Life With Ella

Today we took Ella to a picnic in Douglass Park that was an all school picnic.  It turned out to be a beautiful day and we all had a really nice time.  Ella played on the playground equipment with some of her classmates and she actually took off her shoes and ran around barefoot in the sand.  The parents that we met were nice and the kids are all so cute.  The first year parents were all comparing notes on how many tears have been shed since the first day of school.  Ella took a long nap after the picnic and we just all hung around the house.  Ella is still recovering from a cold and we’re recovering from waking up so early in the morning during the week to get Ella ready for school. Ella going down the slide – the cute kid behind her is her classmate Tate’.

Ella loves her Tootie sweatshirt.

We could not love Ella more!

Another week of school has come and gone.  Ella did a great job this week.  There is definitely still some anxiety at drop off, but there weren’t  any tears all week.  The next thing that Ella needs to conquer is to go an entire week without having an accident.  During our potty training family meeting back in early August, Ella requested a computer upon potty training completion.  We did buy the “computer” for Ella, but haven’t given it to her.  She knows that she needs to have a week without accidents in order to get the computer.  Today after an accident she told Alicia, “I am going to get a computer when I am potty trained and don’t have any accidents”.  Alicia asked Ella if she was going to get anything.  Ella looked at her and said, “Yes, you can have a present too”.  I asked Ella what she wanted to get Alicia and Ella said, “A popsicle”.  Pretty sweet considering that Ella LOVES popsicles.

I went to Old Navy today and picked up 2 costumes.  They were $17 each and I couldn’t resist.  One was a cat and the other was a monkey.  I really didn’t like the cat very much but Ella asked for it.  We also ordered a bee costume for Ella – one that she saw in a catalogue.  It came today too, so Ella had a massive dress up party after school.  The cat was cute – it lasted until we went to the mail place to pick up the bee.  The bee was really cute but really cheap.  Ella loved it and wandered around the building in it for quite a while.  The worst part for me was that it was a leotard and tights and very difficult to get off – not a good thing for trying to go to the bathroom really quickly.  I noticed a hole on one of the wings and told Ella that it was a cheap costume and we had to return it.  She didn’t seem too sad to part with it.  She also didn’t let a second go by between wearing the bee and the monkey.  She loved the monkey and it is my favorite too.

Tonight when mommy came home from work, I left to run some errands and came home to mommy and Ella cooking lasagne together.  Ella loved cooking with mommy and mommy was so happy to cook with Ella.  The lasagne was delicious.  Ella had a huge full day and I am completely exhausted.  Goodnight.

Our psychodelic kid on the way to school.

Ella was showing us the spot where she naps every day.

I took these right after school before we got into the car.  Ella was fooling around in front of this wall by the Mission Dolores church.

Sauce…

Olives

Cheese!

Ella wearing her new Tootie (from Yo Gabba Gabba) sweatshirt.  We figured that if she had a sweatshirt from a character that she loves, maybe she would wear it without putting up a fight.  So far it worked – and she even wanted the hood up!

Ella was getting tickled by mommy.  Pure happiness.

Ella had a great day at school today.  At the end of the day, Alicia told us that instead of them reminding Ella to go to the bathroom, Ella told them every time that she needed to go.  Ella made her first poop at school!  Today was an accident free day.  Tonight, we had dinner with Becca at Paragon.  Becca lives across the street from Paragon and at the end of the meal Ella said, “Becca, I want to go across the street to your house and get Tucker and take him for a walk.”   Becca said that would be great but she had to check with us.  Then Ella looked at Becca and said, “I want to go to your house only with YOU”.  It was so sweet – Ella wanted her alone time with Becca.  Mommy and I waited in the lobby for Becca and Ella for a few minutes and then mommy got a call from Becca.  The call sounded like this.  BECCA: “Come on Ella, let’s go downstairs and take Tucker for a walk.”  ELLA:  “I don’t want to go, I don’t want to go downstairs…” and it went on.  Sunny went up and got Ella.  It was a sweet night.  One more thing – Ella and Sunny were in the bathroom at Paragon and Ella was peeing and she looked at Sunny and said, “I am potty trained.”  Yes she is!

Another morning running down the hall to get to school.  We put a peace shirt on Ella this morning in honor of 9/11.

Playing in the classroom before circle time.

One Ella’s drawings displayed in the classroom.  She has been drawing a lot of peacocks lately.

Swinging after school has become a ritual for us.

Ella had a love fest with her buddy Becca

One very tired child attempting to take Tucker for a walk.

Today was another great day getting Ella to school.  She still gets a little anxious/clingy, but she hasn’t cried or asked us to stay with her like she did last week.  She also said, “I hope Brickelle is here today” referring to the little girl that was in the picture yesterday.  I guess Ella is forming a school friendship.  When we brought Ella into the classroom this morning, we noticed that jobs were posted on one of the bulletin boards with kid’s pictures attached to them.  Ella’s job today was washing the tables.  We thought it was so great that they are teaching responsibility at this young age and that the kids probably feel so special getting their jobs.  When we picked Ella up today, she wanted to go high on the swings and of course we took her on the swings.  We had dinner tonight at Acme.Another day of school! Job posting.Ella looking a little dazed right before we left the classroom.Ballerina Ella all clean after her bath and ready to go to Acme.

For the second morning in a row, Ella didn’t cry when we dropped her off at school.  Alicia told us that Ella is doing really well.  She talks to the other kids and is very active – especially with art.  We also found out that Ella naps for anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  Basically, Ella has a very active morning, has lunch and then sleeps until about 1/2 hour before school is over.  She’s taking care of herself in this transitional time.  Today when we picked up Ella, she looked like a wreck.  She has had a cold for 2 days and she looked so spacey.  She told us that she had a great day and a lot of fun.  We pushed her on the swings and one of her classmates, Brickelle joined us.  Stella came over for their special Tuesday playdate.  They were really happy to be with each other.  They played over here.  Maybe Ella’s cool about being here since she is in school all day.  At around 6:00, Ella and I went over to Helen and Ron’s for a delicious dinner.  Mommy was at a Giants Community Fund Board meeting.  Ella was a little tired and testy, but she did a great job tonight.  She really didn’t want to leave the Kim/Arena’s house for anything!  As soon as I got her home I gave her a binky and she calmed down.  She took a bath, got into bed and told me what she wanted to have for breakfast (banana yogurt, a hard boiled egg and a muffin).  She told me that she wanted to wear the same shirt that Stella has with brown tights and that she wanted to watch Pinnochio from “When You Wish Upon a Star” to “I Got No Strings”.  Her whole little morning is perfectly planned out. Good morning – time to go to school.Ella playing in the classroom right before we dropped her off.Playing on the swings with Brickelle.

Last night Ella told us this, “Nobody should take me to school – nobody, nobody, nobody”.  This resistance was something new to us but we plowed through it and told her that we were going to take her to school and that hopefully she would try to have a good day.  Ella was a little whiny this morning but by the time we left for school, she was actually in a pretty good mood.  We got to school and she tried to cling to Sunny but Sunny walked her to a place in the classroom where there were some other kids and Ella started playing with a puzzle.  By the time we left 5 minutes later, she kissed us and hugged us and didn’t cry at all.  Sunny had an appointment in the afternoon so she couldn’t meet to pick up Ella.  I picked up Ella and she seemed great.  She had different leggings on and the teacher said that at one point, she stood in the room, opened her legs and peed on the floor.  Not so great, but this was only the second accident that she has had so far at school.  Her teacher, Alicia then told me something that she thought was really funny.  She said that this boy was going to the bathroom and that he was pooping.  When he was done, he bent all the way over to wipe.  The teacher looked over and she saw Ella coming right at him with her finger out ready to poke him right in the butt.  Oy.  I asked Ella about this and she ignored me.  I’m happy that the teacher thought it was funny.  Ella has been really into drawing pictures of peacocks – very bright beautiful pictures.  I think she’s doing really well at school.

Ella chillin’ out watching Dora after school.

Today was Strike Out Violence Day.  The pre-game ceremony was moving.  Christopher Rodriguez, an 11 year old boy who was hit by a stray bullet while taking a piano lesson and paralyzed from the waist down, threw out the first pitch.  3 young women from his school of the performing arts performed the national anthem.  It was beautiful.  I didn’t take a lot of pictures because I was on the field with Ella and Sunny.  Before the game, there were Looney Tune characters walking around promoting healthy eating.  Ella got to meet Tweety, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.  She was so excited to see them.  She had no idea who they were, but they were cute and large and they made Ella happy.  We met up with the Kim/Arena clan at the game.  Ella was so happy to see the girls.  She had been talking about them all morning so by the time we met up, she was bursting!  We took the 3 girls to the Build A Bear store at the stadium and they all got their own build a bear things.  There is a cute video at the end of this showing the girls putting a lot of love into the hearts that the lady puts into the bear.  We ended the evening blowing huge bubbles in the garden.  Ella goes back to school tomorrow.  We hope it’s a little easier for her this week.  We’ll see…

Ella and her “character” friends.

Mommy and Ella on the field.

Here we are with Lou Seal.

Look at the beautiful bubbles.

Here’s the Build A Bear video

Friday morning was difficult for Ella and mommy.  Ella cried a lot when mommy dropped her off at school and mommy cried too.  Ella didn’t see mommy crying but Ms. Alicia did and she sent over another parent to support Sunny.  We are so lucky to have her as Ella’s head teacher.  She told us that Ella recovered pretty soon after mommy left and had the best day out of the whole week.  That made us feel really good.  Again, this is all going to take some time.  After school, we went to Bi-Rite for some amazing ice cream and then we all went swimming.  After swimming, we had dinner at Nama and then ended up hanging out with the Kim/Arena clan and Emily who was visiting.  We had a great night.  Today, we took it easy.  We all slept in (until 8:00) and then we played around the house and eventually made it over to Maria’s for some grilled cheese and french fries.  We had a quiet night at home.  I think we all needed the down time together.  Tomorrow is Strike Out Violence Day.  Hopefully we’ll get some great pictures from on the field.

On the swings after school.

Here are Ella and Tegan – the other sensitive little one in the class.  Tegan is the one that Ella talked down the other day.

Ice cream and kisses after school.

Mommy is sharing her grape popsicle with Ella.  Ella also shared her chocolate ice cream.

YUM!

Getting a shot from Dr. Juliet.

Ella and mommy had a great time playing with the bubble sword today.

This morning at school was rough.  Once again, Ella was totally cool leaving the house and even in the car.  Once we got to school, she got super clingy and really didn’t want us to go.  In the classroom, she pretty much tried to climb into me and told me not to leave.  We realized that this was really not a good thing, so I kissed Ella and left the classroom.  Sunny stayed with her and showed her some photos that we printed out last night and she stopped crying.  Ms. Alicia gave Ella her blanket and she was calm enough to let Sunny leave.  I am not going to go to drop Ella off tomorrow.  Hopefully this will make it easier for Ella.  Yesterday, I asked Ella about these water tables that they have at school.  She told me that she wanted to play with them but there were too many kids around.  Today, Sunny wrote an e-mail to Ms. Alicia to check in and told her what Ella said about the water table.  Here is the response from Ms. Alicia:

“That’s cute that she told you that there were too many kids at the water table but actually the reason probably is more because she isn’t ready to leave my side or if I’m not on yard duty then she won’t go outside with the other teachers, it will all work out soon! She was much better today. She painted I think like 5 or 6 paintings, one for you, one for Lauren, one for grandma & papa, and a few more. She’s going to be fine; it’s just going to take her a while to adjust.”
That made us feel good.  Ms. Alicia is wonderful and we’re really happy that Ella is doing a little better each day.  Ella told us that she had a good day and that she didn’t cry too much.  She’s getting really good at expressing her feelings.  She said that at times during the day she felt a little sad but then there were times when she was happy.

After school, we went swimming, had dinner at the pub, ran around behind the gym and then came home and took a beautiful walk behind the ballpark.  The weather is gorgeous – it’s hard to stay inside.

Doing ballet in the hallway before school.

Running down the hall to get to the elevator before school.

Going swimming.

Taking turns on top of “stone step hill”.

Mommy was laying down in the grass chillin’ when she took this shot.

Running around behind the gym.

Ella found her special present from Purple Debi

Pretty cool look.

Having a blast on the Lou Seal statue.

Ella, mommy and I made it through Ella’s second day of school.  It was more difficult for Ella today than it was yesterday.  The teacher said that she pretty much cried all morning.  She told them that she missed her mommy and mama.  This morning, Ella was excited to leave the house to go to school but by the time Sunny and I were leaving the classroom to go to work, Ella was saying things like, “I love you – don’t go”.  We let her know that we loved her very much and that we would be back.  Ms. Alicia told us that another little girl was crying and Ella went up to her and said, “Don’t worry – school will be over soon and your mommy will pick you up.  It will be ok.”  The little girl stopped crying!  Hopefully tomorrow will be a little easier for Ella, but as we have been hearing from other parents – soon Ella will be skipping off to play with her new friends.

Leaving for school this morning.  Ella left her wings in the car because we told her that wings weren’t allowed at school.  She was cool with that.

In the classroom before we left.

We went to Acme tonight for dinner.  Ella was very busy drawing, hanging on the rail, and peeing and pooping on the toilet!