Cleo's First Haircut

On Sunday, April 21, 2013, Cleo had her first haircut.  She also had a blowout and flat ironing.  Here she is waiting to be called by Alana to get her haircut.

This is the finished haircut.  She had around one inch cut off.

The blowdrying commences.

Vee took over the blowdrying and flat ironing.

Cleo was incredibly patient throughout the process.

Cleo eating a granola bar for sustenance during the marathon hair styling appointment.  We were there for around 2.5 hours.

Big girl with her grown up hairstyle!

At home with Sidney doing a photoshoot. Upon seeing Cleo when we walked in the door, Sidney said, "oh Cleo, your hair looks so pretty!"

 Already the 'do is getting a bit messed up.  But it's ok, we will get it done again sometime in the near future.

Cleo moved the flowers around so that she could sit in the middle and be framed by them.

Later that afternoon we played a little Twister. Cleo takes it very seriously and tries not to sit down.

Sometimes she has to sit down.  Sidney gave up and started showing us where we had to put our hands and feet.

Cleo's straight hair did not last.  I wasn't able to tend to it because I went out of town.  After dinner on Sunday, I drove to Adairsville, GA to attend one of my company's subsidiary's annual sales meeting at Barnsley Gardens. It's a really nice resort in the mountains around an 1.5 hour drive from my house.  I shared a cottage with the only woman salesperson at YKK AP, which was the company having the sales meeting. While there, I got to know my company's new communications manager. She's in her late 30s and has 4 kids aged 18 months to 8 years old.  She is white but fluent in Japanese. Her husband speaks it too and her 2 oldest kids go to a bilingual school. Her goal is for all 4 of her kids speak it.  She was there to learn more about YKK AP. I was there because that is the subsidiary that I do the most work for. YKK AP makes aluminum framing for commercial doors, windows, curtain wall and window wall.  Curtain wall and window wall are used in commercial buildings like high rises and condos.

I was at Barnsley Gardens Sunday night to Tuesday afternoon. I need to start taking more pictures of my work related travels.

Yesterday, Shellie, Eric and their 10 month old son Clayton came by for a visit. They were in town for our friend Nikki's 40th birthday party.  E.J. and Addison stayed in D.C. with family.

Clayton does this cute scrunched up face sometimes. Clayton resembles Shellie's father and Addison when she was a baby. He doesn't really look like Shellie and Eric.

Last night, Roger and I went to Nikki's birthday party at Coast Seafood in Buckhead. Ms. Angie babysat for Cleo and Sidney.  There are so many patterns in the background.  It's such a colorful picture.  Cleo took it.

Last night, Sidney practiced writing his name with Ms. Angie. He still needs work on writing his numbers in the right direction.  Cleo wrote her name after the 2.  His hand writing has improved drastically this year. He's on pace to be as good a printer as Cleo is.  Ms. Angie told us that Sidney insisted that after #4 Sidney had written Ms. Angie. She said it read Sidney Wynn. He told her, "no, it says Ms. Angie!"

Cleo made me a drawing last night. In yellow highlighter it says "To: Mommy, From: Cleo." I love that she is the one wearing bracelets and a necklace.  I think it's also cute that her bow is so much bigger than mine.  Precious.

Today, I was determined to exercise. I have taken a 2 month hiatus from P90X and my clothes are feeling tight and the bits firmed up by P90X are jiggly again.  I started around 3:45pm with Cleo.  She refuses to nap now.  Sidney got up around 4pm and he joined us.  It was a big challenging doing it with them but I may do it again next weekend.  Cleo insists on running errands, e.g., Target, BJs, Publix, with me on the weekend during Sidney's naps so I don't often make it to the gym on the weekend.  I haven't been making it to the gym during the day while at work and I have completely abandoned P90X at night.  I will work on incorporating the gym and P90X back into my life.

Our little garden is growing. It was too rainy this weekend to take pictures. I will try this week to document it. A few of the flower seeds we planted haven't sprouted and I am so sad that the Thai basil has not grown. Today, the tomato plants started growing. The zucchini and radish are growing like crazy.

Have a great week!

Cleo's First Shower

Saturday evening, Cleo took her first shower alone. Roger, Sidney and I were in the bathroom with her but it was Cleo alone in the shower.  She washed up like a champ and she shampooed and conditioned her hair too. She's so grown up. Her first shower, next she will be leaving me for college in some far away state.

All day today she kept telling me how much she was looking forward to her shower tonight and how she wants to take a shower every night from now on. I told her she could.  Sidney waits patiently for Cleo to shower. Then we run his bath and we give him a bath.

Saturday evening, Sidney said he wanted to take a shower too.  We got the water to the right temperature and he got in the tub but he got scared by the water.  When we gave him a bath, he kept thinking we were going to turn the shower on again. We assured him we would not do that.

Cleo took a shower tonight. She really enjoyed it.

I meant to share a sad-funny story from Cleo's class Easter party a few weeks ago. For the majority of the Easter celebration, Cleo's teachers rewarded the kids with candy for correct answers to math questions.  Once the kids answered all of the questions, the kids sat on the carpet and answered questions to the Social Studies topics that the kids have been learning about all year.  For example, Ms. Edwards asked them what President Obama's wife's name is. The kid who got the candy said, "Mrs. Obama."  Ms. Edwards also gave it to a kid who said, "Michelle Obama."  Cleo correctly said the number of stars or stripes in the U.S. or Georgia flags.  The children were asked what the bald eagle symbolizes for the U.S., I think the answer was power and courage. Other questions were about what the stars and stripes represented on the U.S. and Georgia flags.

I tell you all of this to lead up to one of the questions that Ms. Edwards asked the class.  She asked the class who gave America the Statue of Liberty.  The little girl who had been raising her hand and was called on said, "Crazy Joe."  Cleo and another little girl laughed but no one else laughed. I was surprised that more kids didn't laugh because I thought the answer was pretty funny - I initially thought the girl was joking. The sad part is, the girl who gave the answer was very serious. Cleo and her classmate got a stick (minor demerit, next level up is a strike) for laughing at their classmate who answered incorrectly.  Another child correctly answered that it was France.

Cleo was very upset about getting in trouble; she so wants to be a good girl.  If the entire class had laughed Cleo and her pal would not have been singled out. I am not justifying Cleo's laughing at her other classmate.  But I did feel bad for Cleo a bit.  We didn't reprimand her later very harshly because I suspect Cleo initially thought that the girl was trying to be funny.  We reminded her that she wouldn't want kids laughing at her when she answered questions incorrectly.

Here are some shots from about a year ago.

Have a great week!

The Cast Comes Off and Legos R Us

On April 9, 2013, we took Sidney to the orthopedist to have his cast removed. He was so brave and patient.

On Friday, April 12, 2013, Sidney got dressed up for picture day at his daycare.

On April 12, Cleo just dressed up as her incredibly cute self.

Today we went to church.  Then we went food shopping at Publix.  After lunch at home, Cleo and I ran errands while Sidney had a little nap.  We went to Target and BJs. We selected her class snacks for her April 24 snack day - each class is assigned a day to bring a healthy snack and fruit juice or water.  She selected a variety box of Wise chips.

After Sidney woke up, Cleo assembled her new Lego toy, a girl with a speed boat, sand castle and raft.  We also had a Face time session on my work iPhone with my mom on her Apple lap top.  Sidney told a story using the story telling cards that Liz and Isak gave the kids a while ago. Sidney told a cute story about a witch, a king and a queen. The queen's name was Queen Sister.

Sidney is also very into "Dragons Love Tacos," a book that Liz and Isak gave the kids. Their friend Danny illustrated the book.  It's very funny and smart.

Cleo working on her Legos.

Sidney in his Sunday outfit today.

Cleo in her Sunday outfit.

Roger playing with Cleo and Sidney.

 Cleo playing with her new light up ball that she bought at Publix with $1.99 of her own money.

Saturday, after Cleo's acting class, we went to Home Depot and bought one sweet basil plant and bunch of seeds to plant:  zucchini, Brussels sprouts, carrots, yellow tomatoes, grape tomatoes, cherry radish, poppies, marigolds, Thai basil, aster and other flowers.  We planted it all after Sidney woke up from his nap. It was sort of a hectic process so I didn't take pictures. It was a lot of work and we had to keep dodging the carpenter bees that visit us at all times when we hang out outdoors in the front or back of our house.  We bought flowers for the front porch. I was too tired after the deck planting to attempt to plant the front flowers yesterday. It's too rainy and cold to do it today. I will do it next week. I will be sure to document the process in pictures.

Cleo is very interested in race and repeatedly asks me about my race and whether I am black or white. I told her I am black like President Obama.  She seemed to accept that a month or so ago. During a bathroom break during the church service this morning, she told me that whoever's house we stayed at in NYC was the race that I was. I asked her since we are staying with Uncle Isak and Liz when we visit in June, that means I am white and she said, "yes."  I told her no, I am still black like President Obama and she said, "ok."

Cleo had a fun spring break at Kids R Kids this past week. She went on 3 field trips.  She went to the Puppetry Arts Center, the Cascade Roller Rink, and the World of Coke.  She returns to school tomorrow.

I had a good trip to Chicago April 10-12.  I attended an insurance law institute.  I learned a bit more about insurance law during the institute. I returned at 7:45pm on Friday.  I missed Roger, Cleo and Sidney a lot and it was so good to get back home. Below is a self-portrait of me standing on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

Have a great week!