Life With Ella

Today, Ella and I had another great day together. We hung around the house in the morning and played in the park in the afternoon. While we were home this morning, I was folding Ella’s laundry and Ella was playing around in her room. We have this thing under her bed that we used to pull out for her to do “tummy time” on. It’s this cute jungle animal thing with dangling animals, a mirror, some music…you get the picture. Anyway…she was playing with it in a 2 year old way and she said, “Ella bring it into the bathroom”. I looked over at her and she was picking it up and carrying it over to the bathroom. She got to one spot where a chair was in the way and she was trying to shove the thing through the door but it was stuck. Ella looked at me and said, “Frustrated!” It was incredible. I guess she hears and learns everything. I said, “Yes, you’re frustrated because it’s stuck here, let me help you.” Ella said, “Mama help Ella”. What a cool thing.

How high can Ella’s hair possibly get?

Hooray! Ella celebrating jumping off a little wall.

Ella started her day at My Gym and had a blast. Ella is making some friends in her class. She has two little buddies – Ava and Isabelle. Isabelle was out this week, but Ava and Ella had a lot of fun. Ella has gained so much confidence in everything that she does. She did a lot of climbing today during class. She also hung out on the trampoline – she can’t jump just yet – just does a lot of bouncing. Here are 3 pictures from her class.Ella on the trampolinePlaying in the ball pit or as I call it, the germ pitElla and Ava on the train swingAfter class, we went home, had some lunch and Ella took a nap. As many of you know, she only naps in her stroller so that’s good for me because I’m not stuck in the house. I went downtown and did some shopping while Ella took her nap. One of the places I went to was Old Navy and I bought Ella an elephant Halloween costume. Ella woke up as I was having a little lunch. She asked me to go to the carousel. Yesterday, Ella fell off one of the horses on the carousel. She wasn’t hurt, but she did bump her head. Even after she fell yesterday, she wanted to go on the carousel. It was a beautiful thing that she wasn’t afraid or traumatized. Today, she “got back on the horse” with no fear. Sunny was home when we got there and she asked to see what I bought. I showed her Ella’s costume and she just loved it. I showed it to Ella and she really didn’t react. We were about to go out to dinner, but I decided to try the top of the costume on Ella. She loved it! She loved it so much that when I tried to take it off her, she went nuts. She started crying and said, “No take off elephant costume, Ella wear it” this went on for a few minutes. We just stuck with her and let her feel her feelings. She was really upset and then Stella, Juliet and Julie saved the day. I guess they heard Ella crying, so they started calling for Ella on the other side of our door. We quickly opened the door and then came in and started playing. Ella immediately stopped crying. THANK YOU GIRLS!We had a great dinner with Phyllis, Michael, Hannah and Naomi (my camera battery was charging, so no pictures). Ella loves them all a lot. We came home and Ella spotted her elephant costume. She said, “Ella wear elephant, Ella put on elephant”. How can you say no to that? We put the costume on, brought her upstairs and had her watch the Sleep episode of Yo Gabba Gabba. She danced around a little and finally settled down. I couldn’t resist posting her elephant picture. As you can tell, we put it on her quickly, it’s a dress rehearsal for the big day where she will be a pristine elephant.Check out how cute the feet are!Here we are both getting very sleepy.

Ella had a great day together. We went to the park, the carousel, and hung out with Stella and Juliet. Later on, Ella was ready to “draw with crayons”. We drew and I took these pictures of her. Ella’s hair is growing now. She has a great head of curly hair. She is right on developmental schedule. She has developed the art of whining. We’re trying to help her find other ways to get what she needs – she does a pretty good job snapping out of the whining, but not always. She’s really doing so well and we love her very much.Here is Ella using both hands to draw.Say cheese!

Today we took it easy with Ella again. Sunny and Ella took a big adventure to Target while I got a massage. Later in the afternoon/early evening, we decided that we would take the girls (Ella, Stella & Juliet) to go to a Fiddler on the Roof sing along in Dolores Park and a celebration for Sukkot. We bought some stuff to eat, went into the park, put down our blankets and had a little picnic. It became really cold outside and the girls seemed like they were freezing. It was sweet in the park, but we all decided that we had to get the kids home. On the way to the car, we stopped for ice cream. We decided that they couldn’t be any colder than they already were. It’s so great to see them have so much fun together.

Take one for the group shot…

Take two – not exactly looking at the camera, but lots of smiles

Sharing popcorn – this was the first time that Ella had popcorn!

Yummy ice cream. Ella is a pretty neat ice cream eater.

Juliet enjoying her ice cream

Ella and Juliet traded strollers for a while so Ella got to eat ice cream with Stella