Life With Ella

Ever since we arrived, Ella has been asking to go to Central Park.  We have gone to different parts of Central Park over the years, but Ella’s favorite part of the park is the water aspect.  Some of the little parks in Central Park have water squirting from the ground or tubes or hippos or whatever.  On Wednesday, Ella and I went into NY and met up with an old friend of mine, Karen.  First we went to a fun park with lots of water that Ella loved and then we went to a little amusement park in Central Park.  The amusement park is where the Wolman Rink is during the winter.  It was pretty much the same as the fair at AT&T park and in Calistoga.  Ella loved that too.  She went on a bunch of rides and Karen went on some with her.  We had a terrific day – spent about 4 hours in Central Park.  We came home and grandma had picked up Milo in the afternoon.  We had a lot of fun playing with grandma, papa and Milo.  In the evening, we were all a little wiped out.  My friend Adam came over for dinner – it was great catching up.  Today was a great day with some beautiful old friends.  Sunny/mommy – we love you and miss you and wish you were still here with us!

Ella having a blast.  She was running, galloping (ballet style), jumping, covering the water spouts, playing with the other kids without talking to them…just being a really cool and fun kid.

Karen and Ella became fast friends.

Flying on a little plane.

Karen and Ella went on this crazy boat ride.  Ell was scared but thrilled and then totally brave.

A sweet and easy boat ride.

Ella took this shot of us.

Ella told us that this would be a perfect tree for her to climb.

Back at home with Milo.

Ella’s vantage point.

I look a little bit like a shark, but look at how Milo was looking at papa.  Pure happiness.  Ella is getting to be a wonderful photographer.

Milo about to give Ella a big kiss.

Proud papa and his beautiful grandchildren.

Yesterday, Ella, grandma and I went to the Liberty Science Museum in Jersey City.  It was a pretty cool place – I like the Exploratorium in San Francisco much better, but Ella had a lot of fun.  I am going to post lots of pictures and explain along the way when necessary.

Pretty self explanatory…LOVE.

Ella did a great job on this challenging rock climbing wall.

Exploring.

Ella was on this centrifugal force chair – the woman was spinning her around and gave her an assignment…to put all the red squares in a row while spinning pretty quickly…

As you can see, Ella did a fantastic job!  She can now be an astronaut.

Ella got to build her own rocket which she launched.

If you can believe it, these fish live in the Hudson River.

Ella was playing a game where she was making the balls go up on a pulley.

Water graffiti.

Playing on a stone xylophone.

Grandma and Ella saying hello to a friendly python.

“I want you to clean this dump ’til it shines like the top of the Chrylser Building!”

This is a mangled steel beam from the World Trade Center.

Ella loved operating the digger.

A really cool outdoor obstacle course where the kids were supposed to be different animals in their habitats.

The adventures continue…we have been going to the pool every day and Ella is doing so well with side and front breathing.  She is even spending about 15 – 20 minutes each day swimming without goggles.  Yesterday, we went swimming for about an hour and then Ella and I headed into New York to the Planetarium and The Museum of Natural History.  Ella has been wanting to go to the Planetarium because of the Eloise movie – the prince ends up at the Planetarium to see the stars.  We watched the Journey to the Stars movie in the special theater.  Ella LOVED it – she was blown away.  “Mama- it felt like the theater was moving and that we were in the sky”.  After the movie, we went around a small part of the museum – we saw the African mammals and North American mammals and then we went into the room where the big blue whale is.  Ella has been into angler fish lately – the ugly fish who live deep down in the sea.  There were quite a few angler fish at the museum and there was even a video.  Ella was completely riveted by all of this.  After the museum, we met AJ for some ice cream and then did a little shoe shopping at Harry’s.  Then we met Nikki B for dinner.  AJ and Michael met us and then we all headed back to NJ.  What a beautiful fun filled day and night.

What a big beautiful girl.

Fun at old and new parks.  Ella did a great job on the balance beam.

Running up the steps of the planetarium.

Half way there…

Ella wanted me to take this shot of the planets.  Pretty cool.

This is how much Ella weighs on the moon – 6.1 lbs…in order to find out your earth weight, you multiply your moon weight by 6.

I snuck this picture of Ella in the planetarium just before the movie started.

Check out how huge this dinosaur skeleton is!  Fantastic.

Ella loved this wall of insects and fish and other stuff.

Ella with the big blue whale in the background.

Uncle Jesse – I took this shot for you.  They took the glass away from this exhibit and it’s still dark, but with the flash, it’s less ominous.

Meeting AJ after the planetarium.  So much beautiful love.

One of Ella’s shots.

The gang walking to the car.

Ella and uncle Michael in the middle of Broadway.

Ella and her new red dressy shoes.

New sneakers for school – Ella’s wonderful photography.

Ella took this beautiful shot of grandma and papa.

Ella is such a lover of life.  She manages to throw herself into everything that she is doing and she really loves every individual thing.  On Saturday, Ella swam, took a ride in the golf cart, drove the golf cart (on papa’s lap), putted a little bit, ran through the sprinkler, found a leaf bug and took lots of pictures.  She loved each thing.  The only thing that is missing is mommy.  We love you and miss you so much.  Today (Sunday) we all went to the cemetery for the unveiling of my grandmother’s head stone.  Before Sunny left, we explained to Ella that the cemetery is a place to go to remember people who have died.  We told her that the stones represented the people.  We did not tell her that the bodies were buried in the ground.  This morning while we were having breakfast, I was explaining to Ella about the unveiling again, telling her that a rabbi was going to speak and that there would be some family members there and that they were going to take a veil or scarf off the stone.  Ella asked if she could bring a stone…I told her that was a beautiful idea and that she could put it on my grandma’s stone.  She went outside with my dad and found a little stone.  She then drew a heart on it.  She said that she would put it on my grandma’s head stone.  She did just that today and it was beautiful.  Obviously, I didn’t take pictures, but it was just so pure and “Ella”.

Milo and Iya loving each other at papa’s club.

Happy boy!

The beginning out our golf cart journey.

Ella checking out the water trap at papa’s club.  She was pointing at the bubbles where there were fish.

Sweet love.

Papa and Ella driving me around.

The golf course is really beautiful.

Ella’s first golf lesson…she’s not exactly a natural, but she can learn if the spirit moves her.

Ella frolicking through the sprinkler.  She couldn’t stop giggling.  Such a sweet scene.

Ella and I found this leaf bug outside of my parent’s house.  I took the first shot, Ella took the second.

Ella and Milo holding hands in the back seat on the way to dinner.

Ella took this of grandma and papa.

Beautiful grandparents and their grandchildren.

Another one of Ella’s masterpieces.

I took this one – Milo has a thing for the garbage can in the kitchen.  He can stand there talking to it for like 15 minutes!