Life With Ella

Today is Helen’s birthday – Happy Birthday Helen! As a birthday treat, we watched the girls while Ron took Helen out for a birthday dinner. We had a blast with the girls…lots of silliness which we both needed after going back to work and dealing with the tough stuff. Sunny made rice pilaf and spaghetti and the girls loved it (so did I). At one point Ella looked over at Sunny and said, “Mommy, the rice pilaf is phenomenal”. That’s a papa word if I ever heard one! After dinner, we went into the hallway with the bubble machine and and the girls danced around. Then we all played by the elevator. After that, we went back into the house and the girls had popsicles. After the popsicles, we went upstairs and the girls watched Yo Gabba Gabba, changed into PJ’s and played more. It was a perfect night.

Best friends…Stella came up and gave Ella this huge hug while Ella was finishing her dinner.

Have you heard of the hottest new toy of the season…Tickle me Ella!

Stella and Juliet practice the fine art of catching bubbles

More bubbles! I recommend this bubble machine to everyone. It just brings lots of fun times.

Hey there – what’s goin’ on?

Ella clapping while Stella leads us in a ballet/dance class

It’s popsicle time! Stella had an orange one…

And so did Juliet (she loves having the same exact thing as her big sister)

Ella had a purple popsicle

Our 3 girls – the heavy drinkers

Happy New Year everyone. We hope everyone had a beautiful night. Our hearts and thoughts go out to our family and friends who have lost loved ones this past year. Here is a quote that Sunny holds dear to her heart. “Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy.”

Beautiful Ella at the Acme Chop House bringing in the new year. She loved the “party” tonight.

Say cheddar cheese!

Here’s the beautiful family at Acme

This picture shows how much Papa loves Ella. Just before we took this, Ella and Grandma came over to Papa with the hat and Ella said, “Papa wear it” and he did!

Here I am with my dad outside of our building. It was a great New Year’s Eve dinner

Ok – check out this outfit. Ella had on white socks, red glitter shoes, jeans, a tutu, a frilly turtle neck, her fur coat and her Happy New Year hat. She is carrying noise makers and making lots of noise.

We stopped by Stella and Juliet’s house to bring them hats and bells. We rang in the NYC New Year’s Eve together.

Ending a beautiful evening beating on the drums

The sun came out today and we went to 2 parks. The first park was still a little wet from yesterday’s rain, but Ella still had a good time. We went to the second park after Ella’s nap and it was loads of fun. I forgot to write something yesterday…Ella hit another milestone – she used the potty to make a poop all by herself! If anyone wants details, let me know. Here are some great shots from the day.

Ella, Grandma and Papa on a morning stroll

Here are Papa, Ella, Grandma and Mommy walking to the park in the afternoon

When we got to the park, Mommy suggested that Ella put her gloves on. Ella said, “I don’t want to put on my gloves”. Then Ella went to go on to the merry go round and she touched the cold steel and said, “I want to put on my gloves – it’s cold”. This is a picture of Mommy putting Ella’s gloves on.

Here we are climbing in the park. Ella is getting much more confident with her climbing

Does Ella look like she’s having fun or what?

Just like being on top of the world

In this picture, Ella was playing “Ring Around the Rosie” with Mommy, Grandma and Papa

Papa, Ella and Grandma coming home from the park. Look at mommy taking pictures in the background, and check out the cool pink sky.

Here we are…the three of us!

It’s getting dark…almost time to go home

Back at the ranch – Ella found her best buddies in the hallway.

Stella did some ballet dancing for us

Ella after dinner having tea and cookies

Ella is a decent eater – she doesn’t really dig into her breakfast, she eats a good lunch and a good dinner. Today, she woke up, ate Malt-O-Meal (a farina like hot cereal), a strawberry bar and an orange. Then she ate gnocchi for lunch and part of Papa’s cheese sandwich. She ate some pirate’s booty and M&M’s for a snack. Later on in the day, she ate 2 things of corn and then insisted that Sunny make rice pilaf. She ate 2 bowls of rice pilaf with a fork in each hand. Then she had broccoli and tofu. She fell asleep very early tonight, probably due to all of the food she had!

Here’s Ella about to dive into an ear of corn (notice the casual foot up on the table)

Here’s Ella casually chatting away while holding her corn

Life is beautiful

This has been a full week of a lot of beautiful friends and family. Nikki B left of Monday morning and we opened presents with Stella and Juliet on Monday evening (Helen gave all 3 girls this amazing thick, soft robe with their names on it) the girls weren’t very cooperative for the camera that night so stay tuned for a bathrobe picture. In the evening, we had Chinese food and music at our house with Phyllis, Michael, Dave, Karen, Kate and Julie. It was a really sweet night filled with fun and music. This morning, Grandma and Papa arrived for a whole week! Ella is walking on cloud 9. Tomorrow we get to see Jesse and Heather who are in town for a few days.

Here I am probably playing a Beatles song

Kate and Karen at the end of the night

Here is Phyllis reading a book to Ella and Bug hovering, hoping that Ella is going to drop her cookie

The 3 Musketeers taking a walk to the Cove

Grandma, Mommy and Ella hanging out on a chilly, windy night

Papa and Ella looking at a display window – Ella told a story to Papa here. She said, “When I was a little baby, I was in a purple car…I drove the car”

Pure bliss

Grandma and Ella dancing to “Singin’ In the Rain”

This was taken right after Grandma gave Ella a good spin

Ella has been showing us quite a few signs that she has come into the beautiful, not terrible age of 2. She is incredibly head strong, gets frustrated pretty quickly and really knows what she wants. The other day, we were going to the park and she wanted to wear her slippers on the walk. No matter what I did or said, she insisted on wearing the slippers…Ella won.

Yes, those are her slippers

Today I bought her this little wind up mouse toy. It had fur and was pretty life like. I wound it up, put it on the counter and watched Ella’s reaction. She looked at me and said, “I don’t like it – I want to throw it in the garbage”. I convinced her that we shouldn’t throw it away and then she decided that she wanted to give it to Juliet.

Tonight, we took Hannah and Naomi out for their 20th birthdays. We all had a lot of fun. Ella loves them! Check out this happy birthday picture.