Cleo and Sidney in Wonderland

Today, the four of us went to the Mad Hatter Tea Party event.  Sidney was doing a little better and enjoyed himself. Cleo really enjoyed herself. We went to the puppet show two times - Roger and I had no idea she liked puppet shows.  The kids decorated cookies:

We listened to jams by DJ Willy Wow who was dressed like a king:

Cleo and Sidney colored "shingles" that were then glued onto cardboard houses:

Cleo chatted with the Queen of Hearts and Alice.  Sidney took pictures with the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat.  He did not want to take pictures with any of the human characters.

Cleo created a pretty frame and took a picture to put in the frame.

This photo is of her and Roger walking to the photo area:

We came home afterward and we ate lunch. Sidney did not eat. He just wanted to take a nap. We will give him some crackers to eat when he wakes up. We are giving him fever reliever every 4 hours in order to control his fever.   Every now and then he perks up but you can see from the pictures that his eyes are sort of at half mast - he's still not himself.

We couldn't take good pictures during the puppet show because the light was facing inward. The puppeteer had four unicorn puppets that he had "kiss" the kids and parents in the front row. We were more in the middle of the room. Sidney said he wanted the horses to kiss him. I told him that we were too far away.  It is so nice that old fashioned entertainment can still enchant and interest young kids.  I have included a picture even though you can't really see the puppeteer. You can get a sense of what the unicorn puppets look like:

The kids and Roger are going to make pizzas for dinner. I will forage about and probably have a veggie  burger and broccoli for dinner.  I went to the gym during the kids' naps and also to Publix because we needed pizza sauce.  My coffee was on sale for $5.99 - it's Folgers chocolate truffle, 12 ounce bag, and it's NEVER on sale so I got 4 bags.  Publix and Walmart now cost the same - $6.99 @ Publix and $6.98 at Walmart.  Last week it was $6.54 at Walmart. It's crazy how prices are constantly creeping up. The Cabot Vanilla Greek yogurt I like to buy at Publix was $3.99 for 32 ounces 2 weeks ago and now it's $4.29.   I haven't seen it at Walmart.  Sometimes food is cheaper at Kroger but Kroger is sort of far from us.  It's worth the trek if food is cheaper there.

The Weekend, Finally

This is a picture from Mother's Day, 2011 when we went to the Atlanta Zoo.  Sidney looks so cute and little there.

When I got home from work today, I noticed that Sidney was burning up. He was super lethargic and looked terrible.  He stayed home with Roger again today. He's been sick since Wednesday. I changed clothes, packed the diaper back and headed to the urgent care center for the 2nd time in a month - the last time was on his birthday.  Roger went to Cleo's daycare to watch her performance.

The nurse at the urgent care center took his temperature and he had a 103.8 fever.  The nurse sort of chastised me and looked at me quizzically for not giving him any acetaminophen or ibuprofen but I wanted to be like, I wasn't home with him all day, my husband was. But I didn't say anything. They immediately gave Sidney some ibuprofen.  Later, they gave him a purple popsicle and that perked him up a lot.  He asked for and received a green popsicle but he only ate half of it.  He was diagnosed with an ear infection in his right ear, an upper respiratory infection (aka a cold) and fever.  He was doing much better by the time we left. The center e-filed a prescription for an antibiotic so it was ready when we drove there.  I gave it to him when we got home around 7:30pm.  At 8:30pm, I have him some ibuprofen. That should get him through the night and I will give him some more in the morning when he wakes up.

Cleo performed again tonight at her daycare's black history program. Roger said she did great. He tried but failed to video it so all the loyal followers of the life and times of Cleo Jayne Wynn will have to wait until the next big event for us to video and send it to you all.  He was able to take one or two photos and this was the best one. Sorry it's so dark.  Cleo is about to come on for her part of the presentation. She also performed in the ballet portion. I wish I could have seen that but she can reenact it for me and Sidney.

Tomorrow we are going to the Woodruff Arts Center Galleria for the 4th Annual Mad Hatter morning of crafts, music, performances and fun. We have never attended this event before. The Woodruff Arts Center is in the Midtown area of Atlanta and it's where ballets and fancy entertainment are usually held.  I have been there only once to a play when we first moved here. The event is 10am-12pm. So afterward, we will head home for lunch and naps and I will head to the gym.

Pictures, Finally

I finally know how to upload pictures directly from the camera. It's so liberating and exciting. Roger showed me this evening so I am loading up a ton right here and now!

Below of pics are Sidney and Cleo riding their Daddy Horse.

Here are two Pictures of Sidney proudly displaying his collection of diesel trains.  I got him two books about diesel trains and Thomas the Train.  He loves them.

Here are pictures of Sidney rocking out with  his pals Taylor Hartwell and Leila Joseph.  They were all in the party room at Taylor Donald's birthday party.

Here Sidney is running away from the picture I was trying to take.  There was a Clifford the Big Red Dog exhibit.  The little lavender poodle's name is Cleo.  Clifford's other doggie pal is named T Bone. When we read Clifford books to Sidney he insists that instead of T Bone, we refer to the dog as Sidney.

Sidney looking angelic and cute while hogging all of the boxes in the little loading dog permanent exhibit.

Farmer Sidney on the tractor. He looks so small on the big tractor.

Sidney saying good-bye to Taylor Donald, the birthday girl.

More of Cleo to come.  We are going to some artsy event tomorrow and I promise to take pics of both kids.

Black History Program

Today I attended Cleo's Black History Program.  She is performing again tomorrow. Cleo and the rest of her classmates did a fantastic job. We did not take Sidney to his class' performance because he is more sick today than he was yesterday.  He has a fever, cough and runny nose.  When Cleo and I came home, he looked sick and forlorn.  Roger and just given him a bath.  He perked up a bit because he was happy to see us, particularly happy to see Cleo.

I did not realize that Cleo's class was performing tonight.  She is scheduled to perform tomorrow, which I knew about.  I had not packed her performance outfit so I got to her daycare around 5pm, realized my error, and raced home to pick up her black skirt, black shoes and white t-shirt.  I already had black tights because I had gotten her some at Walmart today - thinking she could use them tomorrow (not realizing I would need them tonight).  I grabbed some white hair bows, white hair elastics, hair stuff (water spray bottle and some Miss Jessie's hair pudding).  I wanted to change out the brown and navy hair bows that I sent her to school in this morning and spruce up her pony puff hairstyle.

I got back to her daycare by 5:30pm. She show started at 5:30pm but her class went last - around 6:15pm. I forgot to grab a camera so we will be sure to video and take pictures of her performance tomorrow.  I have already packed her bag with the black and white outfit. I also packed her ballet stuff because Cleo said that her ballet group will be performing too.  When we got to school today Cleo said that she needed to have her stuff today but I dismissed her and said that that did not make sense if her performance was tomorrow. That's the last time I do that. She's a smart, aware little girl and she is usually right about things.  I felt so bad that she thought that she was going to have to perform in her school uniform.  I am so happy I was able to go get the outfit and get her into it in time.  I was so panicked during the time I was rushing home and back to the daycare, but felt such relief once I could just melt into the audience knowing that Cleo was all set.

The plan for tomorrow is for me to come home after work, then me, Roger and Sidney go watch Cleo. If Sidney is too sick to attend, Roger will go by himself.  I would love to be able to see her perform again but it is only fair that Roger get to see her one of the nights.

I put Sidney to bed tonight.  He asked for his stuffed dolphin. I told him I was not sure he had a dolphin (which is true because I don't know if he has one - I will look tomorrow or this weekend).  I proffered Simba to him (his stuffed lion). He said no.  He then asked for his doggie. I asked him where his dog was. He directed me to the one on his wall - mind you this whole conversation is going on in the dark - but he does have a night light on. I grabbed the stuffed dog. I asked him what he was going to name is doggie and he said, "Puppy" and he tucked it carefully under his arm.

Disney Here We Come

We booked our hotel for our April 18-22, 2012 trip to Disney World in Orlando, FL.  We will be staying at the Disney Pop Century resort. It's near Animal Kingdom but there's free bus access to all of Disney World. I have only been to Disney World once - Roger and I went in May, 2006 to celebrate our first wedding anniversary.  Roger's mom (Linda), sister (Robin) and our niece (Kaelin) are going too and they're staying at the same resort. We have not pre-purchased our park tickets since we are not sure how we will park hop.  We also did not opt for the meal plan because we don't want to be pinned to a particular type of meal each day.  The kids are really going to enjoy it.

Saturday morning we relaxed. I went to the gym during the kids' naps.  We gave the kids an early bath and dinner.  Roger supervised the kids making pepperoni pizza - on a store-bought crust.

Saturday night Roger and I had a date. We went to dinner at Miso. It's a Japanese restaurant in the Edgewood area of Atlanta, it's near where we used to live when we lived in our funky fresh loft.  Dinner was great.  I had a veggie sushi roll and veggie dumplings.  Roger had fried spring rolls and shrimp shumai dumplings. I miss sushi - Rachel, Fran and I got it every time we hung out when I lived in NYC. I also had a drink with crushed kiwi, coconut rum and a Japanese liquor (not sake).  It was so good.  We then went to Indigo Bar next door to see Roger's friend Jason perform. I had a Sex on the Beach cocktail when I was there. I forget how good that drink is.  Jason is a really good R&B singer. He has albums out.  I need to figure out how to post a video of his latest song. The song is being played on a major radio station here in Atlanta. I will work on figuring out how to embed a video into my blog post.  Angie, Sidney's infant room teacher, babysat Cleo and Sidney.  They were so excited and happy to have her there that we could barely get them to say good-bye to us when we left for the evening.

Sunday morning, we relaxed around the house.  I went to the gym during the kids' naps.  After the kids got up, we got them dressed. I took Sidney to Taylor Donald's, his best bestie, 3rd birthday party at the Children's Museum.  Sidney had a blast. There was a train table which he loved. He would wander around and turn around to make sure I was following him.  Cleo and Roger went to Toys R Us so Cleo could tell Roger what she wants for her birthday.  He made a list.  She doesn't play with any of the toys we got her for Christmas. We got a fair amount of games for the both of them for Xmas and she does play with those - and we play with her. Se doesn't play with any of her dolls or anything that ideally she could play with alone. Sidney can occupy himself pretty well in the playroom - he plays with his trains. After a while he asks us to come in and play with him.

My aunt Joanne sent Sidney a Toys R Us gift card. This week I got him 2 diesel trains:  Sidney and Diesel.  I was so excited to find the Sidney train. Sidney loved both of them.  He still loves the diesel trains and pretends to act out portions of the movie Day of the Diesels.

Right now I am reading Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand, she wrote Seabiscuit.  Unbroken is awesome. The thing is, I have it on loan from the library on my Kindle but it's a 2 week loan and I am only 13% done.  I have to return it next Thurs.  I can't finish it by then. I am reluctant to buy books for the Kindle because I am too frugal. :-)  I may break down and buy it because I am so intrigued by the story.  It's about a WWII American soldier who survives a harrowing experience in a Japanese prison camp.

I cannot wait to see the first movie in the Hunger Games trilogy. I watched a trailer today without sound at work and it looks great.  My laptop's sound does not work - my company's IT department is not sure what's wrong.  I discovered yesterday that I am on a short list of people who will be getting a new computer. I cannot wait.

Today, I weighed in at a Weight Watchers center and I lost 2.4 pounds. I have 1.4 pounds to lose until I am at my goal weight.  Today was particularly exciting because I am within 2 pounds of my goal weight.  I did not attend a meeting because there is no meeting super close to my job at noon on Weds. I typically weigh in or attend meetings on Weds.  The meeting I normally attend is twice as far away as the nice new Weight Watchers center near-ish to my job.  This past week I really buckled down and ate less. I still ate what I wanted, just much less of it. I also did not have dessert and a glass of wine each night.  I also stopped standing in the pantry at night eating handfuls of Cheetos & Lays BBQ chips.  I know the WW Points Plus really added up when I did that.

Cleo is learning about synonyms and antonyms at school.  Over breakfast Saturday morning, Cleo and I were discussing them. Sidney was present too.  We discussed small & little, hot & cold, fast & slow, etc.  Cleo knows so many of them.  Cleo proposed milk & water and I tried to explain that those really aren't synonyms. Sidney then added milk & ocean.  Cleo threw out scary & afraid and I told her instead of afraid she should use spooky.  Sidney then said sad & cry, scary crow (that's how he jokingly pronounces "scarecrow") and scary monster.  He's funny.  They're both so smart.

Sidney is sick and has to stay home tomorrow from school. His daycare called me at 4:51pm while I was on my way to the daycare to pick them up. They told me that he had a fever - his temperature was 99 degrees, which when taken under the arm is considered a fever by his daycare.  Sidney's class' Black History program is tomorrow at 5:30pm.  The assistant director said that we could bring Sidney to perform in the program if he's feeling better. Cleo's program is Friday at 5:30pm.   Roger is sick too so it will be two sick guys keeping each other company tomorrow.

Roger finished and got printed Cleo's birthday invitation. We are mailing them out this week and tomorrow I am dropping them off in Cleo's classroom so that her little pals' parents can pick them up.

Have a good week!

Princess Party Pics

Here are some photos from the princess party that Cleo attended on January 22.  Also featured is her best pal Alexandria.

Superbowl Sunday Silliness

Linda, Robin and Kaelin went to Miami, FL for Thanksgiving. They went to spend it with Linda's aunt Cleo.  Cleo is one of our Cleo's namesakes. Cleo's other namesakes is my maternal grandmother, Cleo.  While they were in Miami, they tracked down some kid sized Miami Dolphins gear for Cleo and Sidney.  Roger gleefully dressed them in the t-shirts last Sunday, Feb. 5.  In addition to her tiara, Cleo is wearing a football necklace.  A girl through and through.

One of Sidney's favorite gifts was this Darth Vader mask; there's a button the wearer can push and classic Darth Vader lines are recited in James Earl Jones' voice.

Pictures From Hilton Head

Here is a sampling of photos from our recent short trip to Hilton Head.