Life With Ella

I put together a little video that documents a few of Ella this past week.  The first clip is of “ballet class” – grandma being the instructor.  The next clip is of our Zingo game with Stella and Juliet the other night.  Ella shows her skills as a sharer/negotiator.  The clip also shows some amazing faces made by Stella and Juliet.  The last clip is of Ella running into Sunny’s arms before school.  We drive in separate cars so we can both go to work after the drop off and Ella loves running to Sunny and jumping into her arms.

Ella and her classmate Ava doing a puzzle before school yesterday.

Ella doing a puzzle before school this morning.

Eating ice cream after school.

Hanging at Acme tonight.  Ella is getting a little too tall for this bar!

They put green and red gels on the lights outside of the ballpark and Ella ran from light to light tonight after dinner.  She was having a blast.

I think we are still getting used to Ella’s pre-school schedule – a major change to our life schedule.  We are exhausted on the weekends!  The weather was beautiful and we just hung around the neighborhood.  We took some really nice walks and played a lot with Stella and Juliet.  The girls are really into costumes and I think we pretty much bought most of the cute Old Navy costumes for the kids.  Today, Ella was a dragon, a skunk, a mouse, and a skunk again.  She didn’t put on her cat costume or her monkey costume today.  Tonight, we had dinner at Los Jarritos with the Kim/Arenas, Helen’s brother John and our friend Amy.  Ella fell asleep in the car on the way to the restaurant but woke up about 1/2 hour later so happy to see her buddies.  Ella and Juliet danced with each other to the juke box and I caught it on video.  Helen wants them to go to the prom together.

Getting ready for a sunny day.

Ella likes to wear her shades on her head just like us.

Mommy and the two skunks.

The skunk sisters.

Running down the hallway this morning.

Mommy, Amy and Ella at Los Jarritos.

AND NOW FOR THE MOVIE…

Ella woke up in the middle of the night last night and after sleeping in our room from 4:00 am – 5:15 am, she decided that she wanted to “go downstairs, turn on all of the lights and play”.  It was the last thing that I wanted to do, but Sunny, being the amazing mommy that she is, went downstairs with the demanding little sleep deprived creature.  I had to warn Alicia that Ella could potentially be a little jerky because she gets that way when she is tired, but she wasn’t at all.  She had a great day.  After school, we took Ella for ice cream and then to the dentist.  Ella was fantastic at the dentist – no crying, really cooperative and even funny.  There is a video of the trip to the dentist at the end.  Tonight, we had dinner at Acme with Ellen and Joyce and Ella threw up at the table at the beginning of the meal.  After she threw up, she was in a great mood and we had a great dinner.  Either she had a little bug or the dental work made her sick.  She’s sleeping soundly now.   Hopefully she’ll sleep through the night.

The hallway shot on the way to school.

About to go down the slide after school.

Sneaking in a hug while I zipper Ella’s sweatshirt.

Exploring the garden that is in front of the school.

Finding a cozy spot to have ice cream.

Purple teeth at the dentist’s office.

Getting her teeth brushed.

Painting an airplane.

Today, mommy and Ella had a blast. It is officially their last Monday together before school starts (next Monday is Labor Day and Sunny has to work a little bit). First they took the train to the mall and had shrimp and noodles at the Slanted Door and then they took the train to the zoo and had a blast. Sunny said that Ella kept saying how happy she was all day long. Tonight, Stella, Juliet and Helen came over for dinner and then we all went to the ice cream place. After ice cream, we walked over to the ballpark. Tonight was Jewish Heritage night at the ballpark and there was a klezmer band playing in the front of the ballpark. The band was just finishing up as we got there. We did bump into a rabbi that Sunny knows and then Lou Seal showed up…

Ella having lunch at the mall.

Here are some animals that mommy and Ella saw at the zoo…

Ella playing around on a bear statue.

Dinner with Stella and Juliet.

Ella decided that she wanted to wear an elephant mask on the walk. She couldn’t really see well out of it, so her buddies helped her get down the hall.

Here are the girls patiently waiting for their ICE CREAM AND GUMMY BEARS!

Like I said…Only in San Francisco.

The girls with Lou Seal and Rabbi Langer. Classic.

Ella on the way into the zoo…

Ella is feeling a lot better today. She’s still not 100%, but she’s on the mend. Ella didn’t have any accidents today, but Ella and Sunny had a little episode in a restaurant tonight. We went out to dinner with Helen, Stella, Juliet, Justin and Phyllis. At one point, Sunny and Ella went to the bathroom together. They were gone for a while but I just thought that Ella may have been taking a long time to poop or something. They came back and Ella no longer had her tutu on. Ella looked at me and said, “I got a little bit of poop on my tutu”. Sunny had a kind of strange look on her face. Sunny then explained what happened. It turns out that Ella did poop on the toilet but then she got off the toilet and touched her butt before Sunny could help wipe her. When Ella touched her butt, she got some poop on her hand and she kind of freaked out. Ella also realized that she had to go some more and jumped on Sunny to hug her. Right when she went to hug Sunny, Ella rubbed her poop on Sunny’s face. Sunny cleaned both of them up, put Ella back on the toilet and everything was fine. They got back to the table and Sunny was sniffing around saying that she smelled poop. I looked at her and noticed that she had some poop on her shoulder. Sunny’s new nickname is sh*t shoulder. It was pretty entertaining.

Aside from the poop incident, tonight was so much fun. We ate at Los Jarritos and the food was great. They have a jukebox there and the girls danced the night away. Ella and Juliet were dance partners (Helen thinks that they are going to go to the prom together) and Juliet was twirling Ella around. I caught some of it on video and made a little movie of the last few days of Ella dancing.

Waiting for the elevator in an outfit that Ella picked out all by herself.

Ella dancing around with her tortilla (notice that the tutu is gone).

Ella and Juliet were pretty much holding hands all night.

I wonder what everyone is looking at.

Here is the dancing video.

Today was very different than yesterday. Ella still didn’t ask for any diapers which was great, but she was a little more resistant about using the potty. Ella went on the potty about 5 times today, which in a way was a relief because 13 times in one day was a bit tedious! Ella had 2 accidents and made a poop on the floor but she has been doing so well with her potty training. At around 1:00, Becca came over to say hi to Ella and then Amy and Emily came by. Ella was really happy to have some other people around. In the early evening, Helen and the girls came over and then we went over to their place. We brought Ella’s potty and it was still technically lock down because we didn’t go outside. We had dinner and then Ron blew up the bouncy house and Ella got to blow off some steam which was much needed. Ella made a pee at Stella and Juliet’s house. Stella, Juliet and Ella also peed at our house. What a beautiful thing to have friends help!

Here is Ella giving Amy a kiss. Amy brought over a cookies and cream ice cream cake to help celebrate Ella’s potty training.

Ella giving Emily a kiss. Emily was away in Spain for a month and Ella was really happy to see her. Ella and Emily are sun dress sisters.

Here is Amy trying to help Ella to relax and take a load off.

THE BOUNCY HOUSE!

Ella and Juliet taking a little break from jumping.

Here is a little video of Ella playing the harmonica (which she calls the mahonica) and the girls in the bouncy house.

Today was fantastic. Ella was a champion! She didn’t have any arguments about not having a diaper. She walked over to the potty and peed 13 times! The only time she missed was when I was filling up the bath. I guess the water sound made her pee and Ella’s little potty was in the other room. I didn’t even realize that she peed but then all of a sudden she flushed the toilet and told me that she wanted me to wipe her. I asked her if she peed and she said that she did it on the floor. Instead of telling her that an accident was ok, I told her what the teacher told us to say, “Pee goes in the potty”. She said, “OK”. Our friend Julie came over for dinner – she was the first visitor that Ella had all day. Ella was very proud telling Julie about using the potty today. Finally, after dinner at around 8:30, Ella made a poop on the potty! I took a picture of it but Sunny told me not to put it on the blog. I’m sure everyone that is reading this is agreeing with Sunny, but if anyone wants to see it, just let me know and I will e-mail it to you. Today was a terrific day. Only 2 more days of lock down.

Look – mommy made pig tails too!

Here is Ella while we lit the Shabbat candles tonight.

Here is a little video of Ella earlier in the morning and then later in the evening talking about how many times she peed in the potty.