Life With Ella

Ella and I had a really sweet day today. We started it by going to My Gym, then we went to the Crossroads Cafe and had lunch and then we hung around in the garden there. Ella took a nap from 2 to 4 and then we played around the house. We met mommy in the garage when she came home from work and then we had dinner with Stella, Juliet and Helen the pub. So much fun. Another great thing is that when Ella wakes up tomorrow morning, she will get to see grandma and papa who arrived a few hours ago! Here are a few picture from today. I have a little movie in the making, but I’m too tired.

Here is Ella in the garden at the Crossroads Cafe. She is trying to communicate with the birdies by flapping her wings and saying tweet tweet.

Ella and Buggie hanging out in the Zen garden. At one point, Bug pooped and Ella looked over at her and said, “Oh My GOD! You did it. You made a poop!” It was so cute – so adult – so enthusiastic

3 busy girls all sitting on the tower playing

Today was the second yoga class. Ella was really excited about it. During the week, Ella, Stella and Juliet have been practicing their yoga poses. Unfortunately, Stella had food poisoning late Sunday night and couldn’t make it to the class, but Juliet made it. Sunny said that Ella was fantastic today. She took a lot of pictures. I was so happy to be able to see Ella in action from the pictures. I hope you are too.I’m not sure what any of these “poses” are so I’ll just write in my own captions…Legs apart!Feet up in the air – check out the balanceDownward facing dogHere’s Ella with the instructor Ms. Megan – she’s learning another poseAnd now she’s doing it.Ella and her friend Mei with their toes on the wallLook at this incredible flexibilityAnd it gets even betterOK – time for some stretching up against the wallSimon says touch your headHere is our little wise oneI know – totally random picture. There is a reason for this. For the past few days, Ella has been asking to watch the movie that Jesse made from our trip to Disney in 2006. Ella calls it Abigail (for her my aunt Abigail who was on the trip with us). Ella loves the movie and tonight, asked us where her Mickey Mouse hat was from the trip. We found it and she wore it up until it was time to go to sleep. When I took the picture, she said, “I love you Jesse”.

This morning while we were eating breakfast, I was attempting to do the Sudoku puzzle and wasn’t having much luck at all. Ella then asked me for the pen and newspaper and began doing the crossword puzzle. When grandma and papa are here, they do the crossword puzzle every morning and I guess Ella wanted to try it. You’ll see from the pictures that she pretty much finished it. We went back to that place Recess so that Sunny could see it and she liked it too. It’s sort of like going to a friend’s house who has really great toys and you can play with everything and not clean up. Sounds good to me!

Here is Ella really concentrating on the puzzle

Ella switched hands because she thinks she can get more answers if she uses both hands

All finished!

Mommy helping Ella fly at Recess

TodayI took the girls to a place called Recess here in SF. I was told about it by a mom friend I have from My Gym. Thanks Heidi! Recess is an indoor space that has a lot of toys, dress up clothes, kitchens, a slide, a work station, easels, and a lot of other stuff for the kids to play with. They also have a little cafe. It’s a cute place – wonderful for cold and rainy days. I didn’t take any pictures there because I wasn’t sure I was allowed to, but when we join, I’ll ask. The only problem that  I had there were jerky moms who didn’t pay attention to their jerky kids. I had to give a talking to to a 4 year old who wouldn’t let Ella play with her. Oy – it doesn’t have to start this young! After Recess, Ella and I went outside and ran around with the dogs. After that, we had lunch and Ella took a nap. When Mommy came home from work, we all hit the gym. Mommy and Ella went swimming and I played racquetball with Kate. After that, we met up with Helen, Ron, Stella and Juliet for dinner at the pub. It was a fun day and night. I am tired.Holding hands walking down the hallway.You strut your stuff little one! Check out Ella’s stride.Happy Ella petting her buddy BugLeaning over to kiss her friend TowbyElla after swimming, waiting for the elevator eating a Twix bar.

Here are some pictures from yesterday and today. Ella has had 2 great days.. It seems like her communication skills are getting better by the minute. At night, before Ella goes to sleep she likes to read books with Sunny and then she comes into our room and likes to watch her movies that I post, on the computer. Tonight, I showed her a movie from Strike Out Violence Day. In a part of the movie, I show Lou Seal (the Giant’s mascot). When Ella saw Lou Seal, she began to cry. A few minutes later, Sunny came into the room and I asked Ella to tell Mommy what happened when she saw Lou Seal. Ella said, “I cried when I saw Lou Seal”. I asked her to tell mommy why she cried and she thought about it for a minute and then she said, “Because I want to huggie Lou Seal”. She was so clear about her needs – it was pretty cool.This is from yesterday when it was raining. Ella came in from being in the rain and ran to her easel to draw without taking her jacket off. I guess she had something in mind to draw and she didn’t want to forget it.Here is Ella with a dirty face from eating noodles and a big smile because she’s eating a banana like Boots the monkey from DoraThis is Ella’s new trick – supporting herself with her arms. She kept saying, “Hey Mommy – look at this, hey mama look at this!”Ella calls this shirt her ladybug shirtWe took this picture tonight right before we went out with the doggies to take a walk around the ballpark

Today, Mommy took Ella to yoga class. Stella, Juliet, Tyler and another little girl are also in the class. Tyler’s mom took pictures and I’m waiting for them to come in. Here is an e-mail that Sunny sent to me after the class today…”Yoga was fantastic. As I thought, Ella was a complete natural! Ms. Megan the yoga instructor had her mouth open watching Ella and said this child is going to be in my adult class soon! Ella led the way in class and it was a joy and fun to watch her move with ease and confidence!–She learned tree pose, butterfly, pilot, downward dog and stretching like a clock on both sides and at the end of the class we all said Namaste (thank you) –Ella clasps her hands in front of her belly and said namaste clear as a bell! A great class and experience!”

After Ella’s bath tonight, Ella showed me some of her poses. Here they are.

Here’s the butterfly pose – she was bringing her knees up and down “flapping” her wings

Here’s Ella’s frog pose

Namaste – maybe Towby should go to class next week. He looks very committed.

We’ve been pretty busy the past few days – I took a little camera vacation for a minute but I’m back! The weather has been pretty bad here. I’m sure you’ve heard it on the news or you are here experiencing it. There have been heavy winds and a lot of rain. This morning, it was pretty mild outside but there were some pretty good puddles to jump in so we took the girls near the park to puddle jump. Right when we were turning back to come home, it started raining again. We all were pretty wet and cold. After the puddle jumping, the girls had lunch and then went down for early naps. Stella had a birthday party in the afternoon at AcroSports. It was a lot of fun. Ella showed up wearing the same shirt as the birthday girl. Stella was totally cool with it. It was a really beautiful day. Juliet was especially into Ella today which you will see in the pictures.

Here are the girls doing their puddle jumping

A kiss for Juliet

Hey – what’s so funny?

The 3 musketeers

Juliet giving Ella a little cuddle to get her warm

It was cold out there!

Here they are – best buddies with the same shirt!

Here’s Ella breaking a rule – she’s supposed to be sitting down and listening to directions

So here’s the story – when Ella came to this place for a class, she was always afraid to go on this bungee caterpillar thing. Today, Ella watched Stella and Juliet go on the caterpillar and have so much fun and then she said to me, “I want to go in between Stella and Juliet”. I explained that only 2 people could go on so she said that she wanted to go next. She went on with this sweet kid named Lilah and she had a blast.

Happiness!

Here I am attempting to get Ella to hang on the trapeeze

And then I fell down on the mat with Ella…I’m gonna get you!

Mommy and Ella…Mommy has the beautiful look of love

Ella and Juliet with their funny Groucho Marx glasses

Can you see a resemblance?

Today is Helen’s birthday – Happy Birthday Helen! As a birthday treat, we watched the girls while Ron took Helen out for a birthday dinner. We had a blast with the girls…lots of silliness which we both needed after going back to work and dealing with the tough stuff. Sunny made rice pilaf and spaghetti and the girls loved it (so did I). At one point Ella looked over at Sunny and said, “Mommy, the rice pilaf is phenomenal”. That’s a papa word if I ever heard one! After dinner, we went into the hallway with the bubble machine and and the girls danced around. Then we all played by the elevator. After that, we went back into the house and the girls had popsicles. After the popsicles, we went upstairs and the girls watched Yo Gabba Gabba, changed into PJ’s and played more. It was a perfect night.

Best friends…Stella came up and gave Ella this huge hug while Ella was finishing her dinner.

Have you heard of the hottest new toy of the season…Tickle me Ella!

Stella and Juliet practice the fine art of catching bubbles

More bubbles! I recommend this bubble machine to everyone. It just brings lots of fun times.

Hey there – what’s goin’ on?

Ella clapping while Stella leads us in a ballet/dance class

It’s popsicle time! Stella had an orange one…

And so did Juliet (she loves having the same exact thing as her big sister)

Ella had a purple popsicle

Our 3 girls – the heavy drinkers