Life With Ella

I can’t believe that it’s been a month.  What a journey this month has been.  It seems like Ella has grown up so much.  She has been so much fun and has had so much fun.  This month was rough at times and something that I will take away from it is that love is the most important thing in the world.  Love is everything.  We love you guys!  Here are some pictures from our last 2 days here.

Ella and grandma sharing secrets at the pool.

Papa and Milo – the beginning of a love affair.

The 3 of us having a blast at the pool.

Ella met this cool kid Sophie at the pool and just had so much fun with her.  Sophie was great with Ella.

AJ and Milo.  Beautiful love.

Its hard to leave when I am just getting to know this little guy.  I can’t wait to watch him grow up.  I love you little Milo.

Milo getting his first bath from Francine.

Beautiful boy with his gorgeous eyes wide open.

Grandma sharing secrets with Milo.

Papa staring at Milo with that love gaze.

Ella sneaking a little kiss.

Uncle Michael and Ella have something going on here.  They have shared quite a few jams during this past month.

I’m FLYING!!!

Saying goodbye to AJ.  Right before we were leaving, Ella said, “AJ, I am going back to San Francisco and I’m going to see Stella, Juliet, Buggie and Towby but I will miss you”.

One last kiss for Milo.

Until next time.  We love you grandma and papa!

We have been having a great time being with our family.   This past week has been really intense.  After Jamie, Michael and Milo were released from the hospital last Thursday (7/16) they had a setback on Saturday.  Milo had a small seizure on Saturday and then a bigger one on Sunday night.  After being rushed to St. Vincents Hospital on Sunday night they were admitted to the pediatric unit on Monday morning.  Milo had a few more seizures there and was transferred to NYU Medical Center PICU.  He underwent every test under the sun and was attached to an EEG.  He did have another seizure on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning and that’s when they started him on seizure meds.  He hasn’t had a seizure since last Wednesday.  All of the test that they did to find a possible cause for the seizures came back negative.  They have yet to find the cause and perhaps they never will, but Milo is responding really well to the meds and hopefully he will grow out of this.  Milo, Jamie and Michael came home on Saturday afternoon and are all doing really well considering,  They have a wonderful baby nurse Francine and they are becoming quite a team.  Here’s to you Milo – our brave little peace maker.  You are truly a gift and we can’t wait to watch you grow up.

Here are some pictures from the last few days.  At the end of this post, I am putting in 3 movies that I posted on Facebook.  They are of Ella and some of her summer adventures.

Ella doing arts and crafts at the Leonia pool.

Michael, AJ and Milo the night before leaving the hospital.

Michael, Milo and the wonderful Francine.

Grandma, Ella and papa at the River Palm last night.  What a great dinner!

Playing around with Uncle Moie.

Check out the firefly!  Ella has become amazing at catching fireflies.

Milo home from the hospital – day 2.  Here is Ella kissing her beautiful cousin.

What a sweet boy.

First cousins.  I am looking forward to their adventures together.

Ella is becoming a great photographer.

Now for the movies…

Here are some pictures of our very busy Ella.  Ella has been having a blast being here.  We are so happy that we are here with the family.  Love is everything.

Ella taking a swimming lesson at papa’s club.

Ella is tall enough to walk around papa’s pool in the shallow end!  This was an exciting moment.

Having fun in the pool.

Ella said that her head was feeling hot so mommy put a schmata on her head.

Ella went on a special adventure on the golf course with papa.  Mommy took these great pictures.  It looks like they had a lot of fun.

Walking to the Children’s Museum on the Upper West Side.

One of the exhibits was Dora and Diego.  Ella went to the same exhibit last year and she loved it once again.

Look – a giant light brite!

Ella loved this thing.  It was like a video canvas.  She drew some really cool designs.

Our little fire fighter.  Ella loves dressing up.

Sitting on a yak.

Ella had a fantastic time with KK.

Brushing her hair with a very fancy hairbrush.

We have been going into NY every night to have dinner with Jamie, Michael, Milo and Francine.  There have been some really sweet times.  The Leonhart family is adjusting beautifully to being home.  Francine is an amazing woman who is helping AJ and uncle Michael get used to life with Milo and all of the new things that new parents need to learn.  We have also been going swimming in the early afternoon and last night, Ella started doing some magic.  There will be a video later.  Sunny  has been doing some great magic tricks over the past few months and Ella is catching on and trying to be just like mommy the magician.  It’s really sweet.

Uncle Jesse and Milo from Friday night.

Francine and Milo…they arein this position a lot.

Ella and AJ doing some more bonding.

Ella and mommy getting ready to go to the pool.

Our big girl Ella and her red backpack.

Ella and uncle Jesse right before he left to go back to LA…they had a great time together on this trip.

I bought Ella a Cinderella dress that ended up being cheap and scratchy, but she enjoyed the accessories that it came with.

Cinderella eating a sno-cone.

Grandma loving Milo.

Ella on the phone with Juliet.  Ella was so cute on the phone…she was pacing and talking really loud and having an actual conversation with the Kim/Arenas in SF.  They are expecting their baby boy any day now.  We love you guys!

Ella took this picture of me doing “magic”.

Ella doing magic.

Today was a big day!  AJ and uncle Michael brought Milo home from the hospital.  I was their driver and we left the hospital just when president Obama was arriving at the midtown Hilton.  We were in about 45 minutes of stand still traffic and guess what…Milo was PERFECT.  What a beautiful thing.  Earlier in the day, mommy, grandma, Ella and I went to the Leonia pool.  This was the first time that Sunny has seen Ella in the pool this season and she just loved seeing Ella interact with the other kids, and run around the pool, and have a beautiful confidence.  In the evening, we all went over to AJ and uncle Michael’s after dinner and spent some beautiful time with the family.  What an amazing time in all of our lives.

Mommy and Ella carrying Stella to the pool.

Ella having a blast in the kiddie pool.

Milo getting ready to leave the hospital. The sweater that Milo has on is the same sweater that Uncle Jesse, me, AJ and Ella wore home from the hospital.

AJ and Milo in their street clothes.  What an exciting moment…almost ready to leave the hospital.

Beautiful Milo in the world.  Let the sunshine in…

Grandma and papa fall in love.

Grandma, papa and their two beautiful grandchildren.

Ella playing the mini organ for us.

Mommy and Milo – getting to know her new nephew.  I feel like Sunny is getting some funny ideas…OY VEY.

AJ’s two boys sleeping.

Ella and grandma sharing a hula hoop.

Here are some photos that Ella took with my camera.  She is getting really good.

This day was worth waiting for…mommy finally arrived today.  After spending a beautiful day with AJ and Milo, Ella and I made our way to Kennedy Airport.  Ella fell asleep in the car and I picked up Sunny and we stopped at a rest stop.  When I got back to the car, Sunny was singing to Ella and kind of gently trying to wake her up.  At one point, Ella opened her eyes and then she opened them really wide and blinked them about 10 times and said, “Mommy, you’re here.  I LOVE YOU” and then woke up in the sweetest mood.  It was a beautiful reunion.  I am going to post some pictures from the past few days.  The order is probably all messed up, but you can get the picture.  We are all in love with Milo and he is a really sweet, beautiful, mellow, chill baby.  Ella got to hold him today.  She was out of her mind with happiness.

This is just a sweet picture that I took of Ella and Jesse on the terrace over the weekend.

Jesse with Milo on Monday.

Jordin and Kevin admiring beautiful Milo.

Daddy Michael just can’t stop kissing this little guy.

Love at first sight for grandma and papa.

Ella and aunt Heather on Monday…Ella was so happy to see Heather.

Grandma, Ella and Milo on Tuesday.

Heather and me fooling around at dinner on Tuesday night.

Heather, Ella and Jesse on Tuesday night after dinner.

Ella and grandma on a firefly hunt on Tuesday night.  Ella loves catching fireflies.  She is so gentle.  She just lets them fly onto her hand and talks to them.  Prime firefly time is between 8:15 and 8:45.

Beautiful baby Milo.  He couldn’t be sweeter.

Ella was so sweet with Milo.  She was just loving him and kissing him on the head and couldn’t stop staring and smiling.

Reunited and it feels so good.

Looking for fireflies with mommy.

If you look carefully on the lower right hand corner, you can see a firefly in flight.

I am officially an aunt. Jamie gave birth/life to Milo on July 13, 2009 at around 12:30.  He is a big boy…9 lbs. 3 oz. 21 inches – pretty incredible to think that he was that big inside of little Jamie.  Jamie, Michael and Milo are all doing really well.  I’m sure they are totally exhausted because I am wiped out and didn’t have a baby yesterday.  Ella loved meeting Milo and is going to be an amazing big cousin.  She kissed him on the head and is dying to hold him.  Grandma and papa were once again beaming with love and joy and uncle Jesse and aunt Heather were loving and beautiful.  I can’t wait for Sunny to get here and meet her nephew.  It will be love at first sight.  I love you Sunny -can’t wait to see you.  Here are some pictures from today.

Michael and I right before he went into the operating room.

Jamie, Michael, meet beautiful Milo.

One of the first shots of father and son.

Beautiful Milo and beautiful AJ in the background.

Ella giving uncle Michael a mazel tov kiss on the head.

Here I am holding little Milo for the first time.

Perfect baby.

Ella meeting Milo for the first time.

Ella entertaining Priscilla, Jordin and papa in the hallway outside of AJ’s room.

Priscilla, Ella and Jordin having a lot of fun together.

Dinner time!

Ella trying to rub Vaughan’s head.

It’s so great to have Jesse and Heather with us.

I will get more pictures tomorrow – hopefully Milo will be able to tolerate getting passed from person to person!

Ella had a very busy day and night on Saturday.  We started the day at papa’s club which has a much quieter kiddie pool and big pool.  Ella had fun in both pools.  She also got grandma to get totally wet in the big pool!  After the pool, Ella took a nap and when she woke up, she planted marigolds with grandma.  Ella and I bought them at a plant store earlier in the day.  After the marigold planting, we all took showers and Ella took a bath and we went into to NY to meet AJ, Uncle Michael, Papa and Uncle Jesse who just arrived from LA.  It was a really sweet night, a great dinner and we finished the evening at AJ and Uncle Michael’s apartment to spend a little time with Normyn who wore an outfit that Ella picked out for her last year for Halloween.  Aunt Heather is arriving tonight and Mommy is coming on Wednesday.  HURRY UP AND GET HERE MOMMY!  WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU SO MUCH.

Holding court and playing around in the big pool.  Ella was really brave and had so much fun in the bid pool.  I told her that I thiunk its time for her to take swimming lessons and she said, “Swimming lessons stink”.  We’ll have to revisit this.

Papa getting Ella warm and cozy after a swim.

Lounging around in the kiddie pool.

Marigold planting in front of the house.  Ella and grandma both have on gardening gloves.

Fun at dinner time.  Uncle Michael borrowed Ella’s headband for his “special” look.

Ella and AJ walking home after dinner.

Papa and Uncle Jesse sharing a tender moment.

What a beautiful group of people.

Loving Normyn in her special fairy outfit.

Today was another great day.  Get here already mommy!  AJ and Michael slept over and we went to the pool in the early afternoon.  Ella brought her walrus Stella and actually shared it with some kids.  She even found one kid who was as crazy as she was and they spent a lot of time cleaning Stella.  After the pool, AJ and Michael went back to NY and Adrienne came over with her grandson Zach.  Zach is 15 mos. and Ella really took a liking to him.  She was sweet, played with his hair, kissed his head and shared all her toys.  After dinner tonight, grandma and Ella made brownies and popcorn and we all watched WALL-E for movie night.  Ella fell asleep before the movie was over so hopefully she will sleep through the night.

Uncle Jesse comes in tomorrow, Aunt Heather arrives on Sunday and Mommy comes in on Wednesday.  Now that we will have the whole beautiful family altogether, we just need one more person…Milo – Jamie and Michael’s wonder baby.

Ella and her pool buddy Sophia, cleaning Stella the walrus.

Enjoying a cupcake outside.

Zach and Ella parallel playing.  Ella really liked Zach.

Our very happy little girl.

Fun and love with grandma and papa on the terrace.

Baking no-pudge brownies with grandma.  They tasted really good.

OK mommy – time for you to hop on a plane.  We love you.  We miss you,  It’s a lot of fun here.

I am going to make this narrative short since there are many pictures to post and only a short amount of time before I fall asleep.  Just want to say that we love you and miss you mommy.  We can’t wait to see you on Wednesday. Here are a few pictures of Ella helping grandma get ready in the morning and grandma putting a little lipstick on Ella.

Ella actually left the house on Wednesday wearing a t-shirt and shorts.  She looked really cute.

So the turtle was really cool looking, but it was too big for Ella and became extremely frustrating for her so I gave it to a nice mom at the pool.  The last picture is actually of Ella having fun with some of the friendlier kids at the kiddie pool.

More firefly hunting with grandma and papa.

Today (Thursday) I took Ella to a concert in Riverside Park on Pier 1. It was a performance of children’s music and the performer was an old friend of mine from graduate school.  Jeffrey now has a band called “The Bossy Frog” and he is pretty popular in the tri-state area.  Ella had a lot of fun dancing to the music.

Jeffrey gave Ella a hat, a shirt and 2 cd’s.  Here is Ella in her bossy frog hat.  I think the hat is kind of fitting for Ella sometimes!

After the show we drove downtown and met up with AJ.  Here is Ella having some ice cream and hanging with AJ.

Ella relaxing and playing concentration.

Michael and Ella fell asleep on the way to NJ.

Ella after eating one of uncle Michael’s steamers.

Ella with her first glass of wine…JUST KIDDING MOMMY!!!!!!!  Grandma shared her chamomile tea with Ella in empty wine glass on the table.

More firefly hunting.

Here is Ella’s new floatie…she loves her walrus that she named Stella.  We’ll see how it goes in the pool tomorrow.

After dinner, Ella was so hyper and excited and she took out all of this costume jewelry and told us that we were going to a party and we all cooperated but I needed to show just how much papa participated.  Notice the necklace, ring and bracelet.  Papa will do anything for Ella!