Life With Ella

We woke up this morning and Ella asked to do a video chat with grandma and papa.  Luckily they were home and we had a great video chat.  Love you guys!  It was great “seeing” you.  Today our friend Mary was coming over to watch the Giants/Cubs game on TV but the game was postponed due to bad weather in Chicago.  We all decided to take a walk over to the ballpark, go down the Coca Cola slide and have a little game of wiffle ball.  We had Ella hit while we were pitching to her rather than having the ball on the tee.  She was terrific!  Tonight we went to family swim.  I guess a lot of families had the same idea because the pool was so crowded.  Ella had a lot of fun. Last night Naomi painted Ella’s fingernails and this morning, Ella and I painted her toenails. Ella never gets bored of the trolley at the the ballpark. So much fun going down the slide! Ella is becoming a baseball superstar.

We all started out the day on the T-Ball field at 9:00 am!  Ella and her team did a great job.  After T-ball we hung out at home and relaxed a little bit.  I took Ella to Taekwondo in the afternoon. She’s getting better and better each week.  Tonight we had Phyllis, Hannah, Naomi, Charlie and Phyllis’ mom – grandma Alice over for dinner.  Alice is 92 years old and just an amazing person. We had a delicious brisket dinner and did a little Wii dancing.  Ella also read us a few books.  She’s really becoming a great reader.  I’m exhausted so here are some great pics from today. The second before the ball was hit.  It was pretty cold out in Golden Gate Park this morning. One of Ella’s T-ball poses. Ella (11) making a play at first base. If you look closely, you can see the ball that Ella hit – right in front of coach Brooke’s face. Beautiful Ella playing first base for an inning. Fooling around with her friend Tessa. Later in the afternoon…helping us get ready for our dinner guests. Good move! Ella doing some great kicks. Ella helped me with the cookies after dinner. Dancing fun! Here we all are.  Charlie took this one of us. Ella took this one! Another Ella masterpiece.  A lot of history, a lot of love.

It feels like this week has been a long one.  We have another milestone for Ella.  On Thursday afternoon, I picked up Ella’s new booster seat.  Ella is no longer in a 5 point harness carseat.  She is so proud of her new seat.  She loves it.  She has been telling everyone who will listen.   Ella in her new red and black car seat. I took Ella to her swimming lesson on Thursday.  She’s doing incredibly well.  I snuck this picture at the end of her lesson when she took off her bathing cap and goggles.  Great back floating!On Thursday night we had dinner with Amy and Susie.  Here is Amy teaching Ella how to play diner dash.  Ella caught on really quickly.  She loves learning.  Maybe Ella can teach Amy how to enjoy reading books!Ella and her buddy Casi at assembly today.  Ella was too busy waving at her friends to pose for the picture. Monkey bars again!  It’s almost time to move on to the tall monkey bars. Warming up at T-Ball practice. Friday night movie night with the Kim/Arena kids.  KJ borrowed one of Juliet’s old night shirts.  I think he looks adorable. Best friends and cookies. KJ and Helen.  Check out KJ’s shoes.  He was walking around in Ella’s fancy nancy shoes.

Ella loves Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.  On Tuesdays Brickelle comes over and hangs out for the afternoon and on Wednesdays Stella and Juliet come over and hang out in the afternoon.  Wednesday nights usually turn into Kim/Arena/Schwartz dinners which we all love. Ella and Brickelle working hard on their kid’s menus at Amicis. Happiness. Ella and her sisters.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms reading this…happy mother’s day again mom.  Love you!  Today Ella went with the Kim/Arena family to Stella’s dance recital and Sunny and I went to the Giants game.  Ella had a fantastic time and we had a fantastic time!  The Giants swept the Rockies.  Ella loved watching Stella dance so much and she loved all the different costumes that the kids were wearing at the recital.  When Ella came home, Helen came with her and asked if Ella could play for a little while – the girls were all going to get into some dance clothes and dance over at their house.  Ella went upstairs and was up there for about 5 minutes.  She came down with an outfit that she invented – she was ready for some serious modern dance.  She was so cute and loved her outfit.  Tonight we had dinner with Phyllis, Michael, Hannah and Naomi.  It was a really great dinner at Out The Door.  Phyllis took pictures so maybe she’ll share some with me to post. Ella and Juliet before the dance recital. Ella’s costume change.  The things on her legs are old school leg warmers.  We got them for her a long time ago and she remembered! Ella’s going out to dinner outfit.

Today was a fun filled day.  In the morning, we went to a mother’s day celebration at mommy’s office.  It was a beautiful celebration for women and their children who are survivors of domestic violence.  After that we headed over to Ella’s school for the annual Country Fair.  It was a lot of fun – Ella played with her friends, got her face painted, listened to a 6th grade girl band who was great and practiced a little on the monkey bars.  We were there for about 3 hours and then we went to the T-ball game.  Ella surprised us and told us that she wanted to be the catcher.  She was the cutest catcher in the world.  The thing that she was most concerned about was whether her face paint came off or not.  Tonight, Sunny and I went to the Giants game (great win in the 9th) and Ella got to hang out next door.  She was so excited to hang out with the girls, KJ and Helen.  This morning, KJ pointed to Ella and said, “Ella noo-nah”.  Noo-nah is the way for a boy to say big sister in Korean.  Ella loved that. Face painting. Ella and one of her favorite people in the world – Ms. Alicia. Country Fair fun with Emmi and Brickelle. A very happy Ella running to the T-Ball field. Cutest catcher in the world! Ella playing around with her friend Dillon.  Dillon looks pretty intense in the last shot and Ella looks like she just doesn’t care! Ella and mommy sharing a moment on second base. At the end of a long, fun day.

This has been a really busy week and tomorrow is going to be even more packed with stuff, but I wanted to share an e-mail and photo that Alicia sent us today.  The e-mail said this “I was busy so I put her to work reading to others.”    How cool is that!?  Ella’s reading has been getting better and better.  We don’t have her sit down and read, but every once in a while, we’ll be looking at a book or one of her magazines and she’ll say something like, “Let me read this page OK?”  so we let her give it a shot and she’s been doing so well.  After school, we asked Ella about reading to the other kids and she said, “Yes – I did read a book and it wasn’t one of those ‘BOB’ books – it was harder than that.”  She was really into reading to some of the other kids.  She told me later that some kids left in the middle of the book and other kids stuck around to hear the whole thing.  She didn’t mind that some kids left.  Thank you Alicia for encouraging Ella to go for it! Ella is now swimming the entire length of the pool. Monkey bars after T-ball practice.

Ella has had a great week.  On Monday, Ella and 5 other students went to Bi-Rite with the 3 preschool teachers after school.  Ella loved going with Alicia!  She was in a terrific mood when we went to ballet.  On Tuesday, Ella had her usual Tuesday playdate with Brickelle which she loves and today Ella was a little disappointed that she didn’t have her Stella/Juliet Wednesday playdate but it was Juliet’s birthday and they were going out to dinner.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIET!  Today it was super hot out so I took Ella to Bi-Rite after school and then we came home, Ella changed into this Tutu bathing suit and I dumped water on her in the zen garden.  We had a blast.  Ella was laughing and laughing.  Here are some pics.Lots of fun at ballet class.  The last shot is of Ella pretending that she was asleep. At Bi-Rite after school. Fun in the zen garden.Finding a ladybug.