Life With Ella

This has been a really terrific past 5 days.  At some point we spent time with our immediate family and it was just wonderful.  Ella is so beautiful and sensitive with Milo.  I think she loves having him visit us.  I asked her if she likes him visiting or if she wants him to live with us and she said that she likes having him visit.  Ella knows that she has it great in her life.  She is also in love with her family that doesn’t live with us.  On Friday night, Jesse and Heather flew in to spend the evening with the family.  It’s so rare that we are all in the same place at the same time.  Earlier in the day, the final touches of Ella’s Halloween costume arrived so here is Ella in full Cinderella gear, AJ and Milo, Ella and Milo and then some more…

Ella in her Cinderella costume, cloak and all.

Milo doing what he does best…”chillin”

Mother and son.

First cousins!

Ella feeding Milo. Notice that Milo is almost as long as Ella!

Now here are some pictures from dinner at Acme.  We were all there, Me, Sunny, Ella, my mom and dad, AJ, Michael, Jesse, Heather, Aunt Abigail and Uncle Ray.  It was a great night.

Heather and Ella drawing and Jesse enjoying life.

Michael, Milo, Aunt Abigail and Uncle Ray.  Notice Milo holding Abigail’s hand.

Family shot in front of the big baseball heart.  Not so bad.

The next day, Saturday, Jesse and Heather left early to go back to LA.  Helen, KJ and the girls came over and we realized that KJ and Milo are just big boy babies!

Bookends.

Ella wanted to do a little ballet and found the perfect partner in uncle Michael.

I don’t think Ella ever did ballet up that high.

We took a walk to crossroads – Ella took her scooter and we had some lunch.

Sunny and Michael are pointing at the Bay Bridge.

Grandma and Ella waiting for the light to change.

On Saturday night, Sunny, Ella, Jamie and Milo went to the Kim/Arena’s for movie night.  They all said that they had a blast.  My parents had a business dinner and I went to see 2 of my former students perform at the School of the Arts.  We also took 5 current students to try to inspire them.  The two kids who were preforming did an amazing job and have come such a long way.  I was so happy for them and really proud of the hard work that we have done with them.  Here is a picture of them.  The one on the left is a girl who refused to  wear an evening gown.  Ya gotta love her for that!

Vanna and Sana.

On Sunday, Sunny, Ella and I went to Golden Gate Park for the pet pride event.  We also stopped by at a birthday party for one of Ella’s classmates.  It was a fun day but pretty exhausting.  Ella was spent by the end of the day.

Riding the rooster.

Riding on the carriage with Mommy.

Today Ella didn’t have school so I took off to hang out with AJ and Milo.  Michael went back on the road today.  Grandma and papa came over for breakfast and then papa had to go back to work.  Grandma got to come with me to Ella’s ballet class and she just loved it.  I am much too tired to make a movie right now, but I will within the next few days.

Ella with feathers at ballet class.

Grandma and her happy little ballerina.

Today we had an influx of our beautiful family.  AJ, grandma, papa and Milo flew in this afternoon and uncle Michael drove in from San Jose where his performance was the night before.  Tonight, uncle Jesse and aunt Heather are flying in for the evening.  Ella is in heaven!  So much beautiful love around.  We are going to have a lot of fun over the next few days.  Life is beautiful.

Ella wearing a new Halloween shirt that mommy brought home for her.

Ella was looking in the mirror saying, “Oh, I look so cute” and she was kissing herself.  The pumpkin lights up.

Ella took this great picture of mommy and Towby.

Ella going to school this morning.  She’s really into having two braids these days.

Milo is in da house!

Everyone giving Milo so much love.

Milo in Ella’s Elmo towel.  Too cute.

New York hits the streets of San Francisco.

After a fun and wild Friday night, we woke up on Saturday morning, hung around the house for a little while and then went to CDS for a people of color picnic sponsored by the Committee on Inclusion and Diversity.  When Ella arrived, the first person that she saw was Brickelle and they ran into each others arms.  Ella had a great time and told us that she really liked meeting new kids and making new friends.  The preschoolers rarely mix with the elementary school – they do most of their mixing with the middle school.  Ella did a lot of climbing and running and playing and it was terrific.

Ella with Brickelle, Bella and Nora.

Ella really loves the play structure at school.

Just as we were leaving, my phone rang and when I saw that it was my mom, I let Ella pick up the phone.  They had a great conversation and Ella just looked like a big kid talking to her.

At least we know that she can walk and talk.

Kate came over on Saturday evening to watch the Yankee game and we were all treated to a ballet recital by Ella.

Our little ballerina having a blast.

After the ballet recital and up to the 11th inning of the Yankee game, we retired to the upstairs to play Beatles Rock Band.  Ella loved singing.  She can now sing “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds”, “Here Comes the Sun” and “Yellow Submarine”.  Sunny did vocals with Ella and sometimes Kate, I played the drums and I also played guitar and bass.  It was a lot of fun.

Ella between songs with mommy.

Kate and Ella in between songs.  Ella bumped her lip with one of my real microphones and has a little cut on her lip.

This morning, we were pleasantly awakened by Ron and Juliet.  Ella was actually the only one who was sleeping.  They were bringing over a crib for Milo when he comes on Thursday.  We are so excited for the whole family to come out here.  Juliet’s voice woke up Ella and Ella was so happy to see Juliet.  They had some breakfast together and then the 3 of us headed over to a birthday party for one of Ella’s old classmates.  The party was at Pump It Up.  A big place with huge bouncy houses.  It was a lot of fun.

Ella climbing up a jumpy mountain.

Ella took this shot of me and said, “It’s a keeper”.

Ella having fun with her buddy Bella.

Blue tongue…blue poop?

Today I went on my first field trip with Ella’s class.  We took the kids to a pumpkin patch in the city.  The kids actually had a great time even though the place was totally crowded and the line was too long for the hay ride.  The kids made the most of the experience.  It must have been fun being in a totally different place with all of their classmates.  Ella had a great time.  She was so excited about the pumpkin patch trip that she woke up at 6:00 this morning!  It was a lot of fun and I was happy that all the kids made it back in one piece.  Here are some pictures from the class trip.

Ella walking out with her buddy Cassi and Brickelle on the other side of Cassi for the CDS assembly before the field trip.

The Leaping Lizard class taking a picture facing the sun. The kids were really cooperative.

This is Clark.  He was our car buddy.  Ella and Clark were great today.

Tonight is Friday night movie night and Ella couldn’t wait to get home and change her clothes.  She changed into her Kiki dress and her Kiki bow.  The girls and Helen and Ron and KJ came over for clams before the movie.

Here’s Kiki!

The girls having dinner.

Watching A Bug’s Life.

KJ flying and the girls trying to catch him.

Juliet and her baby brother.

Ron fooling around and sitting on Ella’s lap.

Ella gets to hold KJ…he wasn’t really into being held by yet another little person, but he tolerated Ella and Ella loved every minute of it!

Happy Birthday AJ/Jamie.  We love you and can’t wait to see you next week.  We’ll celebrate when you get here.  Ella has a birthday song for you at the end of this post.

Not too much to report here with Ella.  She is very excited about a field trip with her class to a pumpkin patch tomorrow.  I’m sure I’ll get some great pictures.  Today Ella changed her clothes 4 times today (including her nightgown).   I think she needs to have a career on the stage.  Every time she changed her outfit, she morphed into that person.  I of course had to play her counterpart.  The most embarrassing part of the evening for me was when people in our building heard me talking like the beast from Beauty and the Beast.  Mommy is coming home tomorrow.  We can’t wait to see you.  Ella saved you a gumball…well she actually saved a gumball for Belle’s father but you know that’s you!  LOVE YOU BABY.

Ella on her way to school this morning.

Ella on the phone with mommy at Blush tonight.  She was walking around like a little teenager.  We’re really in for it.  The costume before that was Cinderella…she changed after her bath.

Ella’s version of a fish face.

This morning, I took Ella to school and hung out in the classroom before school started.  Ella was having fun jumping on the trampoline with her friends and I was chatting with Alicia.  All of a sudden, Ella came over to me crying, trying to explain something.  I looked at her and said, “Ella – you need to do whatever you do when you have a problem in class…I can’t really do anything”.  Alicia stepped in, knelt down to Ella, took her hands and said, “Ella – take a deep breath and tell me what you want to say.  Remember to try to stop crying and breathe”.  Ella took a deep breath and tried to stop crying really hard and said, “Remy told me that she was after Bella on the trampoline but I was really after Bella”.  Alicia then said, “Why don’t you ask Remy if you could go in front of her”.  Ella, in a whimper said, “Remy, can I go in front of you?”  Remy looked at Ella and said, “Go ahead”.  Ella walked over and it was business as usual.  Great job everyone.

Ella and Alicia having their conversation.

Ella gets her spot back.

Remy and Ella responding to something going on in the bathroom.

Sunny went out of town for 2 days on a business trip.  We love you and miss you and hope that you have a great trip.  Tonight I gave Ella a piece of chocolate after dinner and she loved it.  I was eating mine and she asked me if she could have it.  I told her that I wanted to eat it and then she said, “I have an idea – let’s split it.”  She was so cute that I had to share it.  Then she told me that I needed to go back to the store and get another one for mommy and that she wanted to give it to her when she came back from Texas.  So sweet.  Ella and I went to Blush after dinner with the Kim/Arena clan.

I had dinner with Cinderella.

Ella and Stella walking to Blush.

The whole gang minus the mommies.

Ella leading her buddies home.