Archive for April, 2010

It’s all about Broadway showtunes

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Ella has been singing her heart out since she was able to speak.  Her favorite show right now is Annie and she loves belting the tunes from Annie.  Last week, I played her a song from Les Miserables – “Castle On A Cloud”.  She loved the song and after playing it about 5 times for her, she had it memorized.  Tonight’s videos are Ella singing “Maybe” from Annie and “Castle On A  Cloud”.  Ella was dancing around her room and singing and I had to film it.  She is too cute.  She loves singing so much.  She really gets into the songs.  Today when I picked up Ella from school, she greeted me with a beautiful hairstyle.  Looks like Ms. Alicia is back in action.  Ella looked great and she loved it.  When we were driving home, I asked Ella what her favorite part of the day was and she said, ‘When Ms. Alicia did my hair.”  Those moments are very special to Ella – unlike when I do her hair and she yells and screams.  I love that she loves when Ms. Alicia does her hair and gives her special attention.  Here are a few shots of the reverse braid style…135.jpg227.jpg323.jpg Just beautiful.  If we could only get her over here at 7:30 every morning…421.jpg Later on in the evening, Helen gave Ella a very special gift.  She gave her a peacock umbrella and a peacock pair of boots.  Ella loved it.  She can’t wait for it to rain.Now for the movies…

How I love life with Ella

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Ella is growing up day by day.  Right now her sleeping really sucks.  Even thought we get her in bed by 8:30 the latest, she doesn’t fall asleep until around 10:00.  It’s not the biggest problem in the world, but we think that its important that she gets at least one more hour of sleep at night.  Waking her up in the morning can be tough.  I depend on her stuffed animals to wake her up in the morning.  Some of them are pretty funny and make her laugh – especially Tweety who is a wise ass.  Anyway, we’ll see if this is something that lasts or just another developmental stage.  Ella had an amazing swimming lesson today and I have a video to share with all of you.  It looks like she is beginning to do breast stroke, she can float on her back alone, she can flip from front to back, she’s working on her freestyle and side breathing and today she learned how to dive down and retrieve an object.  Really cool stuff.  Enjoy the movie.

Ballet and Basketball

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Ella is a determined person.  When she sees something that she wants to do, she keeps practicing and practicing until she gets it.  At school, she sees kids doing things and if it’s something that she wants to do too, she keeps trying.  There is this bar that the kids hang from on the “structure” area of the yard at school.  Some kids are tall enough and coordinated enough to get up there and hang upside down.  Ella isn’t really even tall enough to reach the bar and yet she wants to hang upside down so badly.  I’ve seen her try to do it – to try to climb up the pole while hanging with her hands but she’s not strong or tall enough to do it.  She’ll get it soon and I can’t wait to see her do it.  Another thing that she’s been watching kids do is dribble a basketball.  She has been watching kids dribble at school and talks about it all the time.  We got her a basketball last week and she has been practicing.  She’s getting pretty good.  Check out the video at the end of this entry.  Tonight, Ella and I had dinner together at Nama while Sunny was at a Giants board meeting.  Ella ate like a champion and then we met up with Stella and Juliet in the lobby to practice dribbling the basketball.  The girls had a lot of fun.  I have a lot more to say but I’m tired… more tomorrow.1a2.jpg This is from Monday night…Ella Sunny and I were playing charades.  This is a shot of Ella trying to figure out Sunny’s word.134.jpg Ella tonight at Nama.226.jpg Chopsticks and a spoon!322.jpg Dribbling…420.jpg Passing…512.jpgEating keys…611.jpg Looks like Ella is getting ready to take a shot.710.jpg Stella all dressed up in her Belle dress going for the ball.89.jpg Ella and Juliet having lots of fun.Now for the movies…first Ballet from Monday – Sunny got to go to the class while I was at the doctor, and then a quick basketball movie…

A beautiful day in Golden Gate Park

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Today was another gorgeous day and we spent most of it outside.  Ella told us that she wanted to go to Golden Gate Park and go on the pedal boats.  We thought it sounded like a great idea so we did just that!  We went around Stowe Lake and then Ella rode her bicycle around the lake again!  We all got some great exercise today.  After the park, we ended up at a little park close to where we live.  Ella has been really into dribbling basketballs lately.  I think a lot of kids are doing it at school and she loves a challenge.  She has been practicing and getting pretty good.  After our basketball game, we had dinner at Amicis.  It was really a wonderful day.1a1.jpg Ella with her basketball.  She has been practicing dribbling in the house…good thing nobody lives under us!130.jpg A rare shot of the 3 of us.  The guys at the boat dock took this.  Ella had her popcorn ready to feed the ducks.225.jpg ELla was throwing the popcorn left and right .  The ducks weren’t getting it though…321.jpgThe seagulls were!  Here is one on our boat who we were trying to chase away.419.jpg Ella biking through Golden Gate Park.511.jpg Ella spotted these cute goslings on her bike ride.610.jpg We warned her not to get too close.  This goose looked like she was ready to kick some ass.79.jpg Ella also spotted this gopher.88.jpg Ella was so curious about the gopher.  She had no fear.

T-ball and baseball

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

Ella had a t-ball game this afternoon.  She is really funny – she has a great time, loves being with her school buddies, loves being outside, but is probably the most un-focused that I have ever seen her.  She actually did a pretty good job today.  She is completely focused when she is batting and now knows how to run the bases, but once she in on the field, she starts playing in the dirt and talking to the other kids.  The whole experience is pretty fun to watch.  Tonight, we went to the Giants game.  The Giants won and we stayed for the entire game.  Ella was terrific!  It was a super fun night.69.jpg78.jpg87.jpg96.jpg106.jpg1111.jpg128.jpg133.jpg144.jpg154.jpg T-ball!129.jpg Ella in her Giants getup.224.jpg Ella insisted that we take this huge finger thing to the game.320.jpgWe bumped into some of our Community Fund buddies and Ella played this game and won a Tim Lincecum poster.418.jpg The iTouch is a great tool to keep Ella happy at the games.  Here she is learning how to write owl.510.jpgThe beautiful orange lit trees in front of the ballpark.

Finding Ann safe and sound

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

Last night, Sunny wrote an e-mail to Alicia explaining about Ann and asking her if she could put Ann on her desk in the morning so Ella could see that she was OK during the night.  Well…the incredible Ms. Alicia did more than that.  When we came into the classroom this morning, Ella found Ann on Ms. Alicia’s desk like this…223.jpg319.jpg417.jpg It was such a beautiful thing to see Ella so relieved that Ann was OK and so happy that Ms. ALicia took care of her.  It’s late and Ella is sleeping right now.  I took this picture about 5 minutes ago.  Ann and Ella are safe and sound and under the covers.86.jpgHere are a few sweet pictures from today at Ella’s school.127.jpgThis one is actually from early this morning in the elevator.59.jpg Ella checking out the silk worms in her classroom.68.jpgBrickelle, Ella and Casi at the sutainability fair.77.jpg Ella and Brickelle with the penguins they just made with Casi.Ella and I went to bi-rite after school for ice cream.  Ella ate most of her chocolate ice cream and then finished my salted caramel.  After ice cream, Ella had t-ball practice.  Ella did a pretty good job today – I think she may have a future in being a groundskeeper.  We’ll see.  Tonight Ella went to Stella and Juliet’s and watched Madeline and had a great time.  Sunny and I went across the street to see some friends at Mijita.  The Giants won tonight, it’s the weekend and life is beautiful.

Leaving Ann at school

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

If you have been following this, you’ll know about Ann…the free hippo that Ella got in NJ while on her first outing to Toys R Us with grandma and papa.  Ella loves Ann so much.  She sleeps with her every night.  Lately, she has been bringing Ann to school for nap time.  This afternoon, we forgot to bring Ann home from school.  Ella realized this just as she was getting ready for bed.  She began to cry and cry and say, “I want Ann NOW”.  It was really sad and really sweet at the same time.  I quickly pulled out one of her other stuffed animals – a very big headed Tweety and said in my worst Tweety voice, “Hey Ewa – why awe you so sad?”  She looked at Tweety and said, “I am sad because we left Ann at school and I want her here.  I sleep with her every night and I miss her.”  She began to cry again.  Then Sunny talked to her through another stuffed animal Dog Dog.  Dog Dog was saying that she has been with Ella since she was little and that she would sleep with her.  Ella talked to Dog Dog too but just really wanted Ann.  I suggested that she write Ann a letter that she could give to her in the morning at school and Ella really got into the idea.  Here it is…ann.jpg She told Ann that she loved her so much and that she missed her so much.  How beautiful is that?  After Ella wrote the note, she felt all better and went to sleep.  We also told her that if Alicia got to the classroom before her, maybe she would take Ann out of Ella’s cubby and put her on Alicia’s desk.  I’m sure Ella is going to be so happy to see Ann in the morning.

10 beautiful years together

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

Today Sunny and I celebrated our 10th anniversary.  Happy Anniversary Sunny.  I love you.  We told Ella that it was our anniversary this morning and she was really into it. Today when Ella came back from swimming, Ella made this for us…416.jpg The three of us went out to dinner at the Crab House to celebrate.  Ella ate like a champion, she had clams, crab, fried artichokes and noodles.  For dessert Ella had chocolate mousse cake.   Either Ella was super hungry after swimming or she is going through a serious growth spurt.  Ella also has a cold again.  It is so red under her nose.  At least now she is putting vaseline on it.  She used to go crazy if we even tried to touch under her nose.  It was a really sweet night full of  a lot of love.  I also want to wish Uncle Michael a Happy Birthday!  Sorry we don’t have a video for you.  Wishing you a beautiful year Michael.  Lots of love to you.222.jpg We took this tonight with the self timer.  Look at Ella’s red nose.  Poor baby.58.jpg Ella took this one of us…(after she dropped the camera and kind of broke it).126.jpg I took this picture on Tuesday night.  Ella wanted to wear her old rat costume.  It may have had something to do with Ella and her classmates spotting a rat in the garden at school.  Wildlife in SF.  Ella’s class is celebrating Earth Day and Alicia asked the parents to send the kids to school with stuff that we recycle.  Ella brought in a small bag of stuff to school this morning.  Tonight, Ella said, “Ms. Alicia told me that I brought great stuff for our art project”.  She then decided that she wanted to collect stuff around the house for tomorrow morning.  She was very cute with her brown bag going through the garbage and asking us for magazines.  Ella is really into school.

Ms. Alicia is back!

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

If Ella had a way of communicating other than her (sometimes) loud voice, she would have told everyone that she knows that Ms. Alicia is coming back to the Leaping Lizard classroom.  On Saturday morning, she woke me up yelling, “Mama – Ms. Alicia will be back on Monday!”  On Sunday night she couldn’t fall asleep she was so excited…she finally fell asleep a little bit after 10:00.  This morning, even though she was so tired, she got out of bed pretty quickly and kept saying, “Today is Ms. Alicia day!”  Sunny and I both took Ella to school today.  We wanted to see Ms. Alicia too.  So many parents dropped their kids off in the classroom – it was like the first day of school.  We are all really happy Ms. Alicia is back.  Tonight as Ella was falling asleep she muttered, “Today was my first day back with Ms. Alicia”.  Feel the love Ms. Alicia!  Today after school, we took Ella to a birthday party for one of her classmates.  It was at this place called “Pump It Up”.  The place is filled with giant bouncy houses.  Ella has been there before and was not into going down the giant slides.  Today, she was fearless.  She went on everything there was to go on.  She went down all the slides, climbed up the rock climbing wall, up the ladders…it was so great to see.  We also bounced around in the bouncy houses.  That place is a lot of fun.  On the way home, Ella told me that she wanted to go there with grandma and papa the next time they visited.  We decided together that grandma would probably go on everything but papa would probably watch.   I didn’t get any pictures because we were all so busy jumping and climbing and sliding.  I finally made a movie of Ella’s last swimming lesson.  She is doing so well.  She is really responding well to her new teacher. Check it out…

A day and night full of fun and love

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

Ella had one busy day today.  We started off going to South Park and doing a lot of climbing (Ella climbed), then we went over to AT&T Park where there was an event that Sunny was a part of, then we went to Ella’s T-ball game and then we spent the night with 2 of Sunny’s childhood friends and their kids (well not really kids – wonderful young adults in their early 20’s).  Ella was in heaven with all of the older girls.  We all had dinner at Mijita, frozen yogurt at Blush and then came home and played Beatles Rock Band.  I am going to post a bunch of pictures now.  Ella did much better at the game than the practice on Friday.  The kids had a blast at the game.  They are good little players.  Ella only did a little dirt art…I asked her what she was doing and she said that she needed to mark her spot with an X every time a new batter was up so she wouldn’t lose her place.  Funny.124.jpg220.jpg318.jpg415.jpg57.jpg67.jpg76.jpg85.jpg95.jpg105.jpg Pretty amazing pics huh?  Ella really had a fun time at the game.1110.jpg Ella with Naomi (Phyllis’ daughter) and Rachel (Faye’s daughter).125.jpg Ooh – check out those big muscles.132.jpg143.jpg Walking with the big girls to Blush.153.jpg Sunny and Faye singing a lovely Beatles song.163.jpg Check out our Beatles rockband group.173.jpg183.jpg193.jpg Ella played the drums. , the guitar and did a great job on vocals.