Life With Ella

It’s been a busy week.  This morning, we asked Ella if it was ok that we stay for the school assembly (she usually cries on Friday mornings and seeing us doesn’t help).  She said that it was OK and that she had a certain place that she wanted us to sit.  On the way into class this morning, we asked us to point out where she wanted us to sit and she did.  We sat there and Ella didn’t cry during the assembly.  She actually looked like she was having a good time.  She was clapping and smiling.  This is a huge milestone.  After school, Alicia told me that in class they were talking about Cesar Chavez and in the conversation they were talking about people who couldn’t afford things.  Alicia told me that Ella raised her hand and said, “I have a lot of money – I can buy them a house”.  Ella has been putting every penny, dime, nickle and quarter she can find around the house in her piggy bank.  She is doing some serious saving.  How sweet is it that she would want to give it all away to buy someone a house!  Tonight, Ella made brownies with Sunny and then the 3 of us had Friday night movie night.  We had brownies and popcorn and watched Ratatouille.  It was a great night.

Ella at the assembly – I know she looks a little bit out of sorts, but it’s just the picture.  She really did have fun.

A very happy little girl looking for butterflies after school.

Movie night.

Tonight, before dinner, Ella and I were doing a puzzle of the United States and Ella started naming some of the states.  We have done the puzzle a few times before but not enough times for Ella to memorize things.  She was really cute and so excited about naming the states.  Soon she will know the United States better than I do.

Ella on the phone with papa.

Yay!  We finished the puzzle.

Ella didn’t have school today – there was some professional day at the school.  Ella and I were writing the dry erase board.  Ella has been playing around with writing lately – she did a lot of writing in San Diego, but she had trouble with the order of the letters in her name and her e’s had a different amount of lines.  She also was drawing her A’s like an H.  Well today, with a lot of hard work, she did it. Ella said that she was in the mood to wear her daisy sweatshirt today. A new hair thingy that Ella got from our friend Donna.  Thank you Donna!  Ella loves it. ELLA take 1 ELLA take 2 She did it!

We just came back from a wonderful weekend in San Diego.  The 3 of us met grandma and papa in San Diego.  We hung out, had some great meals, went to Sea World, a children’s museum, took some walks and just had a great time.  There are a lot of pictures to post.  Some of the captions are a little funky at the beginning, but you get the idea.

Hanging out on some outdoor art.

Looking at some ducks.Ella reading a Fancy Nancy book.On the way to dinner.Papa carrying Ella home from dinner – she passed out at the table.

Ella being greeted by a giant turtle at Sea World.Checking out the penguins with grandma.Having fun riding on all the rides.

Having some family fun.

3 muppets.

We watched the dolphins at feeding time.

Ella having a blast in the giant bouncy house.

Playing around in the hotel room with grandma.

A sweet kiss for papa.

Ella enjoying dinner.

Walking to the Children’s museum.

Hey – don’t I know you from somewhere?

Our new family car.

Bubbles!

Getting a little help climbing a wall.

This was actually a cool space with movies of scuba divers and dolphins projected on the walls and floor.

Dress up time.

Painting a car.

Working with clay.

Last shot with grandma and papa this morning.  We love you guys!  See you in SF.

Schlepping the Tinkerbell suitcase through the airport.  It was a great trip.

Ella woke up this morning complaining that her ear hurt.  She also had a 101º fever, so we kept her home from school.  We gave her tylenol and her ear did not bother her any more during the day.  She did tell us that she needed a band-aid on her ear since it hurt her.  We put one on…

She said that it made her feel much better.

Here is another picture of Ella dancing around the room while she watched Angelina Ballerina.

We had a fun weekend – mostly just hung out and went to a bowling birthday party this morning.  Ella was not into bowling at all, but had fun running around the bowling alley.  She loved the cake and liked hanging out with school friends.  We’re trying to get Ella to stop with the princess dresses, so now whenever we come home, she wants to put on her fancy dresses.  We bought her a few around the holidays when Stella was having her fancy birthday party, so she has some to wear.  She just loves the dresses.

Ella in her black sparkly dress the other night.

See what Ella was smiling about…she loved the cake.

Giving Brickelle a hug goodbye.

When we came home, Ella wanted to wear her red party dress.

Ella was very thirsty tonight.

Ella helping mommy make broccoli slaw.

Ella and her friend Brickelle have this really cute ritual on days after school when we walk off the school grounds.  The girls run ahead of us and they pretend to hide.  They hide behind a leaf or a pole…they know that we can see them, but they love it when we call their names really loud and say, “Ella – Brickelle – where are you?  Did we leave you at school?”  Then they jump out of their “hiding” spot and laugh.  Here are some pictures of the ritual.

This is the pole that they “hide” behind.

A little hiding action.

Another hiding spot.

Ella walking on her “balance beam”.  She has a beautiful imagination.

Ella the day off on Friday and so did I.  We went to the Bay Area Discovery Museum together and had a great time.  Today, we had a playdate with one of the kids from Ella’s class.  Sunny picked him up and we had the kids play at the park, eat lunch at the Java House and then do some playing out our house.  Ella had a lot of fun with Kaliko.  Here are a lot of pictures from the past few days.

We have been finding a lot of ladybugs in our Zen garden lately.  Ella loves having them crawl around on her hand.

Ella at the Discovery museum. She loves the bee costume that they have there.

Leaping lizard!

Ella walking onto a ship and then taking the wheel.  She said that she was taking the boat to “Tahoe”.  I’m not sure where she picked that one up.

Ella humoring me and posing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.

What a big girl!

Maybe a job in construction is in her future.  She looks really cute in the hard hat.

Ella loves playing in the water.

Schlepping the shopping cart down the hallway on the way to dinner.

Ella rockin’ out on her drums.  She has great rhythm.

Ella and her buddy Kaliko on top of the world.

Beautiful barefoot Ella is walking the wall.

Ella and Kaliko are waiting for me to blow bubbles.  They were running around, pushing eachother, chasing – it was great to see Ella being able to hold her own.

A combination of a princess and a lady of the night.

Some more pictures from over the weekend.  As I said, Ella was pretty cooped up in the house, but we kept her busy with lots of activities.  She really likes doing yoga with the Wii Fit.  I stand on the Wii and Ella stands next to me and does the same poses.  It’s great for us!

Ella concentrating on her water color painting.

Ella doing the warrior pose.

Pure happiness.  Ella discovered the necklace that KK gave her for her 1st birthday and just loves it!

It has been raining a lot here – we need the rain so it’s fine, but we thought that Ella was getting stir crazy.  We have been keeping her in these past few days to help her recover from a really bad cold.  Today, the sun came out for a little while so we went over to the Ferry Building to have some lunch.  Ella was wearing a Hello Kitty leotard/tutu around the house today and didn’t want to take it off to leave the house.  It was really cold out so she agreed to wear a sweater, jacket and some warm pants but kept her tutu on.  When we got to lunch, she wanted to take her sweater and jacket off and ate lunch in her leotard/tutu combo.  She is a very headstrong child.  She compromised by keeping her hat on.

Ella with her warm outfit on running for the elevator.

Waiting for the train.

Crazy girl at the Ferry Building.  Nice outfit!

Beautiful eyes.