Ella is 22 months old today. What a beautiful thing.
After work, Ella and I took a little walk to a store nearby and when we came home we heard the sweet sound of Stella and Juliet in the hallway. Ella had been talking about Stella since I came home so she was so happy to see her. They greeted each other with a big kiss and then Juliet rounded the corner. She is so sweet. Helen and I took the girls and the dogs into the Zen garden and when we were coming back inside, Juliet and Stella were holding hands and walking. Ella kind of looked over at them and we sensed that she wanted to hold hands too. They all held hands walking down the hallway, I ran inside to get my camera while Helen and Ron watched the sweetness and then I caught it on video. Here it is!
Archive for the ‘pictures’ Category
Happy 22 month birthday!
Wednesday, September 12th, 2007Ella at Strike Out Violence Day
Monday, September 10th, 2007Today was the 10th annual Strike Out Violence Day at AT&T Park. Sunny came up with the idea 10 years ago to bring awareness to domestic violence through a major league baseball team and the Giants agreed. There was a great pre-game ceremony where survivors are recognized along with “Founding Fathers” – men who take an oath to teach boys to be non-violent boys and men. It was a meaningful day and Ella was on the field with Sunny to take it all in. I made a video of Ella’s day. We hung out with our friends in the bleachers to watch the game and the Giants beat the Dodgers! It was a great way to celebrate a beautiful day.
Back to the ballgame
Sunday, September 9th, 2007The Giants will not have a post-season this year, but that isn’t stopping us from enjoying the games. Today we went to our first game since we’ve been back. We played the Dodgers and lost to them but we had fun. After the game, we went to a friend’s birthday party and reconnected with some friends who we hadn’t seen in a while. It was a really fun day and night.
Getting ready to go to the game.
Ella at the game. It was a beautiful day.
Ella and Becca at the birthday party.
Sunny and Ella catching up with our friend Heidi
Fairyland
Saturday, September 8th, 2007Today, Julie and I took the girls to a place in Oakland called Fairyland. It was a little park built in the 1950’s – before Disney and all the rest of the amusement parks. I don’t think they have given that place a paint job since the 1950’s either! It was sweet, but pretty dirty and run down. I think the girls had fun. There was a tiny ferris wheel there and it was a kids only thing. Stella didn’t want to go so Julie and I put Ella and Juliet on the ride. As the lady was closing the door on their little car, I realized that we put two 1 year olds on a ride together. Oy vey – it was crazy. They were doing really well but then they both stood up and Ella started crying and then Juliet joined her. It was sad and very funny at the same time. I caught most of it on video so I hope you get as much of a laugh as I did while I was editing it. There was also a cheezy carousel thing that the girls went on. They all wanted to ride the one where there was a seat which is not usual for these girls. I think the highlight of the day was the end when there was music coming out of a speaker in the bushes and Ella and Stella started dancing like crazy. I also caught that on video. When we got home, I felt bad for Ella that she had to go on a bad carousel so I brought her to her favorite carousel by our house.
Peeking out window of a little house
Sitting on a flower chair (notice the cracks and dirt)
Farmer Stella and farmer Ella
What a big girl!
See ya later!
Beach at Half Moon Bay
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007This morning, we went to the beach with Helen, Ron, Stella, Juliet, Julie and Justin. It was a pretty foggy day, but we all had such a great time. Sunny tried to fly a kite (video coming soon), Ella learned how to climb her way out of a hole, we played wiffle ball, ran around and just had a blast. Here are some pictures from the day.
A little cold out, but beautiful because we are all together
Ella climbing out of the hole…almost there
Yay – Ella made it out of the hole!
Stella loved being covered with sand
Ella and Juliet together in the sand pit
Hanging out and loving life
Playing around in the sand
Back in SF
Monday, September 3rd, 2007We got back from our east coast adventure yesterday. Helen picked us up at the airport and Ella was so happy to see her. In the car on the way home Ella kept talking about Stella and Juliet. When we arrived back at our place, Helen took Ella upstairs to see the girls while Sunny and I unpacked the car. We heard from Helen and Ron that the reunion was quite beautiful…lots of hugs and kisses and “honey look at this”. We met Ellen for dinner at Acme – Ella was really happy to see her also. Ella is amazing at transitions. She fell right into a routine in NJ, and when we came back here, she went right back to her routine here. Ella also did a video chat with grandma and papa when we came home last night and she was really happy to see them.
Ella went to sleep at around 8:30 last night. She slept through the night, but woke up at 5:20 am and never fell back asleep. We all had a sweet day today. We took Ella to the two parks near our house. Ella started crying for Stella when we came home from the park before we went out to dinner. We told her that Stella wasn’t home but she didn’t believe us. She looked at Sunny at one point and said, “Knock on Stella’s door”. Sunny was floored! We had dinner with Debby and Toby at Pasta Pomodoro. It was a great dinner. After dinner, we rang Stella’s doorbell and the girls got to play with each other. The friendship that Ella has with Stella and Juliet is truly beautiful. Ella fell asleep at around 9:10 tonight so we’ll see if she can pull out another hour or so. I hope so…I’m very tired.
The swings!
Running up and down the wall at the other park
Back together again
Goodnight kiss from Juliet
Goodnight kiss from Stella
It’s been a great month
Saturday, September 1st, 2007We’re going back to San Francisco tomorrow. It’s been a wonderful month. It was so great to spend time with everyone. Whoever we missed – we’ll see ya next time. Thank you grandma and papa for a beautiful month. We love you very much.
Cousins hanging out on the terrace
Normyn taking a little nap in Ella’s room
Grandma, papa and Ella pose for a beautiful shot.
Something is very funny!
Time to say goodnight. Love you!
Wood park
Thursday, August 30th, 2007Today, grandma and I took Ella a park in Leonia – the town my parents live in. The park has this huge structure with tunnels and slides and other fun stuff. Ella tried to get grandma to go into the tunnels and go on the tunnel slide, but grandma decided that it was something for one of Ella’s mommies to do. Since Sunny was home doing work, it was my job to go in the tunnel and go on the tunnel slide. It was a bit of a challenge but we did it!
Ella climbing through the little tunnel
Let me drive the bus!
Oy – this is the structure I was talking about. We climbed through the alligator, went across a shaky bridge, crawled through the blue, yellow, red and green tunnel, went up some steps and went down the tube slide.
The diner and the hippo park
Thursday, August 30th, 2007Yesterday, we went into NY to have a visit with our friend Tina. We met at a diner and Ella sat in a booster seat for the first time! She did a great job.
Ella sitting in her booster seat
Tina gave Ella a cool ball for a present. Ella looked at Tina and said, “Thank you Tina”. We asked her what she was thanking Tina for and she said, “Thank you for the present Tina…thank you for the ball Tina.” Ella is becoming such a big girl. She had a great time with Tina.
After lunch, we all went down to Riverside park to go to the hippo playground. Ella had so much fun with the hippo and the water. She also climbed up a slide all by herself and went down all by herself! Here is a little movie of our time in the park.
Sunday in the park
Monday, August 27th, 2007Sunny and I took Ella to NY with the intention to go to the Museum of Natural History. When we got close, Ella saw the park and told us that she wanted to go there. We went to a playground in the park. Ella had a great time on the swings and slide and then wanted to try something new. There was a big sprinkler/spout of water in the park and Ella really wanted to get wet. We took off her shorts and t-shirt and let her run around in the water with her diaper and shoes. She had a blast. After the park, we met our friends Sarah and Pato for some coffee. Ella liked meeting them. At the end of the visit, she sang a lot of songs for them.
When we came home, Ella had some dinner and then grandma and papa gave her a bath. After the bath, Ella started getting ready for bed. We have had some issues with Ella waking up once in the night. The other night, we tried something new. We gave her a bottle and then let her run around and play. After about 45 minutes, we changed her diaper and she went to bed. That night, she slept through the night. We also taught Ella to say, “I will sleep through the night”. Then we all clap and say “Yay”. Tonight, Ella said, “I will sleep through the night” “YAY” and then she said “Papa will sleep through the night, grandma will sleep through the night, mama will sleep through the night, mommy will sleep through the night…” That all made sense to us since we were all in the room with her. Then she said, “Stella will sleep through the night, Juliet will sleep through the night, Helen will sleep through the night, Ronny will sleep through the night”. Did you hear that Arena family? You will all sleep through the night. YAY!
Sunny and I are going away for the night to Foxwoods Casino and Resort. We will have no responsibilities for 30 hours. I wonder what that will feel like. We’ll check back in on Wednesday.
Ella the hillbilly in her diaper and shoes
Running through Central Park almost naked
Smiling with grandma
Brushing teeth with papa. Ella is a tooth brushing addict