Life With Ella

It was a typical San Francisco summer day today weather wise – cold, gloomy, windy. It was definitely not sun dress weather. After breakfast, Ella told me that she wanted to wear a leotard, tights and a tutu. I seized the moment and took out a long sleeved leotard to see what she would do. She had no problem with it which was great because we were planning on taking her outside and we knew that it was going to be difficult to get her to put on a jacket or sweatshirt. I went to get a massage this afternoon and mommy and Becca took Ella for a walk to a new dog park by our house. Becca took Tucker and her sister Leslie’s dog Pogo. Ella played with the dogs, made some big bubbles with a wand that mommy bought and had a hot chocolate at Phil’s.

Dancing with ballerina Zoe.

Ella decided to put on all of her jewelry.

Mommy and Ella were fooling around after I left. Here is Ella with Gigi the cat on her head.

Here are Ella, Becca, Pogo and Tucker on the way to the dog park. Ella wanted to ride her bicycle today.

Check out the HUGE bubble that Ella made.

Looks like Becca is telling Ella a good secret.

Hot chocolate at Phil’s.

So we’re back in SF and it is much colder than it was in NY. The days get up to 68º maybe. The first thing Ella says when she wakes up in the morning is, “I want to put on a sun dress”. We put on her right away. Then she says, “I can wear a sun dress only in the house”. We have worked it out so that she wears sweatpants or jeans or leggings with her sun dresses. She still won’t wear a sweatshirt or jacket but lets us bring one “just in case”. Today we took our regular Saturday walk to the Ferry Building and then had dinner at Moki’s tonight with Phyllis and my friend Amy from NY who now lives here. We had a great time.

Here is Ella’s sun dress compromise outfit. She seems fine with the pants.

On our way to the Ferry Building, we saw these happy face pinwheels. Ella stopped to touch each one.

After Ella touched every pinwheel and ran around she yelled, “I am happy”.

Here’s the gang at Moki’s enjoying Ella’s ice cream and each other.

This is going to be very short and sweet since I am exhausted. We had an amazing time back east and it was so great to get to spend time with our loved ones. There were so many people who we weren’t able to see or who we didn’t get enough time with but there will always be the next time. Now for the pictures.

Grandma and Ella laughing in the pool.

Here they are playing footsie.

Here are 2 pictures of Ella with Zack. Zack’s grandma Adrienne is great friends with grandma and papa and Zack’s mom was one of AJ’s first friends. Adrienne takes care of Zack every Wednesday and she brought him over for us to mush. Ella was so happy to have Zack over and wanted nothing more than to hold him. She was so sweet with him and he was so sweet with her.

I love this picture of Nikki B and Ella – they both look so happy and crazy.

How many grandparents does it take to put on an exhausted toddler’s diaper? Hopefully in the next few weeks we can say goodbye to the diapers…we’ll keep you posted.

Here’s our little rock star schlepping through the airport at 7:30 this morning.

Back together again. The girls were so happy to see each other. It is so excellent watching them interact.

Here are the girls sitting on the floor at Acme waiting for our table to be ready. Stella is holding a copy of the galley of mommy’s book! It’s almost finished! It’s so exciting. Even Stella can’t wait to read it!

Today mommy had a meeting in NY, so grandma and I took Ella to Van Saun Park. Ella rode a pony again although she was a little bit hesitant. She told me that she wanted me to go with her and she had one hand on the horse and one hand on me at all times. She really did a great job. When she got off the horse, she said, “I was really brave.” After the horse, we went on the train and then went into this little netted thing that had a bunch of tiny birds in it. We bought this little stick with bird seed on it and the birds came to us and ate the bird seed. Ella loved it until a bird flew away and there was a gust of air and the wings made a funny noise and she got freaked out. After the birds we came home. In the afternoon, my aunt Sandy came over and played with Ella for a little while. It was a really sweet visit. Tonight, we played outside, went up to the park and had dinner out.

Ella riding on Donut the horse.

Ella and grandma on the train.

Ella sitting on the train all by herself. I took this picture when we were going through the tunnel.

Ella is checking out some huge bison in this picture.

Here we are looking at a bird together. Ella didn’t want to hold the stick but she was willing to be pretty close to the bird. Check out the shadow – pretty cool. I think about 10 seconds after my mom took this picture, the bird started flying and freaked Ella out.

I was having a lot of fun with the birds.

Look at this pretty bird.

Grandma and Ella were checking out the birds in the tree.

Here are a lot of beautiful birds. It was a really fun exhibit. (At least for me)

Aunt Sandy and Ella having a tea party.

Beautiful Ella at the piano. She’s not quite ready for lessons – she’s just getting the feel of the keyboard right now.

I think Ella has outgrown the slide.

Today was a little rainy in the morning, so grandma, Ella and I went to Trader Joe’s to do a little grocery shopping. At the Trader Joe’s here, they have tiny shopping carts for the kids. Ella was so thrilled to have her own shopping cart and she went to town putting things in her cart. She was like, “Oh – I need some bananas, and a few apples” and was just throwing things in her cart just like her mommy does.

Ella right when she first started pushing her grocery cart.

We also went to Target and another store to pick some stuff up for Stella and Juliet. After shopping, we came home and Ella took a nap. After the nap, Adrienne came over to spend some time with Ella. We all had a good time. Tonight, I went into NY to pick up Sunny and to have dinner with Nikki B, Jamie and Carol. Ella stayed home with grandma and papa. They took a lot of great pictures. Ella ate lamb chops and mint jelly and then proceeded to give a concert on the piano.

Ella and I share a little OCD. Check out how she lined up the crayons. Pretty cool huh?

Lamb chops – YUM!

Don’t forget the mint jelly.

Very thirsty.

Chillin’ with her new red ruby slippers.

Pianist in training.

Look out Joni Mitchell.

And now for a funny video. Thanks for taking these grandma and papa.

This morning, we all hung out at home. Grandma and papa’s friends Diana and Kenny came over and we all had a really nice time. Ella loves having visitors at the house. Mommy left for DC this afternoon. We hope that work goes well mommy. We love you. AJ and I took Ella into NY to meet Sonja and Sebastian, the kids of Claire and Sasha, good friends of AJ’s. KK also met us at their place. The kids were super cute and Ella had a good time, but she skipped her nap today and became kind of cranky at the end of the play date and wouldn’t share her Pirate’s Booty. She passed out in the car on the way home and I had to wake her up at 7:30 to have dinner. After dinner, we all went outside to look for fireflies. We had a blast.

Ella and AJ with the twins.

Looking for fireflies.

Where are they? Check out papa’s sneakers – are they fireflies?

Normyn smelling the flowers.

Look – Ella has a firefly on her hand.

Uh oh – did the firefly drop in the grass?

So happy.

Look at all of those curls! They both got pretty dizzy from spinning.

Right out of the bath and laughing with papa.

Today we took Ella into NY to hang out with her cousins Bronwen and Georgia. Ella had been asking a lot about them so we set up a date. We had lunch at a diner, hung out at their place and then ended up at a park where Ella pretty much fell asleep on a swing. We put her in the car and drove downtown to pick up AJ and Normyn. On our way back to NJ, Ella woke up and realized that AJ was in the car and she was so happy. We got back to grandma and papa’s and had a really sweet night. We had a barbeque and went to the park.

Petting a dog on the way to the park with Bronwen and Georgia.

Shucking corn with grandma.

Watering the plants with papa.

Mommy and Ella running up the hill to the park.

Normyn and her ball.

Swinging high!

So much fun on the balance beam.

“Goodnight Ella”. “Goodnight Normyn”.

Today, mommy, grandma and I went to papa’s club to go swimming while papa played golf. We had a great time. Ella swam in the kiddie pool and then in the big pool. We all actually had to evacuate the kiddie pool because a baby made a poop in it and they had to drain the pool. Tonight, mommy and I went to dinner with our friends in NY and Ella stayed home with grandma and papa. They went to the park and caught fireflies. Grandma and papa reported that Ella put her hands out and the fireflies flew into them and she was so happy and gentle. When they flew away, she told grandma and papa that she wanted to fly too and that tomorrow she would put on her butterfly sun dress and fly like a firefly.

Ella in the kiddie pool.

Ella loved pouring the teapot of water into her cup and watching it overflow.

Mommy watching Ella from the pool with so much love.

Here is grandma cooling Ella off by pouring water on her back. Ella loves how it feels.

Grandma, Ella and mommy in the big pool.

Kissing papa.

Here we are having a blast in the big pool.

Here I am getting Ella’s hair wet. She was protesting and laughing hysterically!

Windblown buddies. Ella loves driving in the car with the sunroof and windows opened. Grandma is such a good sport and let mommy take this picture.

Today I took Ella to see some of my friends that I grew up with and their kids. Ella had met them once or twice before, but she was so young and really didn’t remember. I think she’ll remember this visit. My friend Cheryl has two kids, James and Emma and Ella really loves Emma. When we walked into Sue Sue’s house, Ella had me carry her in and was hanging on tight, but when she saw Emma, she let me put her down and went into her arms. Sue Sue has 4 kids, 2 of them are older and then she has 3 year old twins. They were really sweet and loving and really enthusiastic about Ella being there. They hugged her right away and were talking to her and Ella was taking it all in and I think really loving it. Paige was also there and Ella remembered Paige from San Francisco. It was a really sweet visit – I had a good time and so did Ella.

Mommy came home tonight and Ella was so happy (so was I). Ella was sitting in her high chair when mommy came in and she said, “I want to get out, I want to get out. Do you want to go to the living room and play with me?” Mommy took Ella outside to see the fireflies. Ella loved seeing them.

Ella and Emma in the little pool.

Ella wore the same dress as yesterday. I think she’s a little attached to it. Here she is with one of the twins (I think Ava) who put on her butterfly dress when she saw Ella in hers.

Emma did such a great job taking care of Ella today. Thank you!

Ella and the twins Ava and Sofia. Beautiful curly haired kids!

At the end of the visit, the girls had a candy party. I don’t have to say how much fun that was for Ella!