Life With Ella

Today was our last day in Hawaii.  We had a beautiful vacation.  It was fun and relaxing and it was so wonderful to see Ella in a totally different environment.  Ella is so in love with the water – she loves swimming.  Today we went to Hanalei Bay.  Ella had so much fun learning how to “surf the waves”.  There are sweet and steady waves on the bay.  The water was a really comfortable temperature and the bottom is smooth – just sand.  Ella loved catching a wave and riding it in.  After she did it with the boogie board, she switched over to her little inner tube…she had a lot more freedom that way.  After the bay, we went into Hanalei and had lunch and shave ice.  We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening at the pool.  Something funny about Ella – at the pool, in order to go down the slide, one of the people who works at the pool makes sure that the kids know the rules.  The rules are:  no running, only one person at a time, only go down on your butt, feet first… Ella is obsessed with the rules and over the past few days has made herself the pool guard.  If a kid is running, she yells after them, “No running”  if they are going down the slide the wrong way, she says, “feet first…do not go down that way”.  Sometimes the kids listen, sometimes they don’t, but they all tolerate Ella’s bossiness.  It’s pretty funny to watch.  She just stands there with her bathing cap and goggles and points her finger, puts her hands on her hips, puts her hands on her head, and barks commands.  She is one funny kid. Learning how to boogie board. Chillin’ in the inner tube. Now its Sunny’s turn to boogie board.Ella our very own “mystery lifeguard”. See ya later Hanalei Bay. Happiness at the beach. “No running!” Ella is out of her mind that this kid is about to go down the slide backward. One more time down the slide.Practicing flips with mommy. The beautiful moon we saw tonight.

I guess the coffee dried up.  Sunny had a beautiful birthday.  It was a great day.  Before I get into what we did today, I need to catch up on yesterday.  We hung around the pool in the morning – Sunny is still recovering from her ailments and needed some rest.  In the afternoon, we went to the Botanical Gardens and it was so beautiful.  Ella was a great hiker.  You’ll see from the pictures that we went pretty high up.  Today we started the day feeding the koi (like every other day) and then we had brunch for Sunny’s birthday at the hotel.  Ella ate really well and at the end, she had chocolate fondue.  She was in heaven.  We went to the St. Regis beach again today.  It was beautiful out and we got to see a lot of fish.  I think I have PTSD from seeing that eel the other day because I couldn’t handle snorkeling over deep holes in the coral.  Tonight we went into Hanalei and had a great dinner at a Japanese restaurant.  We came home and some people who we met here sent a little cake over to our room for Sunny’s birthday.  Happy Birthday Sunny.  We love you a lot. Ella feeding the koi on Saturday.It takes a lot of hard work to get on the turtle’s back! Sweet Ella at the beginning of the botanical gardens. Resting by a little stream. Check out these crazy trees! Going over the troll bridge. Water break time! Not so bad for a self timed picture.Heading back down.  Check out that cool mountain.Some nature shots to show how beautiful this place is. Having shave ice after a hot hike.Feeding the koi today. Ella is the captain of the kiddie pool water polo team. Chocolate fondue heaven. Relaxing after a big brunch. Sweet and mellow at the St. Regis beach. About to go to dinner for mommy’s birthday. A rare photo of the 3 of us after dinner. Ella the ham. Ella took this one of Sunny.Here is the little cake and card that Sunny got from our friends who we met here.

We are having a great time.  I’m going to keep my words to a minimum since there are a lot of pictures to post.  Just a correction from the other post (I shouldn’t do this after I take my Ambien)…we were at the St. Regis hotel, not the Ritz Carlton – I don’t even know where I got that from.  We have gone to a different beach each day and Ella has seen a lot of fish.  We got her this great boogie board which you will see in the next set of photos.  Instead of snorkeling, Ella can look through a little window in the boogie board.  Very cool.  Ella loves the water and it’s hard to get her out of the pool/ocean.  She has been building sand castles and digging and having so much fun.  We are really on vacation. There are a lot of these roosters all over the island. Wow!  Look at all that tropical fruit.  Ella really loves the pineapple. The other morning, Ella and Sunny woke up super early and explored the grounds.  They brought bread with them and fed the birds and the koi. Here is Ella at Ke’e beach.  She met a bunch of kids there.Ella getting some water for the sand castle.Resting on one of the kid’s inner tubes. This shot doesn’t have any of us in it but I just wanted to point out that I was snorkeling with Ella in this little cove when I came across an eel.  I just kind of pushed Ella along, but I almost threw up!  Not exactly what you want to see while looking for pretty fish.Coming out of the ocean with mommy. One of Ella’s little beach buddies took this shot. Look out Esther Williams.Ella feeding the koi at the hotel this morning. Sitting on a turtle at the kid’s pool in our hotel. Meditating. Some cool underwater shots.  I have a lot of great movie footage, but I don’t have the right program here to post the movies. Getting ready to do a flip with mommy. This is the cool boogie board that I was talking about.Ella is practicing her snorkeling technique. Flying a kite with mommy.  If you look high in the sky, you can see the kite. Ella getting some water in order to make a sand castle.  Ella was very serious about her water collecting job.Mommy is super happy to finally be in Hawaii with us! Back at the hotel after a 2 hour swim.Ella the old lady carrying groceries back to our place. Ella tucking her stuffed animals in.  Check out how happy Ann looks.Beautiful Ella.This is a kid who is really concentrating.Goodnight.

We arrived in Hawaii on Tuesday and already we are all relaxed.  Ella’s ear infection is all better, my cold/sore throat hasn’t really changed so it’s tolerable and Sunny actually went to a clinic here and finally was put on Zithromax to cure her terrible cough/cold.  Ella loves it here – the hotel has a really cute kid’s pool with a slide and some turtles that have water coming out of their shells and there are a bunch of other pools where she can swim.  We spent our first afternoon at the pool and Ella practiced using her snorkel.  She didn’t like her mask because she was uncomfortable not being able to breathe out of her nose. so I rigged her snorkel up to her goggles which she loves.  This morning, Ella and I went to the pool while Sunny saw a doctor and then the 3 of us went to the beach.  We went to the beach at the Ritz Carlton since they have a relationship with the Westin that we are staying at so we can use their facilities and we thought it would be an easier way to ease Ella into the beach situation.  All of the beach craziness that Ella had when she was 2 1/2 is gone.  She was excited to walk on the sand and jump into the ocean.  She was so curious to see if she could find fish using her goggles and snorkel.  She went out into the ocean and loved it when she found some fish.  She saw some tiger fish, a purple fish and some others.  She’s such a natural in the water.  Tonight we went into Hanalei, got some shave ice and had dinner at a Japanese place.  Tomorrow, we are going to hit Ke’e beach and if there are cool fish, we will take some pics with the underwater camera. Ella wearing a lei at the airport.Ella going down the water slide.  No fear, no hesitation.Ella and I in one of the other pools getting ready to test out the snorkel. After dinner on our first night. Here is the whole process of getting ready to find fish…first get used to the water, then put on goggles, then life vest – now search for fish!That’s mommy out there. My two underwater explorers.A little pasta for lunch.About to order our shave ice. Ella decided that she wanted rainbow shave ice. What happens when you swallow a rainbow?  Your tongue turns black!

Today was a big day for Ella and you would never know it!  Although Ella’s school ends next week, we are going away tomorrow, so today was her last day of school for this school year.  It seems like she had a great day and that she realized that it was her last day and she kind of just rolled with it.  I wasn’t there to witness her day, but she did tell me that she gave Brickelle an extra long hug (Brickelle is going to kindergarten next year and Ella will still be in preschool).  I love the way Ella deals with transitions…very Zen.  Today was also her last day at Tutu school.  She had a great class and at the end, hugged the girls who she has been in class with for the past few months.  They posed for some pictures and were really sweet.  We leave for Hawaii tomorrow morning and we are very excited.  Tonight we went spent some time over at Stella and Juliet’s house.  Ella said, “I’m going to Hawaii and I am really excited but I will miss you”.  Juliet decided that they should go too.  It was all very loving.  OK – I have to go to sleep – I will try to post some stuff while we’re away. Ella playing with her buddies this morning at the Leaping Lizard “beach”.After school, Ella showed me how she can flip on the bars under the structure.  She was really proud. Ella concentrating really hard during ballet. Ella and her ballet buddies Vivie and Mariza. We took a little walk in the Tutu School neighborhood and came across this statue thing.  Ella got a real kick out of it and posed for these pics.

Although we are all slightly ill, we are so excited about our vacation.  Ella’s ear has not hurt her since Friday and she is totally on the mend.  Sunny is still struggling with bronchial asthma and I have some sort of sore throat.  None of this will prevent us from having the time of our lives.  On Saturday, Sunny had a pedicure and Ella watched some of it.  She really wanted to have her fingernails and toenails painted at the spa too.  Ella and I went today.  We both got light pink with golden sparkles.  Here are some shots that I took at the spa and in our home.Ella getting ready to get her nails painted.Watching, making sure that the woman is not going to clip Ella’s nails. All done and waiting for me to finish up my pedicure.  I think Ella was watching Word Girl. Ella’s sweet hand and foot. The three of us. Beautiful Ella about to go out to dinner.

Today Ella woke up and felt a lot better.  It’s amazing how medicine works sometimes.  This morning, Ella and I met up with Caroline, Adam and Zach who are in town from NY.  We met at Yerba Buena and the kids had fun playing around.  After the park, there was a puppet show.  I have to say, I really can’t stand puppet shows, but Ella totally loved it.  After the puppet show, Ella rode the carousel twice.  Ella is totally into going on the carousel all by herself.  This is such a relief.  I think we spent the first few years of her life nauseous from riding those carousels.  We came home, had lunch and then Sunny took Ella out to meet up Zani, Phyllis, Hannah, Naomi, Michael etc.  They ended up at another park and Ella had more fun.  Tonight we had dinner at Mijita with Ruthann and Jaden.  Jaden is about a year and a few months younger than Ella and I think she likes being the older kid sometimes.  It keeps her behavior in check.  Tonight I bumped into Helen, Ron, KJ and the girls – Juliet was carrying a pink guitar and Stella had a Tiana doll.  Helen told me that they got presents for putting themselves to bed.  This gave me a great idea.  We usually start putting Ella to bed at around 8:15 and she ends up falling asleep at 9:30 or so.  We read to her, tell her stories, massage her…she gets in and out of bed, says she’s thirsty…all the regular kid stuff.  Tonight, Sunny and I were in Ella’s room and I said, “Hey – did you know that Stella and Juliet have been going to sleep on their own?  They got some really cool presents tonight”.  All of a sudden Ella said, “I want to go to sleep on my own tonight.  I want cool presents”.  We told her that it had to be for more than a night.  She said, “OK – I’m going to sleep now.  Goodnight, I love you.”  We left – she is sleeping!  This is a beautiful thing. Ella having a blast sliding/flying. Adam giving Zach a little push down the slide. Caroline and Zach flying down the slide.Ella climbing in her new shades. Ella and her little buddy Zach.  Ella liked being the big kid today. Ella listening to the beginning of the puppet show.  She has this slightly entertained look on her face.  Good thing you couldn’t see my face.Zach wasn’t as entertained or amused as Ella was but he watched some of it. Beautiful fake smile on the carousel.  Ella still loves the carousel.