Life With Ella

Ella has always been into her books, but recently she has been telling us, “I want to read it by myself”. This morning, Ella woke up, came downstairs and started “reading”. I say reading in quotes because she obviously doesn’t read, she just puts the book on her lap, gets a really concentrated look on her face and flips through the pages. She had a pile of books on the table, sat down on the big leather chair and went through each book. I took these 2 pictures when she was reading “Llama Llama Mad At Mama”.

Today, we started the day going to a Country Fair at Children’s Day School. This was the first event at CDS that we have been to as a family. It was fun, a little hectic, lots of kids and parents…I don’t know if we’re ready for all of this! Ella watched a sheep get sheared, played on the slide, looked at the chickens, played a few games, had a cupcake and some cookies – she really had a good time. Here are some pictures…

Ella told us that she was driving to New Jersey

Playing a beanbag game

Ella about to meet the boy on the other side of the wall who was giving her back the beanbags

Ella and some other kids checking out the sheep with her new haircut

Here are some of the CDS chickens

Helping Ella climb up the curvy pole

Ella and mommy having some fun together

Look at our cute little chicken

We came home and Ella had some gnocchi (Ella’s request) and then Ella took a little nap. At around 4:00, we all headed over to the Channel park to go to Brandon’s birthday. The party was a train themed party – the birthday boy loves Thomas the Tank Engine. It was a really sweet party and Ella had a blast. Ella had a lot of treats including sugar cookies that she decorated and icing from a green and a blue cupcake.

Ella arrived at the party in her red car

Here is the birthday boy Brandon riding on a cool train that his parents set up

Here’s Ella riding on the cool train

Waiting for the big bubbles

Look at all of the bubbles! Mommy did a great job making bubbles with Hariel’s dad Malcolm

I got it!

Look at the amazing bubbles that mommy made

Look at the cupcake cake

Giving Brandon a happy birthday hug

Beautiful Ella on top of tall mountain

After the party, we went over to Stella and Juliet’s to drop off Juliet’s birthday present. I didn’t have my camera, but I think Ron got some really cute shots. Tomorrow is Juliet’s birthday. We can’t wait to celebrate Juliet!!!

Ella has had a cold all week. She’s getting better, but it’s making her a little more sensitive than usual. Her cold wasn’t so bad to not take her to My Gym and she was really looking forward to it, so we went. Ella had a great time there, but was more mellow than usual. After class, we went over to Crossroads Cafe and had some lunch. After lunch, Ella told me that she wanted to go to the pet store and buy a present for Bug and Towby. We went and Ella picked out 2 yellow balls and when I asked her if she was going to give them to the dogs, she said, “No – I’m going to keep them.” We came home and I tried to get Ella to take a nap but she refused. We took a walk over to Borders and spent a lot of time there reading books and playing with puppets. We came home at around 5:45 and Ella took a bath. After the bath, we went over to Helen and Ron’s for dinner. It was a great dinner and the girls had a lot of fun, but towards the end of the night, Ella was playing in Stella and Juliet’s cardboard house thing that they have and Juliet tried to come in, and Ella shoved her in the face. This was really a first for Ella and we squashed it right away – Juliet was OK, but it wasn’t a good thing. We let Ella know that she couldn’t do push or hit Juliet or anyone. We had Ella say “I’m sorry” which she was hesitant to do at first and then we made sure that she knew why she was sorry. We’ll continue to stay on top of this. I think she was really tired and messed up from her cold, but that’s no excuse for doing that to Juliet. By the end of the night, Ella walked up to Juliet, gave her a kiss on the head and said, “I love you Juliet”. Ella fell asleep at about 8:45 which is unheard of for her. Hopefully she’ll feel better tomorrow.

Ella happily swinging on a swing at My Gym

Walking down the street after My Gym playing and dancing around with her red ruby shoes

Sitting and meditating in our Zen garden

Towby telling Ella a secret

Look at this beautiful mellow kid – I wonder what she’s thinking about

Chillin’ on a bench at the Crossroads Cafe. Ella took her ponytail out of her hair, climbed up on the bench and just got a huge smile on her face.

I can’t believe the trip is over! It seems like we just arrived. We have been so busy and it has been a great trip. It was wonderful to spend time with our loved ones. Here’s what’s been going on during the past few days…

On Wednesday, Sunny and I spent the day in NY and Ella had a playdate with her little friend Hudson and Hudson’s grandma Doris. Here are some pictures.

Here are Ella and Hudson holding hands at the park

Playing at the library

Ella on a big girl swing at the park (she waited her turn patiently for the swing)

After a hard day of play, there’s nothing like relaxing and having a “chocolate popsicle”

On Thursday, Sunny, Ella and I went to Monsey to visit Sunny’s dad and to see Sunny’s brother Jerry, sister in law, Barbara and two of her 4 niece/nephews. Ella got to meet Aliza and Eliyahu. Ella instantly fell for Aliza (who is 17 and looks a lot like Sunny). Ella immediately went to her, let her hold her, played on the swings and sat with her while we ate lunch. It was really beautiful and the connection was special. We hope we get to see more of everyone.

Ella with grandpa Seymour

Ella chillin’ in Aliza’s arms. She’s giving the thumbs up

Uncle Jerry pushing Ella on the swing in their back yard

Aliza helping Ella eat her matzah and jelly

That evening, AJ came over to spend time with us. Ella and AJ have such a special connection…like they new each other in a past life.

Here they are after Ella’s bath

AJ and Ella playing in the mirror

Today, we all met up to go to the Central Park Zoo. Although the zoo was lacking animals and had an overpopulation of people, we had a great time. We went with grandma, papa, AJ, Michael, mommy, mama and Ella. Afterwards we met up with Nikki B in NJ and had a terrific evening.

Grandma, Ella and papa in front of the sea lions

Eating lunch at the zoo

Here we all are strolling through the park

Yesterday, we took Ella back to Van Saun Park to ride the ponies. There was a long line and Ella was pretty great about waiting for her turn. It was finally her turn and there were teenagers leading the horses. Ella had one teenager leading the horse and one who was supposed to be holding her. Ella was riding around the little track, having a great time , very excited and then all of a sudden, the horse stopped walking. That was fine, they were just hanging out and waiting for the horse to start again. When he didn’t start, the teenager who was leading the horse started to pull the horse. The one who was supposed to be holding Ella was holding her by her shirt. All of a sudden, the horse ran forward and Ella went flying off and landed on her face. The teenager screamed, Ella cried and they just did nothing. Then Sunny ran over and picked up Ella and hugged her, made sure she was ok, got the dirt out of her mouth and passed her over to me. Then Sunny “took care” of the idiots who were running the pony rides. Ella was fine – pretty shaken up – one of the guys bought Ella an ice cream and asked if she would like to go on another pony. Ella actually said yes but also said, “Only if mommy and mama come and I don’t want to fall off”. We took her to a private part of the park and she did a great job. After the big adventure, Ella came home and took a 3 hour nap. After the nap, Ella went to Fireman’s Park with grandma and papa and played hard. Sunny and I went into NY, had dinner with Nikki B and went to hear AJ sing. It was a beautiful night.

This is the first horse, Coco…the one Ella was flung from.

Here we are with Donut – the good ride

Petting Donut and thanking her for a good ride

Ella about to hang from the bar and go down the slide

Papa pushing Ella on the swing

Ella and papa playing the ball game…”I got it, I got it”

Back at home taking inventory on empty water bottles

Today, Sunny, Ella and I took a ride to Hoboken to visit our friends Caroline and Adam and their new baby Zach. Zach is 5 weeks old. Ella was pretty interested in Zach. She told us that she wanted to give him milk and orange juice. Caroline was sweet enough to let Ella hold him and it was really beautiful to see. After Hoboken, we came back here and Ella took a very long nap. After the nap, we had some dinner and then we were all hanging out. Grandma and papa were showing Ella a photo book from when Ella was a little baby. Papa showed Ella a picture of herself as an infant and asked her who she thought it was. She looked really closely at the picture and said, “Zach”. Papa said, “No Ella, that is you and I am holding you”. Ella looked really hard at the picture and I think it finally registered with her that she was once a little tiny infant. Grandma, papa and I went out to Uncle Michael’s album release show tonight. It is also Michael’s birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL! I was going to have Ella do a video but she was sleeping by the time we came home. Mommy and Ella stayed home, made popcorn, watched Kiki and read lots of books. Mommy said that at one point, Ella looked at her and said, “I miss my friends – I miss Stella and Juliet.” Ella loves Ella and Juliet so much. It’s so amazing that she has such a meaningful friendship with these guys at this young age.

Zach and his mommy Caroline

Ella holding Zach who is in mid-stretch

Ella giving Zach a sweet kiss

Looking at baby pictures with grandma and papa

We had seders here both nights and they were both wonderful. The first night, we had Abigail, Ray, David, Jamie, Bronwen, Georgia, AJ and Normyn. Ella had a fantastic time with her cousins. The girls are 4 and 7 and Ella hung with them like she was one of the older girls! The second night, we had AJ, Michael, Jordin, Kevin, Donna and Jay. Ella did a great job sitting at the table during the seder and during the meal. We asked Ella what her favorite part of the night was and she said, “Dessert!” Both nights were really sweet and it was great to be with the family.

Ella and her 2 beautiful cousins Bronwen and Georgia

Here we are at the piano creating a beautiful composition

Here are the girls in front of a statue that my parents have that the girls re-named “doody head”. Georgia is afraid of this wooden ominous looking man/sculpture so we performed a ceremony where we put Ella’s big girl underwear on his head, turned him around so his tushie faced us, and we called him Doody Head. We later had a ceremony where we de-humiliated doody head and took the underwear off his head.

Ella between the 2 sisters.

Ella waiting for the guests to arrive. Check out her new gold shoes.

I just love this nose crinkle

The 3 of us at the second night of the seder

Covering our eyes during the lighting of the candles

Normyn at the seder

Ella doing a fancy ballet move

Ella and Kevin very serious drawing pictures together

Ella and AJ discussing “Ohmmmmmm”

Uncle Michael, Ella and Normyn after dessert

Grandma reading a book to Ella. I think Ella is trying to really absorb every word grandma is saying.

A VIDEO OF DAYENU