Life With Ella

Happy New Year everyone.  I think this year is going to be great.  Yesterday, we spent some time at the aquarium at Pier 39 and then had a great dinner at Acme Chop House.  Ella wore her beautiful red dress and red “Kiki” bow.  We had a wonderful night.

Grandma, papa and Ella walking to the F train.

In the tunnel at the aquarium.

Yummy ice cream.

We found this peacock at a restaruant that we had lunch at.  Ella loves peacocks.  Almost everything that she creates at school is a peacock.

Ella waiting for mommy to pick us up.

Getting ready to go to dinner.

Waiting for the elevator.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

I have fallen behind here.  Let’s see…happy chanukah and merry christmas to everyone.  Grandma and papa arrived on Wednesday night.  We have been having a blast.  Sunny and I did our first 2 days of “family farmers” at Children’s Day School.  On Christmas and today, we have taken care of the sheep and chickens at Ella’s school.  Christmas morning was challenging.  There was a rain storm and there was actually thunder and lightening which is so rare in SF.  It was our first morning taking care of the animals and it was a little crazy.  We felt like pros by the time we went back in the afternoon to feed them and put them back in their little houses.  Today was totally smooth in the morning and afternoon until the very end when the sheep left their barn because they got spooked and we couldn’t get them to go back in.  They started running around really fast and they were crazy.  We were afraid because it was starting to get dark, but we finally got them back in.  Oy vey.  I am getting a movie together of our “family farmer” experience.  We do it again on New Year’s Day and the day after.  Hopefully things will be easier.  We really had a fun time even though it was different than anything that we had ever done together.  Here are some photos documenting the last 4 days. On Tuesday night we opened presents with Helen and Ron and the girls for Chanukah and then we hung out on Christmas Eve.  It was great to spend time together and hang out.  The girls are all amazing.

On Tuesday, Ella and I went to the Jewish Museum downtown.  We took the bus and Ella wanted to sit in her own seat.

The big girl eating lunch at the cafe in the museum.

Ella had a lot of fun throwing money into the fountain and making wishes.

Ella ona very crowded train on the way home.  Once again, she insisted on sitting by herself.

Ella wearing another princess dress from Becca.  Ella told us that her name was princess Phillip and that she had to go to her wedding.

We had dim sum on Christmas day.

Here we are on our way to Despereaux.

Here is Ella posing with the Despereaux cut out at the movie theater.  Ella sat through the whole movie and she said that she really liked it.

Here we are- the family farmers.

Ella and papa having some tender moments.

Having fun with grandma on the way to the ferry building.

Me and Ella taking a stroll down the Embarcadero.

3 generations.

Our sweet Ella.

I love this picture.  It’s just about pure love.

Papa, Ella and grandma on the bus.

Here I am with the sheep.  They were doing pretty well here.

Here’s the family lighting the menorah.

Beautiful Ella lighting the menorah.  She loves lighting the candles.

Tonight, Sunny and I went out with Amy and Becca and some other friends to see Amy’s sister perform at Kung Pow Kosher Comedy.  We had a great dinner and and Page was very funny – the funniest performer there.  We had a lot of fun and came home at 11:45 – some kind of record for us!

One more day of school and Ella is officially on her first winter break.  The school is having a winter concert tomorrow and hopefully Ella will participate in it.  We will be there with cameras on hand to record the pre-school portion of the concert.  Here are 2 cute pictures of Ella from the past 2 mornings.

Going to school on Wednesday.

Going to school today.

Today we went to Ella’s class in the morning for family share.  Each family has the opportunity to come in and do an activity with the class on a Monday morning.  We chose this morning to teach the kids about Chanukah.  Before we did our thing, we were able to watch the morning meeting in the Leaping Lizards class.  It was so fantastic to see the kids interact with each other and with the teachers and to watch some of the kids do their class “jobs”.  At the end of the meeting, the kids were able to share something with the group.  It was just really sweet and of course it was so great to see Ella as part of the group.  She participated, didn’t freak out that we were there and she listened to Alicia.

The weather was pretty crappy this morning – it rained really early but by the time we left, the rain was finished.  Ella knew that it had rained so she decided that she was going to wear her raincoat, frog boots and carry her Elmo umbrella.  We just got a kick out of watching this sweet kid walk down a virtually sunny street with her rain gear on.  We got into the classroom and Ella would not take off her raincoat.  I think  she may have even napped in her raincoat.  I’ll have to check with Alicia.  The morning activities were lots of fun.  We told the story of Chanukah, showed the menorah, ate latkes and brought in dreidles and played the dreidel game.  We also sang the dreidel song.  Ella is with a great group of kids.

After school, I went out to buy a dress for Ella for Stella’s fancy tea/birthday party on Sunday.  Ella told me that she wanted a red sparkly dress.  When I got back from shopping, Ella was baking brownies with mommy.    Ella changed into her dress – which she loves and wore it for the rest of the night.  You’ll see from the pictures that Ella had some special touches to her outfit.

Walking to school ready for the rain.

The dry erase board and morning meeting.

At one point, Ella leaned over and flicked Bella’s hat that has a bell on the end of it.  Alicia reminded Ella that they can’t touch each other without asking.  Alicia then asked Bella if she would ring her bell for the class.  Bella rang it a little bit.

Waiting patiently to play the piano.

Ella came home to a package from Uncle Jesse and Aunt Heather – in the box was a cool Mickey Mouse t-shirt and these incredible duck feet slippers which Ella immediately fell in love with.

Here I am showing Ella her new dress.  Notice the firefighter hat that she is wearing.  Ella got that from school today and she didn’t take it off all afternoon/evening.  She likes to wear it more like a baseball hat.

Ella with her new red bow, red dress and duck feet.

Here is Ella looking a little crazy.

The firefighter licking brownie batter.

I am going to start on Thursday – Ella had her first field trip.  The Leaping Lizards went to a local fire station to bring the firefighters gifts that the class had collected for Toys for Tots.  Kaliko’s parents are both firefighters so there were friendly familiar faces at the station.  Sunny was one of the drivers so she was able to go on the trip with Ella.  Ella did really well until they took out the fire hose and a firefighter came down the pole.  Sunny said that Ella had a complete melt down and wouldn’t stop crying.  Ella is just experiencing so many new things and one of her ways of coping is to lose it.  After the field trip, she was able to have a pretty good day at school.

Here is Ella before she freaked out.

That afternoon, I picked up AJ and Jordin from the airport.  They came for a visit this weekend and it was wonderful to have them with us.  We had a great time.  I brought them to school to pick up Ella on Thursday and Ella saw them and froze in her steps.  She looked down and it seemed like she didn’t know what to do.  I picked her up and she held onto me tight and then she reached out for AJ.  After long hugs with AJ and Jordin, Ella showed them around the school yard.  They saw the sheep, chickens, organic garden and the outside play structure.  We came home, did some group painting and then had dinner with mommy at Nama.  It was a great dinner and the NY girls went to sleep early.

On Friday morning, the Leaping Lizards were the class who were leading the morning assembly.  Every Friday morning, Children’s Day School has an assembly for the whole school.   The assembly is about 15 minutes long, the parents are invited to stay around and have coffee, and every Friday Ella freaks out.  We’re not sure if its because there are so many people around or if it just messes up her routine but she always ends up sitting on Alicia’s lap sort of crying.  The class did an amazing job with the announcements and with this song in Chinese and English, but Ella just sort of stuck close to Alicia and cried.

Pretty sad but pretty cute.

After the assembly, we were invited back to the classroom where the Leaping Lizards proceeded to entertain us with an original song.  The class was adorable and so great with their song.  Ella was still freaked out and sat next to me and did the song from a distance.  We talked about it later at home and she said that she wouldn’t be so scared next time.  She said that she missed her mommy and mama at the assembly and that’s why she felt sad.  It doesn’t make too much sense since we were there, but that is her reality for now.

I had a performance with my kids a little  while later and AJ and Jordin came to it.  I was happy that they could see the kids and the school and some of the work that I do.  After a great lunch with mommy and a little walking around the Mission, we picked up Ella.  This time she was thrilled and had Jordin push her on the swings.

Jordin was pushing AJ and Ella.

In the afternoon, we hung around the house, did some puzzles, danced around and sang some songs around the piano.

Ella and Jordin doing the Green Eggs and Ham puzzle.

Dancing with AJ.

A piano lesson with mama.

This could be an album cover.

That night we had some delicious crab at Scomas and laughed a lot!  The next day, we went over to the Academy of Sciences.  It was not nearly as crowded as it was when we went with grandma and papa.  We were even able to go into the rainforest part (always a huge line) and we were up close with some beautiful butterflies.

WEEEEEEEEE!

Ella walking with AJ and Jordin.

Waiting on line to go into the rain forest.

We’re finally in!  Here is Ella looking around.

Looking for butterflies with mommy.

Ella loves the butterflies!

Ella was having so much fun looking for butterflies.

This is one happy kid.

We actually got Ella to wear jeans today.  She looks like such a big girl.

AJ putting lip gloss on Ella.

Sadly, the trip had to come to an end and AJ and Jordin left this afternoon.  We had a great time with them.  We love you guys.

Last night, we went to a little holiday celebration at Borders.  Desperaux the mouse from the new movie was supposed to be there but they cancelled at the last minute.  Instead, they had some Desperaux masks and bookmarks and did some activities with the kids.  Stella, Juliet and Ella had a lot of fun.  They had us read a lot of stories to them and had their own little party at Borders.

Ella wearing her Desperaux mask.

What a face.

Hanging out with Stella, Helen and Juliet.

Ella safely buckled in with MotoMoto on the way to school this morning.

Today Ella had a play date with Brickelle – one of her classmates.  We went to a park and we all had a great time.  It was a beautiful day and the girls played hard for about 2 hours.  We came home and Ella changed into a new black leotard/tutu combo and we played around the house.  Right before dinner, Ella and mommy built their very first gingerbread house.  It is beautiful.  After dinner, we took a walk around the ballpark.  There was a “parade” of boats that were decorated by lights for the holidays.  It was beautiful.  Ella loved it.

Just a note – Ella went to the doctor on Friday.  She was really not into it at all.  She was crying and said that she didn’t want to take her clothes off (which was strange to us because she loves being naked everywhere).  There was a very long wait – 2 hours and she was fantastic considering.  At the end of the appointment Ella got a flu shot and she didn’t even cry.  Ella is 29 pounds and 3 feet tall.  She has graduated from the 10th percentile in both to the 25th percentile in both.

The girls landing at the bottom of this very cool slide.

Sharing some snacks.

What’s a day at the park without wiffle ball?  Here is Sunny hitting the ball back to Brickelle’s dad Brooke while he attempts to field the ball with their newborn son Brooklyn in the Bjorn.

Brickelle teaching Ella how to use her camera and Ella trying to take a picture of Brickelle.

Ella “flying” on a swing.

A big hug goodbye.

Ella making her gingerbread house and the final product…

Some of the boats in the Channel.