgery went well. I spent the night with him in the hospital on his twin size hospital bed. He slept a lot but was up from 4-5am watching Phineas & Ferb on the Disney Channel. There isn't much else on at that time. Around 7:30am, we went for a stroll to find coffee in the cafeteria. He was in his little blue hospital robe with astronauts on it and I had a blanket from home. I told him we were going to go investigate. Our mission was successful and we went back to his room.

He ate a lot of chocolate pudding on Friday and Saturday. He never showed much interest in it before. He also enjoyed mashed orange popsicles. I am sure they soothed his throat. We were discharged in the morning and Cleo and Roger came and got us around 11:30am on Saturday. When we were passing by the same hallway and elevator that we went by during my coffee expedition, Sidney said, "investigate" because it was earlier at that spot that I told him we were going to go investigate. Is he smart or what?

We went home and Sidney rested most of the day. Cleo and I went to her pals' party and then went shopping for some Gogurt, Jell-O and chocolate pudding for Sidney.

Sunday, Cleo and Roger ran some errands and I rested with Sidney. After the kids' naps we hung around the house and the kids played with Playdough. Monday was hard because Sidney started throwing up around 10am and didn't stop until this morning around 3am once we got some medicine that prevents throwing up. We had his doctor call in a prescription. He's been okay this morning - Roger is home with him. Sidney's doctor's assistant said that the drainage from his wounds and the mucus forming (all normal) is causing him to throw up. Poor little guy. Roger and I had around 3 hours of sleep last night. I am at work. I will definitely go to bed earlier tonight.

I took Cleo to school this morning and will pick her up later. Sidney will be home with Roger until at least Sept. 12. We will not rush his return to daycare; we want to make sure he's completely recovered.

Day 5-8, which start tomorrow, are supposed to be the most difficult because the scabs on his throat start to come off.