Life With Ella

Today while Ella was at school, Sunny and I were at Pacific Primary (Stella and Juliet’s school) as their special friends.  We had a sweet morning with the girls and were honored to be their special friends.  Here are a few pictures from today. A frame that Stella and I made in its early stages. Sunny and Juliet during a musical performance by Stella’s class. Me and Stella at the end of the assembly. Here is a shot of Ella this morning in her classroom.  The class has been “raising” some silk worms over the past few months.  They started out really small and now look at them – they are huge!  Soon they will build their cocoons and turn into moths.  Ella is totally into these worms. Another beautiful hairstyle by Ms. Alicia. Ella enjoying a salted caramel ice cream cone at Bi-Rite after school today. Ella and her buddy Maya at the playground before t-ball practice.  CHeck out the video to see Ella getting better at the monkey bars. For some reason, Ella thinks you need to squat down in order to field a ball. Batting practice. Happiness. We met up with one of Ella’s old classmates and her parents at Los Jarritos for dinner.  Here are Ella and Maya at the jukebox.  Maya told me that she has been picking Ella up since pre-school.  Very cute.  A whole bunch of other CDS families showed up after t-ball practice.  It was lots of fun.We came home from dinner and Ella ran into the house, changed into her pajamas and went over to Stella and Juliet’s to do Friday night movie night.  They watched Madeline again and Ella was really happy to be with her buddies, Helen, Ron and KJ!Here is the video…

Ella has been singing her heart out since she was able to speak.  Her favorite show right now is Annie and she loves belting the tunes from Annie.  Last week, I played her a song from Les Miserables – “Castle On A Cloud”.  She loved the song and after playing it about 5 times for her, she had it memorized.  Tonight’s videos are Ella singing “Maybe” from Annie and “Castle On A  Cloud”.  Ella was dancing around her room and singing and I had to film it.  She is too cute.  She loves singing so much.  She really gets into the songs.  Today when I picked up Ella from school, she greeted me with a beautiful hairstyle.  Looks like Ms. Alicia is back in action.  Ella looked great and she loved it.  When we were driving home, I asked Ella what her favorite part of the day was and she said, ‘When Ms. Alicia did my hair.”  Those moments are very special to Ella – unlike when I do her hair and she yells and screams.  I love that she loves when Ms. Alicia does her hair and gives her special attention.  Here are a few shots of the reverse braid style… Just beautiful.  If we could only get her over here at 7:30 every morning… Later on in the evening, Helen gave Ella a very special gift.  She gave her a peacock umbrella and a peacock pair of boots.  Ella loved it.  She can’t wait for it to rain.Now for the movies…

Ella is a determined person.  When she sees something that she wants to do, she keeps practicing and practicing until she gets it.  At school, she sees kids doing things and if it’s something that she wants to do too, she keeps trying.  There is this bar that the kids hang from on the “structure” area of the yard at school.  Some kids are tall enough and coordinated enough to get up there and hang upside down.  Ella isn’t really even tall enough to reach the bar and yet she wants to hang upside down so badly.  I’ve seen her try to do it – to try to climb up the pole while hanging with her hands but she’s not strong or tall enough to do it.  She’ll get it soon and I can’t wait to see her do it.  Another thing that she’s been watching kids do is dribble a basketball.  She has been watching kids dribble at school and talks about it all the time.  We got her a basketball last week and she has been practicing.  She’s getting pretty good.  Check out the video at the end of this entry.  Tonight, Ella and I had dinner together at Nama while Sunny was at a Giants board meeting.  Ella ate like a champion and then we met up with Stella and Juliet in the lobby to practice dribbling the basketball.  The girls had a lot of fun.  I have a lot more to say but I’m tired… more tomorrow. This is from Monday night…Ella Sunny and I were playing charades.  This is a shot of Ella trying to figure out Sunny’s word. Ella tonight at Nama. Chopsticks and a spoon! Dribbling… Passing…Eating keys… Looks like Ella is getting ready to take a shot. Stella all dressed up in her Belle dress going for the ball. Ella and Juliet having lots of fun.Now for the movies…first Ballet from Monday – Sunny got to go to the class while I was at the doctor, and then a quick basketball movie…

Ella had a great ballet class on Monday.  She is usually pretty serious and follows directions really well and on Monday, she was a little silly and goofy.  It was great to see and pretty funny to watch.  I didn’t capture it on video because she was pretty focused when she was dancing, but during their little exercises that I don’t record, she was goofing around with this other kid.  Ella’s rash is finally gone and she can now wear sleeveless leotards again.  That rash took a long time to go away.  Today at school, my kids had one of their concerts.  They gave me flowers that they picked from the school garden.  I gave them to Ella when I picked her up from school and she loved them.  She took them and said, “Oh, I love these – I can’t wait to take good care of them.  I think we need to put them in water when we get home.”  She’s a very sensitive kid.Ella at the Tutu school standing in front of her favorite tutu…what a surprise.Ella with the flowers.  So beautiful.Everyone should wear a silver sequin dress on a Tuesday night eating dinner at home.Ella and mommy concentrating really hard on a princess gem fishing game.

Grandma came to town on Wednesday and Papa came in tonight.  Ella is so happy – so are we.  Ella and grandma spent the day together while we were at work.  Sounds like the day was fantastic.  This afternoon, Ella had her last swimming lesson with Megan.  I got into the pool to film parts of the lesson.  The camera is pretty cool.  Ella did a great job.  She still has a rash, but they didn’t kick us out of the pool.  Tonight, mommy, grandma Ella and I had dinner at Nama.   Ella asked for tobiko and salmon roe.  All that stuff is so gross to me, but Ella loved it.  She tried to get me to taste it and I actually faked it.  I took it and hid it under my napkin.

  Dinner at Nama.  Check out those fish eggs.