Life With Ella

One more Happy Birthday card for grandma.  Ella came home from ballet and immediately got busy making this card for grandma.  We’ll stick it in the mail tomorrow.  We love you – happy birthday again. The kids were pretty cute at ballet today.  Ella was happy and into it.  Too tired to throw a movie together but I will sometime this week.

Happy Birthday mom/grandma!  We love you very much.  We hope you have a beautiful day.  Here is a Happy Birthday message that Ella wrote for you.The words and letters are all over the place but I’m sure you get it.  Check out the end for your Happy Birthday song.We went to the game today.  We had a blast – the Giants didn’t. The highlight of Ella’s day was seeing Lou Seal.   Ella got up out of her seat and began running to the section where Lou Seal was hanging out.  It was great to see Ella’s determination to see her favorite Giant. Our little nerd leaving the ballpark. It was kid’s batting helmet day today.

Ella had a t-ball game this afternoon.  She is really funny – she has a great time, loves being with her school buddies, loves being outside, but is probably the most un-focused that I have ever seen her.  She actually did a pretty good job today.  She is completely focused when she is batting and now knows how to run the bases, but once she in on the field, she starts playing in the dirt and talking to the other kids.  The whole experience is pretty fun to watch.  Tonight, we went to the Giants game.  The Giants won and we stayed for the entire game.  Ella was terrific!  It was a super fun night. T-ball! Ella in her Giants getup. Ella insisted that we take this huge finger thing to the game.We bumped into some of our Community Fund buddies and Ella played this game and won a Tim Lincecum poster. The iTouch is a great tool to keep Ella happy at the games.  Here she is learning how to write owl.The beautiful orange lit trees in front of the ballpark.

If you have been following this, you’ll know about Ann…the free hippo that Ella got in NJ while on her first outing to Toys R Us with grandma and papa.  Ella loves Ann so much.  She sleeps with her every night.  Lately, she has been bringing Ann to school for nap time.  This afternoon, we forgot to bring Ann home from school.  Ella realized this just as she was getting ready for bed.  She began to cry and cry and say, “I want Ann NOW”.  It was really sad and really sweet at the same time.  I quickly pulled out one of her other stuffed animals – a very big headed Tweety and said in my worst Tweety voice, “Hey Ewa – why awe you so sad?”  She looked at Tweety and said, “I am sad because we left Ann at school and I want her here.  I sleep with her every night and I miss her.”  She began to cry again.  Then Sunny talked to her through another stuffed animal Dog Dog.  Dog Dog was saying that she has been with Ella since she was little and that she would sleep with her.  Ella talked to Dog Dog too but just really wanted Ann.  I suggested that she write Ann a letter that she could give to her in the morning at school and Ella really got into the idea.  Here it is… She told Ann that she loved her so much and that she missed her so much.  How beautiful is that?  After Ella wrote the note, she felt all better and went to sleep.  We also told her that if Alicia got to the classroom before her, maybe she would take Ann out of Ella’s cubby and put her on Alicia’s desk.  I’m sure Ella is going to be so happy to see Ann in the morning.

If Ella had a way of communicating other than her (sometimes) loud voice, she would have told everyone that she knows that Ms. Alicia is coming back to the Leaping Lizard classroom.  On Saturday morning, she woke me up yelling, “Mama – Ms. Alicia will be back on Monday!”  On Sunday night she couldn’t fall asleep she was so excited…she finally fell asleep a little bit after 10:00.  This morning, even though she was so tired, she got out of bed pretty quickly and kept saying, “Today is Ms. Alicia day!”  Sunny and I both took Ella to school today.  We wanted to see Ms. Alicia too.  So many parents dropped their kids off in the classroom – it was like the first day of school.  We are all really happy Ms. Alicia is back.  Tonight as Ella was falling asleep she muttered, “Today was my first day back with Ms. Alicia”.  Feel the love Ms. Alicia!  Today after school, we took Ella to a birthday party for one of her classmates.  It was at this place called “Pump It Up”.  The place is filled with giant bouncy houses.  Ella has been there before and was not into going down the giant slides.  Today, she was fearless.  She went on everything there was to go on.  She went down all the slides, climbed up the rock climbing wall, up the ladders…it was so great to see.  We also bounced around in the bouncy houses.  That place is a lot of fun.  On the way home, Ella told me that she wanted to go there with grandma and papa the next time they visited.  We decided together that grandma would probably go on everything but papa would probably watch.   I didn’t get any pictures because we were all so busy jumping and climbing and sliding.  I finally made a movie of Ella’s last swimming lesson.  She is doing so well.  She is really responding well to her new teacher. Check it out…

Ella had one busy day today.  We started off going to South Park and doing a lot of climbing (Ella climbed), then we went over to AT&T Park where there was an event that Sunny was a part of, then we went to Ella’s T-ball game and then we spent the night with 2 of Sunny’s childhood friends and their kids (well not really kids – wonderful young adults in their early 20’s).  Ella was in heaven with all of the older girls.  We all had dinner at Mijita, frozen yogurt at Blush and then came home and played Beatles Rock Band.  I am going to post a bunch of pictures now.  Ella did much better at the game than the practice on Friday.  The kids had a blast at the game.  They are good little players.  Ella only did a little dirt art…I asked her what she was doing and she said that she needed to mark her spot with an X every time a new batter was up so she wouldn’t lose her place.  Funny. Pretty amazing pics huh?  Ella really had a fun time at the game. Ella with Naomi (Phyllis’ daughter) and Rachel (Faye’s daughter). Ooh – check out those big muscles. Walking with the big girls to Blush. Sunny and Faye singing a lovely Beatles song. Check out our Beatles rockband group. Ella played the drums. , the guitar and did a great job on vocals.

Sunny had to leave early this morning for a speaking engagement in LA.   Although Sunny had a great time and it was a worthwhile trip, she had to miss the Giants opening day.  I took off from work and took a friend and saw an amazing game.  The Giants won in 14 innings.  What an incredible day!  Ella stayed at the after school program until 5:00.  It was the latest that she ever stayed and seemed to be just fine when I picked her up.  Tonight, we went across the street to the Public House (for a change) with the Kim/Arenas for dinner and then went back to their place to watch Ponyo.  We had a great Friday night movie night and Sunny came home in time to watch most of it! Opening day! Ella excited to meet her friends in the lobby. Ella and Stella at the Public House.  Ella is quite a ham these days. Ella and Ron were thumb wrestling and KJ was observing. Best buddies.

We came home on Sunday afternoon.  It was wonderful to come home to Sunny/Mommy and the doggies.  We had such a great week back east also.  Like I said, “Life is beautiful”.  Ella got right back into the groove of things and woke up for school and then went to ballet after school.  I have video footage that I haven’t made into a movie yet.  After ballet, we met Helen, Stella, Juliet and KJ and had dinner across the street at Mijita.   Mijita and the Public House opened across the street from us in the place of the Acme Chophouse.  We all had a lot of fun – the girls have so much fun together.  After dinner they played tag and duck duck goose outside of the ballpark. The kids having dinner at Mijita. Happy happy Ella. Sunny and KJ enjoying time together. Cool KJ up on the ledge. Fun fun fun…run kids run!

What an amazing experience as parents, to see your kid on the field on a team for the very first time.  Sunny and I were out of our minds with excitement, joy and a lot of laughter.  Ella did a great job today.  The parents who coach the team are incredible, patient and loving, and they really know how to keep the kids involved.  The photos and the video tell the story of what we witnessed today.  The game is tomorrow and we can’t wait to go! Ella at home before the practice testing out her new batting helmet. A little warm-up before the practice.  Ella is getting stronger.Focused and listening to the coaches. Team warm-up. Standing, resting and throwing the ball from first base. Arnie teaching the kids how to throw. A little sand art while Clark is practicing throwing the ball. Nice throw kiddo.Ella and one of  her buddies Kaliko.

I don’t have much to say, but I do have 2 movies to share.  Ella had her second swimming lesson with her teacher, Yat and it seems like they are doing well together. Ella and her new swimming teacher, Yat.