Life With Ella

As you can tell from the past few months of pictures, Ella loves wearing dresses…sun dresses, long sleeved dresses, princess dresses and fancy dresses.  She likes to wear tights under the dresses but she’s not into wearing pants or jeans.  She does wear the occasional sweatpants every once in a while but it’s rare.  I got Ella a skirt the other day and she told me that she wanted to wear it under her dress.  She said that shirts and skirts weren’t pretty.  This morning, Stella came over to say hi and she was wearing a skirt and a shirt.  Ella decided that she wanted to wear a skirt and shirt too.  When we went upstairs to find an outfit, she went a little coo coo because she wanted to wear the same shirt that Stella was wearing…a Lucky Kid lucky cat shirt.  She doesn’t have that shirt so it took a while to get an outfit together.  When she finally decided what to wear, she loved her outfit. The 3 of us went to Noe Valley to pick up a round challah for Yom Kippur dinner and we also had lunch at a cute diner on 24th street.  Tonight, Becca and Debby came over for dinner.  It was a sweet dinner and we had a lot of fun.  Ella was a huge help – she kept asking what she could do at the end of the meal so I let her help me wash the dishes.  She did a great job.  I hope that everyone who is fasting today has an easy fast.

Ella jumping in her new outfit.

Look at Ella – growing up right before our eyes.

A beautiful hug at lunch.

Raspberries on the finger.

Hanging out on a stoop with mommy and eating a cupcake.  Life is beautiful.

Having fun before lighting the candles.

Drinking our grape juice after the blessing over the wine.

Washing the dishes.

There is a movie to be made but I am way too tired.  Ella was absolutely adorable in class today.  She really loves it and she looks beautiful.  Here are a bunch of pictures from the class.  Movie tomorrow.  I also want to give a shout out to Ms Alicia.  Thanks for the beautiful ballerina bun.  You’re the greatest.

Today we decided to go to Golden Gate Park.  The weather was beautiful and we thought that we could squash Ella’s kayaking desire by going on a row boat at Stowe Lake.  When we got there all the rowboats were rented so Ella decided that instead of waiting, we should go on a pedal boat.  Well…we got 45 minutes of amazing exercise.  It was such a sweet afternoon and Ella was so cooperative.  After our pedal boating, we had a little picnic on the side of the lake.  Ella’s cold seems to be all better.  She actually fell asleep at 8:30 tonight so that means we will have a happy camper tomorrow morning.

Ready for an afternoon on the lake.

Lots of love and fun.

Our picnic.

Ella loved this little tree.  She loved how she could reach up to the top.

Twirling in her twirly dress.

Love by the lake.  Mommy and Ella were feeding the ducks, geese and of course seagulls.

Last night our friends Heidi and Sharon came over for a Rosh Hashana dinner.  We had a great time.  Ella had a lot of fun with all of us.  Right at bed time, Ella got a stuffy nose and was breathing in really hard and she was getting really frustrated that she was having trouble breathing.  She started yelling, “It feels like a big ball up my nose…it’s too big.”  It was sad but I was really impressed with her description.  Today we laid low because we wanted Ella to get some rest so her cold would go away.  We took a walk with Becca and were throwing some bread into the water over the 3rd street bridge and we looked down into the water and saw Ron and Juliet kayaking in the Bay!  It was fantastic.  Luckily I had my camera and took some great shots of them.  Ella really wants to go kayaking now.  Maybe in 20 years or so.   Tonight, Phyllis, Hannah, Naomi and Charlie came over and we had Rosh Hashana dinner and played the Beatles rock band.  We had so much fun.  Ella sang Yellow Submarine with Sunny.  At the end of the post is a video of Ella playing the shofar.  She is amazing.

Going to school on Friday morning.  Nothing like a lollipop at 7:50 am.  By the way uncle Michael…Ella picked this headband because you love sea horses.

Washing hands at school.

Fun fun fun with the shofar.

Becca and Ella playing around in the lobby.

Ron and Juliet on their amazing kayak adventure.

Trying to catch a bubble.

Sunny, Ella and Becca on a beautiful sunny day.

Ella was really excited about her swimming lesson today.  Ella did a great job.  Ella told us that she held her breath under water, learned to keep her legs straight when she kicked. Megan is going to teach Ella how to start swimming freestyle next week.  Here are some pictures of the lesson.

Well…Ms. Alicia outdid herself today.  When I picked up Ella today, she came running towards me with a wonderful princess hairstyle.  Ms. Alicia and Ella decided that they need a blue headband and it would be just like Cinderella’s hair.  Here are 2 pictures.  The first is of a serious princess and the second is of a very happy preschool kid.