Life With Ella

This morning, Helen, Ron, Stella and Juliet came over for some challah french toast, chocolate chip pancakes, fake bacon and fake sausage. The girls all sat in their special chairs together, ate breakfast and watched Finding Nemo. After breakfast, we had a spontaneous dance party. Stella is, by far, the greatest dancer. Ella is working on her moves. Juliet is just cute. I am publishing a video of our dance party. The adults in this film are not dancing to their maximum capacity. They did not want to overshadow the children. I was very happy that I was behind the camera and you should be too!

Ella bustin’ a move in her favorite pj’s

Best friends having breakfast

And now for the very special music video. Helen – don’t kill me!

Ella had a very busy day today which made my day very busy too and now I am exhausted.  We started out today at Stella and Juliet’s house  – Ella had a playdatewith Stella and Juliet and Kai and Mei.  We would never say no to that!  Two other friends, Max and Hannah who live in the building, also joined us.   After some fun playing, Ella announced that she wanted to go home and eat gnocchi…so we did. After the gnocchi, we took a train down town – no stroller, no diaper bag, just Ella’s little back pack. She carried it on her back all the way to the train and then turned it over to me. Our journey down town was to buy Remy, the rat from Ratatouille. We also bought one for Stella and one for Juliet. They are having movie night tomorrow night and they will probably watch Ratatouille. After the trip down town, Ella came home and crashed for 2 1/2 hours. She woke up and we went to the park with the girls. Mommy met us there. Ella was so excited to give Remy to Stella and Juliet that she was squealing. Then we all played at the park and had a lot of fun.Having an afternoon snack and watching RatatouilleElla and RemyJuliet and RemyLaughing with Mommy at the parkStella giving Juliet directionsI love this pictureA snack with some friends right before bed.A Friday video

We had a fun filled night. The rain is back and Ella is happy. She loves the rain – she loves getting wet and loves wearing her boots and splashing in the puddles. After dinner, we went to the courtyard and Ella splashed around in the puddles and ran around in the rain. When we came in, we read books and then Ella started to do somersaults. She was talking and talking and doing somersaults and I caught some of it on video.

Jumping in a puddle

Someone seems very happy!

A smile that can melt anyone

And now for the video…

The first time Ella went to Fairyland was in September, with Stella and Juliet. She had a blast (mostly because she was with her best friends), but she was also a little scared of some stuff there. There is a Fairyland video archived from September that shows us putting Ella and Juliet on a ferris wheel. They were both very young (under 2) and were freaked out by it. Times have changed. Today, we went to Fairyland and met our friends Susan and Jennifer, who were spending the weekend with their 2 1/2 year old niece, Rebecca. On the way there, I asked Ella if she was willing to go on the ferris wheel with Rebecca. Ella watches the old Fairyland video every night before she goes to sleep, so she is very aware of the catastrophe it was the last time she went on. She told me that she would go on it and that she wouldn’t cry, that she would be brave. She went on it today, and she was incredible. So was Rebecca who never experienced it before. Ella had a great time today and hit it off with Rebecca. She also played around with a lot of other kids. There is a video accompanying this entry and at one point, Sunny caught Ella on video being quite social. She was walking up to kids saying, “My name is Ella, what’s your name?” or “What’s my name…ELLA! What’s your name”. She did it to this one kid and when she said, “What’s your name?” she poked him and he told her that she shouldn’t poke people. It’s all on the video.

Ella heading towards the Fairyland entrance

Going through the gate on Mommy’s shoulders

Hanging with her new friend Rebecca

Watching a puppet show and eating Veggie Booty

The tin man/girl

The scarecrow

The good witch

And finally…Dorothy

Riding on the Fairyland train

Petting the Fairyland bunny

And now for the long Fairyland video (but worth every minute of it!)

Ella is feeling better every day. She’s not 100%, but she’s much better than she was earlier in the week. I kept her out of My Gym today because I would be pretty pissed off at a parent if they brought their kid to the class in Ella’s condition. Instead, Ella and I took a nice long walk to the Ferry Building. She loves that spider sculpture and spent almost 1/2 hour dancing, playing and walking around it. Tonight, Sunny, Ella and I had dinner at Acme. At the end of the meal, they brought us 2 little heart cookies. One was chocolate, one vanilla. Ella was playing around with some paper and crayons – she was actually hiding the crayons under the paper. She took a bite of the chocolate cookie and didn’t really seem interested. She then hid it under her paper. Mommy decided to have the cookie and took it without letting Ella know. A few minutes later, Ella picked up the paper and said, “Where did the cookie go?” Sunny looked at her and said, “I ate it.” Ella gave Sunny a look that we never saw before. It was like, “I can’t believe you did that!” Pretty cute – Sunny got Ella 2 more cookies, and Ella handed her the vanilla cookie and said, “Mommy eat it all up.” It was super sweet.

Ella and Towby before our walk to the Ferry Building

Ella and her doggies, Bug and Towby.

Ella walked this entire wall all by herself on the way to the Ferry Building

Ella and her buddy Tasha from the Backyardigans hanging out with the spider

Ballerina Zoe catching some rays on the spider

Ella hanging out with her friends

Giving the spider a little kiss

One happy child

Here is a video of Ella at the spider today. It’s a little long, but she was just having so much fun. The end of the video is Ella singing “Side By Side” which she spontaneously burst into.