Life With Ella

I can’t believe the trip is over! It seems like we just arrived. We have been so busy and it has been a great trip. It was wonderful to spend time with our loved ones. Here’s what’s been going on during the past few days…

On Wednesday, Sunny and I spent the day in NY and Ella had a playdate with her little friend Hudson and Hudson’s grandma Doris. Here are some pictures.

Here are Ella and Hudson holding hands at the park

Playing at the library

Ella on a big girl swing at the park (she waited her turn patiently for the swing)

After a hard day of play, there’s nothing like relaxing and having a “chocolate popsicle”

On Thursday, Sunny, Ella and I went to Monsey to visit Sunny’s dad and to see Sunny’s brother Jerry, sister in law, Barbara and two of her 4 niece/nephews. Ella got to meet Aliza and Eliyahu. Ella instantly fell for Aliza (who is 17 and looks a lot like Sunny). Ella immediately went to her, let her hold her, played on the swings and sat with her while we ate lunch. It was really beautiful and the connection was special. We hope we get to see more of everyone.

Ella with grandpa Seymour

Ella chillin’ in Aliza’s arms. She’s giving the thumbs up

Uncle Jerry pushing Ella on the swing in their back yard

Aliza helping Ella eat her matzah and jelly

That evening, AJ came over to spend time with us. Ella and AJ have such a special connection…like they new each other in a past life.

Here they are after Ella’s bath

AJ and Ella playing in the mirror

Today, we all met up to go to the Central Park Zoo. Although the zoo was lacking animals and had an overpopulation of people, we had a great time. We went with grandma, papa, AJ, Michael, mommy, mama and Ella. Afterwards we met up with Nikki B in NJ and had a terrific evening.

Grandma, Ella and papa in front of the sea lions

Eating lunch at the zoo

Here we all are strolling through the park

Yesterday, we took Ella back to Van Saun Park to ride the ponies. There was a long line and Ella was pretty great about waiting for her turn. It was finally her turn and there were teenagers leading the horses. Ella had one teenager leading the horse and one who was supposed to be holding her. Ella was riding around the little track, having a great time , very excited and then all of a sudden, the horse stopped walking. That was fine, they were just hanging out and waiting for the horse to start again. When he didn’t start, the teenager who was leading the horse started to pull the horse. The one who was supposed to be holding Ella was holding her by her shirt. All of a sudden, the horse ran forward and Ella went flying off and landed on her face. The teenager screamed, Ella cried and they just did nothing. Then Sunny ran over and picked up Ella and hugged her, made sure she was ok, got the dirt out of her mouth and passed her over to me. Then Sunny “took care” of the idiots who were running the pony rides. Ella was fine – pretty shaken up – one of the guys bought Ella an ice cream and asked if she would like to go on another pony. Ella actually said yes but also said, “Only if mommy and mama come and I don’t want to fall off”. We took her to a private part of the park and she did a great job. After the big adventure, Ella came home and took a 3 hour nap. After the nap, Ella went to Fireman’s Park with grandma and papa and played hard. Sunny and I went into NY, had dinner with Nikki B and went to hear AJ sing. It was a beautiful night.

This is the first horse, Coco…the one Ella was flung from.

Here we are with Donut – the good ride

Petting Donut and thanking her for a good ride

Ella about to hang from the bar and go down the slide

Papa pushing Ella on the swing

Ella and papa playing the ball game…”I got it, I got it”

Back at home taking inventory on empty water bottles

Today, Sunny, Ella and I took a ride to Hoboken to visit our friends Caroline and Adam and their new baby Zach. Zach is 5 weeks old. Ella was pretty interested in Zach. She told us that she wanted to give him milk and orange juice. Caroline was sweet enough to let Ella hold him and it was really beautiful to see. After Hoboken, we came back here and Ella took a very long nap. After the nap, we had some dinner and then we were all hanging out. Grandma and papa were showing Ella a photo book from when Ella was a little baby. Papa showed Ella a picture of herself as an infant and asked her who she thought it was. She looked really closely at the picture and said, “Zach”. Papa said, “No Ella, that is you and I am holding you”. Ella looked really hard at the picture and I think it finally registered with her that she was once a little tiny infant. Grandma, papa and I went out to Uncle Michael’s album release show tonight. It is also Michael’s birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL! I was going to have Ella do a video but she was sleeping by the time we came home. Mommy and Ella stayed home, made popcorn, watched Kiki and read lots of books. Mommy said that at one point, Ella looked at her and said, “I miss my friends – I miss Stella and Juliet.” Ella loves Ella and Juliet so much. It’s so amazing that she has such a meaningful friendship with these guys at this young age.

Zach and his mommy Caroline

Ella holding Zach who is in mid-stretch

Ella giving Zach a sweet kiss

Looking at baby pictures with grandma and papa

We had seders here both nights and they were both wonderful. The first night, we had Abigail, Ray, David, Jamie, Bronwen, Georgia, AJ and Normyn. Ella had a fantastic time with her cousins. The girls are 4 and 7 and Ella hung with them like she was one of the older girls! The second night, we had AJ, Michael, Jordin, Kevin, Donna and Jay. Ella did a great job sitting at the table during the seder and during the meal. We asked Ella what her favorite part of the night was and she said, “Dessert!” Both nights were really sweet and it was great to be with the family.

Ella and her 2 beautiful cousins Bronwen and Georgia

Here we are at the piano creating a beautiful composition

Here are the girls in front of a statue that my parents have that the girls re-named “doody head”. Georgia is afraid of this wooden ominous looking man/sculpture so we performed a ceremony where we put Ella’s big girl underwear on his head, turned him around so his tushie faced us, and we called him Doody Head. We later had a ceremony where we de-humiliated doody head and took the underwear off his head.

Ella between the 2 sisters.

Ella waiting for the guests to arrive. Check out her new gold shoes.

I just love this nose crinkle

The 3 of us at the second night of the seder

Covering our eyes during the lighting of the candles

Normyn at the seder

Ella doing a fancy ballet move

Ella and Kevin very serious drawing pictures together

Ella and AJ discussing “Ohmmmmmm”

Uncle Michael, Ella and Normyn after dessert

Grandma reading a book to Ella. I think Ella is trying to really absorb every word grandma is saying.

A VIDEO OF DAYENU

Yesterday, mommy, grandma, papa and I took Ella to Wood Park in Leonia. Ella went to the same park last summer and wasn’t able to do a lot of the climbing and exploring that she did today. Here are some pictures from the park.

Ella making her way through the blue tunnel

Ella and mommy having a slide race

Grandma going down the slide

Papa pushing Ella really high on the swings

Chillin’ in the yellow tunnel

Today, AJ came over in the morning and Ella was so happy to see her (AJ was so happy to see Ella too). Ella hadn’t seen AJ since January and when she saw her, she hugged her so tight for a really long time. It was really sweet. They played outside with Normyn, danced ballet, and read books. Ella took a nap when AJ left and then woke up in a great mood. Ella, grandma and I hung out on the terrace and Ella read a lot of books with grandma. Papa came home from playing golf and Ella pointed to his watch and said, “Mommy is coming home in 20 hours”. Luckily, 20 hours was only 20 minutes. Mommy came home and now our family is complete. As soon as mommy came home, Ella was like, “Mommy – will you read a book with me? Mommy – will you come and play dots in the living room…” it was great – Ella just picked up where they left off. Grandma and papa watched Ella tonight and mommy and I went to NY to have dinner with our friend Diane.

AJ and Ella playing with Orange bear

AJ, Ella and Normyn playing in the secret garden on the side of the house

Oy – Ella is growing up so fast

Everything is beautiful at the ballet

AJ and Normyn ballet dancing

It’s storytime! Check out Ella copping a lean on Normyn

YAY! Mommy is back.

Ella slept from 10:30 pm to 10:30 am. What a beautiful thing. She was in a great mood when she woke up…happy to be here. We miss mommy and can’t wait to see her tomorrow but we know that she has been working hard. We love you! This morning, papa and grandma’s friend Irv came over to see Ella. He was the first person to give Ella a lollipop (at AJ’s first show) and of course he brought lollipops for Ella today! It was great to see him. This afternoon, grandma and I took Ella to Van Saun Park on Ella’s request. We got there, and the ponies were not there yet. They are arriving tomorrow and the pony rides will officially open on Saturday. We’ll all go next week. Ella was really cool about not getting a pony ride and transitioned into being obsessed with the carousel. Ella and grandma took 2 carousel rides. The first was on the zebra and the next on the rhino. They both looked like they were having so much fun. After the carousel, we went into the zoo part of Van Saun Park. The animals were just arriving, so we saw a few, but not all of them. We saw donkeys, goats, cows, sheep, a condor, some monkeys, a porcupine and some ostrich. The train was also closed, so that’s something else to look forward to. Ella was amazing. We came home, had some lunch and then we took a walk up to Fireman’s park. It was really sweet. When we got there, Ella and grandma, took off running. They went on the bouncy things, the slide, and then grandma pushed Ella on the swing. We went home from the park and Ella took a nap. After the nap, we hung out on the terrace and then we went to visit my grandmother. Ella was a little hesitant at first, but then she warmed up to her. I guess she’s not used to someone not really responding to her. At the end she said, “I love you grandma Miller”. It was really touching. We’ll go back to see grandma next week. After that we picked up some dinner and papa came home and we all ate. After dinner, we took papa to go get a haircut. Paul, who cuts papa’s hair, also cuts grandma’s hair and he cut my hair when I was 6! There’s a lot of history there and he couldn’t get over Ella. Ella sat in the salon in her own seat and watched papa get his haircut. We took Ella to Dunkin Donuts and she ate the chocolate off of a chocolate glazed donut and had a little ice cream. We came home, Ella took a bath and is now sleeping. What a great fun filled day.

Here’s the zebra (going by very quickly)

Ella and grandma on the rhino

Grandma pushing Ella in her cool Jeep at Van Saun Park

The girls strolling around at the zoo

Grandma and Ella running off together at the park

Ella greeting papa when he came home from work

Grandma and Ella hanging out at the salon watching papa get a haircut

Here’s another beautiful grandma, Ella, papa photo.

Playing dots before the bath