Life With Ella

This morning when we dropped Ella off, she was out of sorts.  We have been harassing her about going to the bathroom and I think she’s pretty sick of it.  The problem is, she either waits until the last minute or she has an accident.  Today Alicia told Sunny and I that we are stressing Ella out and that we shouldn’t mention the potty for a week.  She also told us not to stress out about Ella being kicked out of school – she was doing just fine and that she wasn’t in jeopardy. We didn’t mention anything about going to the bathroom to Ella all afternoon and all evening and she went on her own – no accidents and virtually no stress.  Alicia is a smart woman.

Today after school, Ella was playing around on the outdoor structure with a classmate of hers named Kaliko.  Kaliko really cracks Ella up.  Here are some pictures of a beautiful exchange between Ella and Kalkio.  Ella was under the structure, and Kaliko was hanging his head upside down and talking to Ella.

Here’s the beauty running down the hallway this morning.

Having a blast.

Ella loves getting her picture taken against this wall.

I actually couldn’t think of a creative title for this post so this is it.  Ella had a great day at school.  The water table in the classroom had sparkly blue water and a lot of spider rings.  Ella loved it so much that she had to change her shirt because it was so wet and she also had an accident because she didn’t want to take a break to go to the bathroom.  Oy vey.  After school, Ella tried these little stilt like things that were on the yard.  They are what we used to call “romper stompers” from the TV show Romper Room.  She really did well on them – especially for the first time.  Ella likes this TV show called Max and Ruby.  It’s a cartoon about these little rabbits.  Ruby is Max’s big sister.  We bought Ella a Max and Ruby DVD tonight and she watched all the episodes.  The shows are about 10 minutes each, so they are tolerable.  They really make Ella laugh.  Ella really loved this one episode where Max wanted strawberries but Ruby wouldn’t let him have them until he ate his eggs.  Every time she tried to give him eggs, Max said, “Bad egg”.  This made Ella crack up.  After the DVD was over, she made me act out the bad egg skit about 20 times.  First I was Max and she was Ruby and then we switched.  Then Ella had this whole skit about the 3 of us going to school.  She has a great imagination.

Running down the hallway to get to the elevator.

Alicia put these posters up by the kid’s cubbies.  They asked the kids some questions about the classroom and their families and here are their responses.

Ella on her “romper stompers”.

Here we are doing our Max and Ruby skit.

Smiley kid wearing smiley face pajamas.

After dinner, we were all playing with Ella’s Dora Lego playground and after we put it away, it was about 7:45.  We told Ella that it was almost time to get ready to go to bed and she said, “I want to dance”.  We put on some dance music and she danced like crazy – she did her special little butt dance and just jumped all around.  Then she said, “I want to hear Mozart” and when we put it on, she said, “now I need my ballet shoes”.  Pretty cute.

Ballerina in the dog bed.

Today we took Ella to Golden Gate Park to see Becca and Tucker at the Pet Pride event.  Ella wanted to wear her Mickey Mouse costume.  It was all too cute.

Mommy is becoming quite the make-up artist.  Nice whiskers and nose!

This picture is so cute I can’t stand it!

Our little jumper!

This weather has been incredible.  Each day is more and more beautiful.  It’s supposed to get a little cooler, but we have been so fortunate to have such a beautiful fall so far.  Early this afternoon, the 3 of us took a walk and had lunch at the Java House.  After the Java House, we went to the little park behind the ballpark.  Ella jumped off high walls, climbed the red structure up and down all by herself and just seemed like such a big kid in a little kid’s playground.  After that, we came home and Ella got ready for a Halloween party at Borders.  Getting ready meant having mommy painting beautiful fire on Ella’s face so that Ella could be a fire breathing dragon.  Ella put on her dragon costume (or postume as Ella says) and off to Borders we went.  Borders had some activities for the kids, some trick or treating, a Halloween story, a game of duck duck goose, a Halloween parade and then a costume contest.  Ella had so much fun, Stella and Juliet were there, and so were Hannah and Max from upstairs.  We could really see a difference in how Ella participated in the games and socialized with other kids.  Preschool is a great thing for Ella.  Ella won the costume contest along with a big kid who was a skeleton.  Ella really loved meeting him.  She was kind of mezmerized by him.  After Borders, we went to Stella and Juliet’s house and played for a long time.  Finally, we ended our night at the Fog City Diner with Helen, Ron, Stella and Juliet, where Ella ate 2 bowls of buttery noodles and some of my spaghetti.  Wow – what a day.

Mommy and Ella on the way to the Java House.

Looks like Ella is about to dive into the sandbox.

There was a time, not so long ago, that Ella could not reach up to this red thing.

I think this is my best picture of the week.

About to climb.

Right after mommy painted the fire on Ella’s face.

Dragon wings.

Here is the whole costume – dragon feet and all.

On the way to Borders.  Mommy was in the Halloween spirit too!

Stella, Helen and Juliet listening to a Halloween story.

The whole gang listening to the Halloween story.

Waiting to see if she is going to be called “goose” during an intense game of “duck duck goose”.

Playing with the 3 headed dragon puppet.

Meeting a big boy skeleton. This kid was so sweet to Ella.

Ella hitting some sticks together during the Halloween parade.

A skeleton hug.

Best costume winner!

The 2 costume winners representing the youngest and the oldest kids.

The 3 of us. Thank you Ron for taking this picture!

Back at the Kim/Arena household, here are Stella and Ella doing a little ballet.

Today, Alicia told me that Ella made up a story instead of admitting that she had an accident.  Basically, Ella was inside with the other teacher and some kids and Alicia was outside.  When Alicia came inside, Ella was wearing a completely different outfit than the one she came to school in.  Alicia asked her what happened and Ella told her that she got all wet from the water table.  Alicia told Ella that she didn’t see her outside and she said something like, “Well I got wet from playing in the water”.  Finally, Alicia asked Ella if she had an accident and Ella said, “Yes” and walked away.  Good imagination kid!

A little blurry, but here is Ella running to the elevator.

Jumping…Ella is getting really good at jumping.  I missed the middle picture, but today, Ella jumped off of this wall all by herself!

We feel like Ella is changing minute by minute.  She will be 3 in a few weeks and she’s just such a little kid.  I don’t really know how to explain it.

Ella taking her cat buddy Gigi to school.

Can you find the person who’s not the pre-schooler?

On the way to dinner at Nama.

Pure happiness.

Ella told us that the lollipop was made of nectar.