Life With Ella

We started our day today in Noe Valley to help support one of our friends who is running for supervisor in her district.  She’s not running in our district, but we went to give her some support for the final stretch on Tuesday.  Ella went dressed up like Word Girl.  She looked super cute.  After that we had some lunch and then I took Ella to Taekwondo.  Ella did a great job.  The instructor compliments her every week and is really happy with her focus and progress.  We came home, the game was about 2 innings under way and Brickelle and her family were over.  The adults watched the game and the kids played.  We should have been paying more attention to the kids because they decided that they were going to take lip gloss and spread it all over their faces and in their hair.  They even put it all over Brooklyn.  It smelled like sweet strawberry air freshener in  Ella’s room.  Then they took a paint brush and used it to spread the stuff on their faces.  For some reason, the paint brush made black streaks with every brush stroke so the girls decided that they were black cats and quickly changed into black leotards, tights and tutus.  They even painted Brooklyn’s fingernails!  After the ballgame which was a loss but really didn’t bum out any of us, we all went downstairs to eat some pizza for dinner.  After dinner, we had a dance party with glow sticks and glow necklaces.  It was a really fun night.  I’m going to LA tomorrow night so there probably won’t be a blog until Tuesday night so Ella’s Halloween will be documented tomorrow and published on Tuesday. Word Girl hits Noe Valley with her peacock umbrella. Making something for the Prozan headquarters. Off to TaeKwanDo. Some photos from class today.  Ella has such a great time in class. Coming home! Look at these shiny paint streaked faces.  The smell was too much for me to handle.  I can still smell it…that sweet strawberry yuck! Can’t take a clear picture of a glow thing with a flash, so here is a “natural” shot that is not so clear.  Ella took all of her glow necklaces and put them together to create a “glow pond” that she was sitting in.

Today, there was a Halloween parade at Ella’s school.  The parade was right around the preschool dismissal but preschoolers were not allowed to come to school dressed up.  It makes sense (to me) they didn’t want the kids to possibly have an accident in their costume, they can become uncomfortable wearing a costume all day, just a bunch of distractions that they don’t really need.  Ella was very understanding about the whole thing – she better be – there have been the same rules for the past 3 years.  Anyway, this year we stayed and watched the parade.  Ella loved seeing her friends all dressed up – especially Brickelle.  She said that Brickelle was the best part of the parade.  Tonight we took it easy – went out to Nama and then Blush and we’re all turning in early.  We have a night off from baseball.  Here are some pics from this afternoon. Ella and Brooklyn waiting for the parade to start. SO sweet.  Ella has been holding back hugs from Brooklyn lately but today she just kept on hugging him. Ella’s friend Clark was very sweet and shared his mask with her. Every week in Brickelle’s kindergarten class, the kids get to share news about themselves.  This week, Brickelle wrote and drew a picture of the sleepover that she had with Ella.  Ella LOVED it that Brickelle mentioned the sleep over. Ella took this shot of mommy practicing her cheering for the Giants.

This has been quite an exciting October.  Baseball is in the air everywhere in SF which is not usual.  This is not really a baseball city but this year, the Giants have made San Francisco a baseball city.  For Ella, this has been exciting too.  She’s pretty into the game.  Tonight while Sunny and I were at the game, Ella went over to the Kim/Arena household and watched the game with the girls, Helen, Ron and KJ.  Then they all came over here, the girls played upstairs and the adults watched the game.  Ella fell asleep early tonight which was good because she’s been tired lately with some late nights.  Another really exciting thing for Ella is that Ms. Alicia has come to the house twice in 2 weeks because we have been going to some of the games together.  Ella gets really excited and just brings things over to Alicia to show her.  During “adult” conversations, you can all of a sudden hear her high voice “Ms. Alicia, did you see this, it’s my yo yo”.  Super cute.  Here are some pictures from tonight’s game.  I realized that I didn’t have any pictures of Ella from today so I took a picture of her sleeping when we came home. Here we are – game 2 of the World Series. Another beautiful night at the ballpark. Here I am with the orange man. Oh My God!  We won the game. The Giants Won! Goodnight beautiful Ella. I took this shot out of the sun roof this morning when I was driving home from dropping off  Ella.  The clouds were beautiful.

Ella didn’t have school today – there was a professional development day for the teachers.  Good thing I don’t have a job right now.  Ella and I spent the day together.  We ran around town getting stuff for Halloween, running errands, and I had an emergency dentist appointment (one of my crowns came off and now I need an implant).  We ended the day at Ella’s ballet class.  We had a fun day together and accomplished everything.  Tomorrow is our last day of mental and emotional rest before the World Series begins. Ella decided to wear her rainbow tights to go with the new rainbow vans that Sunny got her. One happy kid – breakfast at Happy DOnuts! Skilpping across the room in ballet. Ella picked out this new red leotard/tutu combo at the store today where we got her tap shoes to finish off her Annie costume. Ella still had a lot of energy after our very full day.  Here she is running down Bay Street!

Grandma and papa left this morning.  Sad to see them go but really happy that they will be back soon for Thanksgiving.  We love you guys!  Hard to believe that by the time you come back, Ella will be 5!  We spent the rest of the day just hanging around the house, watching TV, doing laundry, trying to really let it sink in that the Giants are going to the world series!!!  We gave Ella a Word Girl costume that we got for her a while ago.  Ella loved it and wore for about 5 hours today.  We finally left the house to meet Debby and Toby for dinner at Eliza’s.  We need to get some good rest for a very exciting week starting on Wednesday. Grandma, Ella and papa.  Hope things start to feel better papa! Word girl flying off the bench! Ella made this note for Javier Lopez and we put it under his door tonight. Word Girl delivering the note. Showered, clean and out to dinner.

Wow – what a night in more ways that one!  The Giants won the National League pennant tonight.  The Giants will be playing in the world series!  It’s going to be quite a week.  Today we took a walk to the Ferry building and had lunch.  It started raining pretty hard on the way home so we took the train and then Ella went straight to TaeKwonDo.  Grandma and papa came for the end of the class and got to see Ella in action.  They loved it and she loved having them there.  After TaeKwonDo, Ella hung out in the apartment with grandma and papa and Sunny and I went over to Mijita to watch the game.  The game was a little crazy making but it was so much fun to hang out and be with friends and strangers.  We left Mijita in around the 4th inning to meet grandma, papa and Ella to go out to dinner at Nama.  We were all leaving to go out to dinner and Ella and papa were going down the hallway pretending to be animals.  Then they were galloping.  Ella gallops sideways because that’s how she learned to do it in ballet.  Ella was down the hall when papa decided to gallop sideways too.  He’s not such a great sideways galloper and he fell and landed on his wrist- good thing he was galloping sideways because only one wrist was injured in the fall.  He was in a lot of pain and we decided that a trip to the emergency room was in order. Ella and Sunny went to Nama for dinner and grandma and I took papa to the ER.  It turns out that his wrist is broken and he will need surgery in NY when he gets home.  We’re so sorry that this happened papa.  We love you and hope your wrist feels better.  Stick to galloping forward. No more sideways galloping for you!  The best scene tonight was watching the 9th inning in the ER.  We were watching with a woman who’s mother had food poisoning from oysters, a man with a bad cut on his head, two paramedics, one of the male ER nurses, and a man who I think just came in to watch the end of the game but pretended that he had a medical emergency!  What a crazy night.  Go Giants.  Grandma and papa are leaving tomorrow morning.  We love you guys.  It was so great to have you here.  Can’t wait to see you during Thanksgiving. Go Giants!  Ella on her way out the door for our walk to the Ferry Building. Beautiful hug. Ella and papa “flying” over the walls on the Embarcadero. Walking home in the rain. Don’t mess with this beauty! Walking down the hallway like animals…there was the flamingo, the chicken, the penguin…should have never switched to the gallop!

Ella went to school this morning and then I picked her up at around 11:00 with grandma and papa.  Ella was so happy and excited.  We went to the Academy of Science, had some lunch and then explored!  It was the first time that we were there when it wasn’t really crowded.  We went to see the penguins, checked out the dinosaurs, went to the aquarium downstairs, went to the rain forest, hung out with some butterflies and then we left.  We went over to the DeYoung to see the special exhibit but there was too much time between when we were there and when the next available time was.  We walked around the main exhibits for a while and then went home.  Ella watched most of the Sound of Music with grandma and papa and then we all went out to dinner with Abigal and Ray.  After dinner, Ella finished watching the Sound of Music, grandma fell asleep and papa finished it with Ella.  Ella fell asleep at 10:30 tonight.  I hope she sleeps in.  I should be sleeping too!  It was a really great full day.  Ella is so curious about everything and it was beautiful to watch her run around the Academy and soak up all the information.  It’s great having grandma and papa here. Ella on the way to school this morning.  I didn’t take the Giants rubber bands out – I left them for Alicia to do.  I didn’t want Ella screaming at me this morning! Papa, Ella and grandma leaving CDS.  Ella has a beautiful new hair style and a very happy spring in her step.  She’s going to spend the whole day with grandma and papa. Ella was loving the penguins (papa’s power animal). Checking out some fish. Looking at an eel with his mouth open.  Looks like papa was pretending to be an eel! Ella spent a long time at this exhibit touching starfish, urchins and other sea life. Walking into the rain forest. Hanging upstairs watching the butterflies and the poison frogs. Ella with her new “friend” Peter.  She got this toy at the girt shop.  I had the same thing when I was a little kid. Too much fun with grandma and papa! Ella’s dinner at Scoma’s which she LOVED!

The first practical joke is that the Giants lost to the Phillies tonight.  That was not a funny joke.  Hopefully we can get em on Saturday in Philly.  Ella told her class that she was going to the game tonight.  We did not take Ella.  Alicia did give her a very special Giants hairdo.  Ella wanted to leave it in tonight to make sure that the Giants won.  Well, I don’t think it was the hair style’s fault that the Giants lost tonight – it was the Giant’s fault.  My parents flew in tonight.  When Ella woke up this morning, she said, “Are grandma and papa coming tonight?”  I told her that they were.  Then she said, “I have been waiting for this day!”  It should be such a fun weekend.  We got home at around 8:30 and then my parents came here at like 9:00.  Ella had a joke that she wanted to play.  We have a remote control fart machine so she wanted to get into bed to pretend that she was sleeping and then when my parents came into her room to kiss her goodnight, she was going to make the machine go off.  My dad was the first to go up and kiss her and all of a sudden I heard a fart sound and my dad cracking up.  Ella loved it.  She was laughing so hard too.  Then my mom went upstairs and Ella did the same thing.  My mom fell out laughing.  It was so much fun to see the 3 of them cracking up.  Now it’s time to go to sleep.  Ella is going to go to school in the morning and then we’re going to pick her up and either go to the Academy of Science or somewhere else.  Goodnight. Another Alicia masterpiece.  Maybe I’ll go to  beauty school so I can learn to be so creative. Ella playing with her old Zhu Zhu pets. Here we are at the game when the score was good and life felt easy.