Comic Commentary and Special Friday Outfit

Yesterday (August 23), Roger attended Cleo's first family lunch day. Every now and then, the school invites parents to eat lunch with their children. Cleo's lunch is at 10:15am - early, I know! Roger had the pizza and said it was bad. Cleo didn't like it either (she ate 8-9 bites) but she ate some raw broccoli and fruit salad (the canned kind).  Roger stayed around and volunteered some time in Cleo's classroom. I will volunteer some time in the near future as well.  Most days Cleo brings her lunch, her favorite is ham and cheese.  She also likes turkey and cheese and peanut butter and jelly.  We always pack chips, juice, a treat (e.g., fruit roll up), and fruit (e.g., strawberries, sliced peaches).  We need to start packing water for her instead of juice.

We learned last night (from a text from Cleo's teacher) that Cleo was part of a select group of students who is allowed to wear jeans and a Deerwood t-shirt to school today.  Cleo wore a jean skort and Roger bought her a Deerwood t-shirt this morning which he changed her into after he bought it.  I am not sure what the basis for the selection  was but since Cleo was in the group, we know that the kids must be super awesome and smart since those are two of Cleo's many impressive qualities.  

Sidney is doing great! He is working very hard on writing his name and is improving rapidly. I will take a picture soon of his written name and post it on this blog.  His potty training continues to be great and he is showing great confidence in that arena.  He's quite the comic and makes the three of us laugh often. In the car driving home after picking Cleo and Sidney up from daycare today, someone on NPR mentioned something about New York and Sidney said, "New York? New York!  That's where Brookelyn lives. She's Cleo's sister." Cleo then says, "Oh, Sidney, you're so funny. Brookelyn's not my sister, Alexandria is."  One of Cleo's close pals from daycare is named Brookelyn.  I think Sidney was making a joke because he's heard us all talk about Ahnya and Grandpa living in Brooklyn.  He knows Brookelyn lives in Atlanta. By the way, Brookelyn's dad is the District Attorney for Dekalb County - it's a county that abuts Fulton County.  Decatur, GA is in Dekalb County. He's 40.  Brookelyn's mom and dad are not together. Okay, I digress.

We do not have a lot planned for this weekend. We have to get Cleo's friends Alexandria and Quintin a birthday gift since they turn 5 on August 30 and we will see them on Sept. 1 at the Braves game. We don't have details yet on whether they will have a formal birthday party or not.  

We also have to work on Cleo's newest science project.  She has to cut out or draw pictures of 10 living things and 10 non living things and put them on a poster board. Roger got her a green poster board. She started picking out things to glue this week.  She still has at lot more to do.

I am going to Fort Lauderdale, FL Aug. 27 (I have a 5:45 pm flight from Atlanta) for a hearing that I have to attend on Aug. 28 at 8:45am. I will return to Atlanta on a 2pm flight from Fort Lauderdale.  I have outside counsel attending the hearing as well, I hope to not to have to speak in court at all.

Have a good weekend!

First Open House and Matters of the Heart

On August 21, 2012, Cleo, Sidney, Roger and I attended Deerwood Academy's first open house of the school year.  Roger picked Cleo up at 2:30pm when she was released from school and did her homework. I picked Sidney up from school half an hour early. We all had an early and quick dinner and headed over to the school.

The open house was very well attended and was informative. The principal introduced all of the teachers and staff.  The PTA board informed attendees of the next meeting and upcoming events, e.g., a  fundraising event on August 22 at Chick Fil  A.  We did not attend that event because we are boycotting that restaurant because of the owner's stance on gay people.  One big event is the "character party," which is really a Halloween party but here in the deep south Halloween is now viewed as pagan or something so schools are not allowed to refer to Halloween.  At least that's what I think is the current situation.

After the open house ended around 7pm, we were directed to go to our children's classrooms. There, Cleo's teacher Ms. Edwards talked to us and begged us for us to volunteer some of our time to assist her in the classroom.  She explained that the kids are in two groups now and she expects there to be 4 groups eventually. The groups are separated by ability.  Right now, Group A is working on sight words and slightly easier homework. Group B is getting a set of weekly spelling words and a spelling test on Friday.  Cleo is in Group B, of course!

Here is a shot of Cleo outside of her classroom.

On Wednesday, August 22, we went to see the cardiology practice group at the Children's Hospital of Atlanta at Egleston.  Our appointment was at 1pm.  As I have reported in an earlier post, Cleo was born with an atrial septal defect in her heart.  It's an abnormal opening between the upper two chambers of the heart.

During the visit, two techs performed a marathon echocardiogram (a sonogram of the heart) on Cleo's chest, abdomen and clavicle area. Cleo was a champ. It wasn't painful but she did have to arch her neck a bit so that they could angle the sonogram wand and get all of the pictures they needed.  She watched TV during it, mostly Disney live action shows, like "Good Luck Charlie."

After the techs were finally done around around 2pm. We waited a short bit and one of the doctors, Dr. Dennis Kim, came and talked with us.   The doctor explained that Cleo's ASD is 8mm = .25".  For years, we thought it was 5mm because that is what Cleo's regular cardiologists told us.  Dr. Kim explained that his office's echocardiograms are more thorough and are better equipped at measuring the size of the hole.  The size of the ASD in Cleo's heart is considered moderate (as opposed to small or large) He told us that the shape, location and size of Cleo's ASD make her an excellent candidate for closing it with a circular device called a Gore Helex Septal Occluder. It consists of a circular wire frame covered with a thin polytetrafluoroethylene (ptfe) membrane (one brand name ptfe is Teflon). The wire frame is made of a nickel-titanium metal alloy called nitinol.  The device is sent into Cleo's heart via a catheter that goes in from her femoral vein.  Cleo's heart tissue will completely grow over the device within 3-6 months. The device is not biodegradable.  Cleo will stay overnight after the procedure.

Dr. Kim explained the pros and cons of repairing the hole in Cleo's heart via a catheterization procedure or via open heart surgery. He said that people still opt to repair the holes via open heart surgery.  The benefit of open heart surgery is that it's a sure fire solution to the hole and you don't have a foreign object lodged in your heart.  The risk is that it's a very invasive surgery, leaves an unsightly scar, the recovery is longer, and any complications that do arise can be serious.

The pros to the catheterization are that the recovery is not that long, the surgery is not invasive, there is no scar (the catheter enters a tiny incision on her thigh/groin area), and that so far closing the ASDs in this fashion have been quite effective. The cons are that the procedure has only been around for 15 years, there is a risk of the metal rim of the device eroding the heart wall which can cause severe bleeding around the heart. This eroding usually occurs 48 hours to 7 days after the procedure, which is sort of comforting. I would hate to have to watch Cleo like a ticking clock forever worrying about the possible eroding. The eroding occurs when the pulsing of the heart muscle causes the wire to rub on the heart tissue, which results in the erosion. There is no predicting which type of patient will experience eroding. It's happened to Egleston patients 2 times in 15 years.  The hospital performs 50 of the catheter repairs a year.

Cleo fell asleep on my lap during our hour-long talk with the doctor.  She was simply worn out from school and from the marathon echocardiogram.

We found out during out talk with the doctor that we do not have to rush to get the procedure done and can wait until the Summer, which is what we are going to do. We were very relieved to find out that we do not have to schedule the procedure right away. We will likely do it in June to get it over with and so she will have all of July to fully recover before school starts in early August.  So we are clear:  we are opting for the catheter procedure, not the open heart surgery.

While we waited to register for our appointment in the main hospital waiting room, some of the Princesses with a Purpose visited the girls.  Cleo was excited to meet Cinderella and Jasmine.  Cleo told them that she saw Cinderella at Cinderella's castle in Disney World.

Have a  good weekend!

Arts & Crafts Festival

Today, we took the kids to an arts and crafts festival in Piedmont Park (Atlanta's smaller version of Central Park).  We walked around and had a  really nice day.  We found Cleo a cute purple bow barrette with an embroidered cursive C on it.

The kids made sand art:

Cleo chose to fill a plastic butterfly.  Above, you see that Sidney chose a plastic lightening bolt to fill.  He asked the attendant if they had a Hulk thing to fill and was disappointed when they said "no."

Then we got some food to eat. Cleo got ribs and I got a coal fired oven pizza. It was really good. Sidney ate some Lay's potato chips.  Roger ate some of Cleo's ribs and some of her steak fries - which came with her ribs but she didn't care for. She likes skinny, super crispy fries.

We strolled around some more and got Italian ices. Roger got grape and sour apple. I got mango and lemon.  Cleo got some kettle corn - the rainbow mixed flavor. When it comes the festival and fair food, the sweeter the better in Cleo's selection habits.

After eating our Italian ices, we ran around a bit with the kids to get them good and tired.

Sidney enjoyed playing with the numerous sticks that were lying around where we laid our picnic blanket.

Sidney wanted to take a look at the lake. There's a scene in one of the Avengers cartoons he likes to watch over and over again in which Bruce Banner is taking a break to fish.  Sidney is fascinated by Bruce Banner because he becomes the Hulk. He walked by the lake and said, "Like Bruce Banner fishing on the lake." I gave them each a penny to toss into the lake and make a wish on.

Sidney created some awesome art in class this week (sorry I don't know how to rotate it):

Cleo also created a wonderful piece of art this week. Every Thursday, Cleo must draw a picture depicting something from the favorite book we read to her this week. This week, her favorite book was "Barbie:  A Fairy Secret."  So, she drew a picture of herself, Alexandria and Luna. Luna is her new little friend at school. Alexandria is her best bud from daycare.  Alexandria now goes to a different school. We will see her on Sept. 1 at the Braves game. That is the game that we got tickets to because Cleo wrote a letter to one of the Braves pitchers. Other kids wrote letters and got tickets to the same baseball game, including Alexandria.

Tonight for dinner I made some quinoa. Sidney actually helped me make it. I boiled it in a veggie bouillon cube and water so it was quite tasty.  Sidney ate his up quickly. Cleo took a long time and declared that, "she was not a quinoa person like Mommy." Roger asked her what type of person she was and she said, "a pasta person."  Roger and I laughed.  I kept saying that she used to like quinoa.  :-(  I suppose her tastes have changed. She does love pasta. I am going to make them a pasta bake tomorrow. I will mix up some rainbow rotini, cheese and red sauce and bake it so that it has a little crust. Roger is going to dice up some cooked organic chicken and I will bake it in there too.  We have been trying to feed them only organic chicken.  We got them some organic steak from Trader Joe's and they liked it.

I did not make it to the gym today because I was too tired from walking around the park at the festival.  I will go tomorrow. This week, I ran once at the gym near my job - I ran 3.1 miles in 37 minutes. I was so proud of myself.  I cannot run more than two times a week because my knees are not great.

Tomorrow, we are going to church then Roger and Cleo are finishing up her science project. She needs to create a book of the 5 senses. For each sense, she needs to depict something that she encounters every day. So, for hearing she cut out a picture of a diesel train because we can hear trains going by on the railroad.  She glued in her book a real piece of basil for taste because when we go on the deck she smells our basil plants. She drew a balloon for sight because for the past few months we have kept a helium balloon tied to the kids' chairs.  For touch, she and Roger cut off some strands of our family room carpet.  For taste, she drew some strawberries. I will take pictures of each page and post them on the blogs.

Have a good week!

Atrial Septal Defect

August 22, Cleo, Roger and I are going to the Children's Hospital at Egleston for an appointment at the children's cardiology center there.  I suspect they want to take a look at her heart (EKG, sonogram) and then we will discuss dates for the catheter procedure I discuss below. Cleo has a little hole in her heart - it's a congenital heart defect (Atrial Septal Defect) that she's had since birth and she's been seeing a pediatric cardiologist since she was 2 weeks old.  All babies have the hole in utero but normally it closes up when they come out.  The pediatrician at Northside heard a murmur when she was born and immediately referred us to a pediatric cardiologist.  

Her type of defect is one of the most common types of heart defects so cardiologists are very familiar with treating them.  The hole isn't getting smaller, some do get smaller and go away, and the conventional wisdom is to close it by the time the child is 5. So, we are having it taken care of in the next month or so. While Cleo's under general anesthesia, the doctor sends a catheter into her femoral vein near her groin and feeds the catheter into her heart and closes the hole with two little pieces of mesh that clamp onto her heart tissue like a little sandwich (around the hole) and then her body grows tissue over the mesh material. We won't have to have the material removed or repeat the procedure when she's older. The material is super tiny and thin. The hole is the size of the bottom of a pencil eraser.  It is an overnight procedure and I will stay with her. She will miss around a week of school while she recovers. I am not happy that she has to have this procedure performed but I know it has to be done. 

There's a higher incidence of strokes in people who have this type of heart defect so we need to have the hole closed up. I really am okay, it's a very routine procedure.  It's just that it will be performed on our little girl. I know she will be ok.

Her heart is under a little bit of strain too because the hole allows oxygenated blood from her left atrium (chamber) to spill into the right atrium (chamber) of her heart filled with non-oxygenated blood.  This makes the heart work harder and can cause it to become enlarged. At one time when she was 4 her heart was enlarged and she had to take a medicine that made her pee a lot.  The medicine worked and reduced the size of her heart. We gave it to her when she was just starting to get a hang of not peeing in her pull-up at night.  We had to put on hold our desire (and her desire) to complete nighttime potty training.  Once she went off the medicine, she became completely potty trained.

The Book of 5 Senses and Other Kindergarten Homework

The big news for the Wynn household is that Cleo survived her first week of kindergarten!

This is Cleo in her new uniform and Sidney with his Avengers backpack.

Cleo in her new classroom on Monday, August 6.

Sidney in his classroom. He's starting in a new class on Monday, Aug. 13. He's such a big boy.

More of Cleo in her classroom.

Cleo browsing through a book waiting for the time that Roger and I need to head out.

We dropped Sidney off at daycare around 7:20am then headed over to Deerwood Academy for Cleo's first day of kindergarten.   Kids eat breakfast in their classrooms from 7:30-8:00am, after which the school day begins.  Roger and I hung around in Cleo's classroom until around 8am. When we got up to leave, Cleo started to quietly cry and cling to my leg. I started to tear up but did not want her to see me cry.  I told her she would be ok. Her teacher, Ms. Edwards, took Cleo's hand and told her she would be okay.  We headed out.

When we got home, I completely sobbed into Roger's arms.  I just felt so bad about leaving her in such a foreign environment. I felt bad mostly because I was worried she would have a terrible time and then be unhappy about returning the next day. I also felt like I felt when we dropped her off in daycare for the first time when she was 3 months old. I know that's not rational but it's how I felt all day. I felt empty and a little heartsick.  I tried to be rational but just couldn't. I am so happy I took the day off from work.

After I composed myself, Roger and I headed out to run errands. We had to get Cleo and Sidney new paint smocks from Ikea - it's the only place that consistently carries them.  Then we got some other items at Walmart (Rice Crispy treats for class snack), Finish Line (we got Sidney a pair of Hulk sneakers which he LOVES), and a big beauty supply store.  At the beauty supply store, we got Cleo a cute navy hair bow and some other barrettes so that she has an even bigger selection to choose from when I do her hair.

After our errands, we headed home to eat lunch. Then we picked Cleo up at 2:30pm. I was so excited to pick her up.  When we got there, all of the kids were eating parts of their lunch that they hadn't finished earlier.  Kindergarteners eat lunch at 10:30am. Then they have 15 minutes of recess on the playground.  We headed home. We started working on her homework sheets.  It takes around 1.25 - 1.5 hours each night to get it all done.  She has to write her name a lot on one sheet. Then she has to write her spelling words 3 times each. For every assignment, she has to write her name and the date on the top of the sheet.  She also has letter writing homework and cursive homework. That I think is premature because it is clear from the daily sign in sheet that the kids all write their names on that most of the kids' handwriting is terrible and many of them have difficulty writing their names. If they cannot print their names, the school has no business trying to teach them cursive.  Agh!

Then she has math homework. This week math homework consisted of folding a sheet of paper into 4 quadrants and having Cleo write "1 (one)", etc. in each quadrant. Then gluing or drawing something in that amount. For example, for 3, she glued some alphabet pasta pieces (CJW) onto the paper.  On Wednesday, she had to do 5-8.

Then we read to her and ask her questions about the book, thankfully we can do that during our normal book reading at night. There's a book log that we maintain during the week.  This weekend we are working on her science project that is due on August 20.  She has to make a book and cut out or draw a picture of an everyday object she sees or encounters that represents one of the 5 senses. For taste, she cut out a picture of a strawberry. For sight, she drew a balloon because lately we have been keeping a helium balloon on each of the kids' chairs - they're only $1 each at the Dollar Tree.  We still have to do touch, hearing and smell.

As you can see, the amount of homework Cleo is required to complete is outrageous. Roger and I take turns doing it with her each night. I am not ready to say anything to the teacher yet but I am curious what they're doing all day if they're having us do so much work with her at night.  Also, I want to know what happens if a parent refuses to do it all each night.  I would agree to do 30 minute a night but doing more than double that each night for kindergarten just makes no sense to me.  I spoke with my neighbor about it. She's an art teacher for the Fulton County public school system - it's a different system than we are in since we are part of the Atlanta Public School System. Her daughter attended elementary school in our system.  She said that one of the purposes of all the homework is that it makes parents feel like the school takes education seriously.  That's not working for me. I will wait a bit before I make a polite fuss about it.

Roger dropped Cleo and Sidney off at school and daycare this week. He drops Sidney off first, then takes Cleo to class. He said she was sad on Tuesday but did not cry. Her little friend Luna asked her to sit next to her but Cleo sat one seat over. I suppose she was just adjusting.  Luna is now one of Cleo's table mates along with a few other kids.  Every afternoon, Cleo is picked up by a Kids R Kids bus and taken to Kids R Kids. I pick Cleo and Sidney up from there. I asked her on Wednesday what her favorite part of school was and she said getting picked up by Mr. Bob (the bus driver) and going to Kids R Kids. I told her in time she will love school and her new teacher.

Friday evening (yesterday) Roger was watching a PBA 30 fundraiser, that's one of our local PBS stations.  The channel was showing a Celtic Women concert at the Fox Theater (an old, nice theater in Atlanta) and Sidney really enjoyed it. The Celtic Women were covering Broadway hits. One of the songs they performed was the Circle of Life from the Lion King and Sidney got really into and got really close to the tv screen.  He informed us that the woman singing it was his girlfriend.  The Celtic Women also did I Dream a Dream from Les Miserables that I really enjoyed.

Cleo already started her French lessons at school. Friday was her first class and she learned:  Bonjour Madame Ajon and Je m'appelle Cleo.  I am trying to teach her to count to 10 so she will be ahead. :-)

Tomorrow we are going to church, food shopping and completing Cleo's science project.

This week, I went to the gym at work. Each time I went, I ran 3 miles straight and walked an additional .5 mile.  I am in training!  Today, I went to the gym and I will go tomorrow too. This morning, we got Cleo and Sidney some church shoes from PayLess and Cleo a pair of sturdy, cute maryjanes for school.  We got Sidney some additional school supplies because last week we got stuff from the list for his old class instead of his new class and we had to get the missing items now that he's going to be in a new class on Monday.

All this week we made Cleo's lunch. She would help. She had ham and cheese Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Thursday she had a creamy peanut butter and grape jam sandwich. Friday, she had turkey and cheese. This week, she's going to try eating the cafeteria food. They have a pretty diverse selection of food.  It costs $2 for lunch each day. We set up an account online for her which the school will deduct money from when she eats lunch at the cafeteria.  Cleo will have a four digit number assigned to her that she will punch into a keypad in the cafeteria so that the cafeteria will know which account to deduct the money from. Our big girl!

My dad sent me the below picture this week. His old friend Carla, my godmother, gave it to him. He's in California visiting all of his old pals.  I see my resemblance to Sidney.  Right now, I don't think I look like Cleo or Sidney very much. I love the little collar and sleeves on my girly blouse.

Sidney is making tremendous progress with potty training.  He is in only his underwear and shorts all day at daycare and we have started to do that at home too. He still sleeps in a pull-up.  We are so happy and proud of him.

Have a good week!

Calm Before the Storm (aka weekend before 1st day of kindergarten)

Cleo starts kindergarten on Monday, August 6.  I am taking the day off from work because I know I will be distracted all day wondering how she's feeling and doing. I know she will do great; I am more of a worried mess than she is. I am of course not showing her that I am fretting.  At one time she seemed excited, now the reality is sinking in and she's sad that she's no longer attending Kids R Kids.  Sidney understands that Cleo will be attending a new school as of Monday but that he will see her in the afternoon. Cleo will do aftercare at Kids R Kids.  Kids R Kids will pick kids up from surrounding elementary schools and parents pick the kids up from Kids R Kids. That way, we will continue to have one pick up location.  Roger will continue to drop the kids off in the morning and I will continue to pick the kids up in the afternoon.

Monday, July 30, I accompanied Cleo's camp class to the World of Coke. Here are a few pictures from the day.  The man in yellow is Mr. Bob. He will be driving the bus that will pick her up from Deerwood Academy.  The woman in the navy shirt is Ms. Jennifer, Cleo's teacher this past year and this summer.

The day was a lot of fun. I also took some pictures of her at the park where we all had lunch.

Wednesday, Aug. 1, we attended a Sneak Peak at Cleo's new school, Deerwood Academy. We met her teacher, Ms. Andrea Edwards. We also saw three other sets of parents and 2 kids who will be in her class.  One girl who wasn't there was MiAngel who will be in Cleo's class. MiAngel also attended Kids R Kids and she lives in our subdivision. Her parents were at the Sneak Peak but MiAngel was in North Carolina with her grandparents.  I was very impressed with Ms. Edwards and I know that Cleo's going to have a great year there.

Friday, Cleo had her last dance recital.  Here are some pictures.

Here she is with her best pal, Alexandria.

Today, we attended Bryce's 5th birthday at Monster Mini Golf in Marietta, GA, which is not too far from where I work in Marietta.  Bryce is the son of our friends Keisha and Kevin Duck.  They also have twin girls who turn 2 soon, their names are Olivia and Lauren and are super cute. Cleo really liked them.  Sidney's classmate, Taylor Hartwell, attended the party. Taylor and her family live near us and she is in Sidney's class at daycare.  They're both being promoted to the next room shortly.  Sidney and Taylor played together for most of the party. Roger told me that when Sidney woke up from his nap he asked Roger if Taylor could come for a playdate.  We should do that because Cleo has had a few playdates and Sidney hasn't had any yet.

This is Sidney and Taylor dancing.

Here is Cleo playing with her toy microphone filled with bubbles.

Cleo riding the motorcycle ride.  She and I played a car racing game and it was challenging and a lot of fun. We kept driving the car onto the sidewalk and in the wrong direction. I played one game of Ms. Pacman, that was a lot of fun!  I used to be so good at it.

Bryce the birthday boy is in the background.

We left the party location around 12:30 and headed home for naps.  During the kids' naps I went to the gym. At the gym, I ran into our next door neighbor Angelee. She is younger than me, is married, and has a 14 year-old daughter and another daughter who will be 2 in November.  During our walk, we commiserated about the housing market and how the value of our houses have plummeted.   While we chatted, we walked for 5 miles and nearly 1.5 hours.

She and I get along really well. There's no good reason why we don't spend time together. I don't make much time for friends. If I have free time, I nap, go to the gym or watch tv.  I am going to invite her over for a glass of wine (or two) one Friday evening in the near future. Since we are both watching our budgets, that's a nice, affordable "girls evening in."  Tomorrow, we are going to meet up at the gym and do 30 minutes on the step mill and afterwards do the leg machine circuit.  I need to strengthen my leg muscles so that my knees don't ache too much from running/jogging.  I have been trying to hit the gym 4 days a week and lately have achieved that.  My work pal and I worked out Friday - I ran/walked 3.1 miles in 40 minutes. That means I shaved off 10 minutes because until Friday it has been taking me 50 minutes to complete that distance.  I was happy.

Tomorrow morning we are going to go to church. At some point tomorrow, we will assist the kids with labeling their school supplies with their names.  Sidney has school supplies too, e.g., pencils, crayons, scissors, glue, markers, pencil box. We got him an Avengers backpack and lunch box. He is still obsessed with the Hulk.  He does not need the lunch box for school but there is a chance he may go on a school trip and he will need one then.

Today, we got Cleo a new lunch box because Thursday evening she broke the zipper on her favorite one.  We were able to find the same one at Walmart today. Roger had looked all over on Friday but was unsuccessful in his search.

After I got home from the gym, Cleo, Sidney and I made peanut butter fudge. We followed a recipe from Cleo's book titled, "Peeny Butter Fudge."  It came out really good. This time, Cleo ate it. The first time we made it, she did not eat it and I ended up eating all of it.  Sidney chose one of my Weight Watchers sundaes for dessert.  Then, we watched an episode of Franklin (a cartoon about a turtle and his friends) while I gave Sidney a haircut. Then, baths and we watched some of "Puss In Boots," the HBO Saturday movie.  We DVR'd it so the kids can watch it tomorrow.

Monday, Roger and I will drop Sidney off at daycare then take Cleo to school.  Roger and I are going to see a movie and relax a bit. Then, pick Cleo up when her day ends at 2:30pm.  After Monday, Cleo will be picked up by Mr. Bob when school is over.  While Cleo's at school we are also going to go to a nearby mall that has a great beauty supply store. I want to get her some green and blue barrettes so that there can be days that her hair accessories match her navy and hunter green shirts.

Tonight, I finally realized what Cleo's dancing reminds me of. For you Saturday Night Live fans, Cleo's dancing reminds me of Chris Kattan's character Mango.  Now, when she dances, I picture the moves that Kattan would do as Mango.

Tonight, while we were all brushing our teeth, the popular Carly Rae Jepsen song, Call Me Maybe came on and Cleo and I danced to it.  Tomorrow, I am going to show Cleo and Sidney the unplugged version with Jimmy Fallon, Carly Rae Jepsen and the Roots. It's a funny video because Jimmy Fallon and the Roots are all playing kiddie instruments like a xylophone, small guitar, and triangle.

In closing, I will point out a cute picture of Sidney and his temporary teacher, Ms. Sheree. Ms. Sheree has worked at the daycare for a while but recently left.  She came back temporarily because the daycare is short-handed in Sidney's room.  Her daughter, Jada, is almost Cleo's age and Cleo and Sidney really like Jada and Ms. Sheree.  I took a picture of Sidney this week in his room and then he asked for Ms. Sheree to "be in there too."  I asked him if he wanted a picture with Ms. Sheree and he said, "yes."  After Cleo's graduation in May, Ms. Sheree and her daughter were at a nearby table at the same restaurant we went to.  At the restaurant, we sat with Alexandria's family.  Sidney sat and ate with Ms. Sheree and Jada the whole time we were there. Ms. Sheree said it was fine.  Jada really enjoyed having Sidney sit with her and Sidney ate more than we expected - we think it was because Jada ate her dinner.

Have a  good week!