Life With Ella

I am going to start on Thursday – Ella had her first field trip.  The Leaping Lizards went to a local fire station to bring the firefighters gifts that the class had collected for Toys for Tots.  Kaliko’s parents are both firefighters so there were friendly familiar faces at the station.  Sunny was one of the drivers so she was able to go on the trip with Ella.  Ella did really well until they took out the fire hose and a firefighter came down the pole.  Sunny said that Ella had a complete melt down and wouldn’t stop crying.  Ella is just experiencing so many new things and one of her ways of coping is to lose it.  After the field trip, she was able to have a pretty good day at school.

Here is Ella before she freaked out.

That afternoon, I picked up AJ and Jordin from the airport.  They came for a visit this weekend and it was wonderful to have them with us.  We had a great time.  I brought them to school to pick up Ella on Thursday and Ella saw them and froze in her steps.  She looked down and it seemed like she didn’t know what to do.  I picked her up and she held onto me tight and then she reached out for AJ.  After long hugs with AJ and Jordin, Ella showed them around the school yard.  They saw the sheep, chickens, organic garden and the outside play structure.  We came home, did some group painting and then had dinner with mommy at Nama.  It was a great dinner and the NY girls went to sleep early.

On Friday morning, the Leaping Lizards were the class who were leading the morning assembly.  Every Friday morning, Children’s Day School has an assembly for the whole school.   The assembly is about 15 minutes long, the parents are invited to stay around and have coffee, and every Friday Ella freaks out.  We’re not sure if its because there are so many people around or if it just messes up her routine but she always ends up sitting on Alicia’s lap sort of crying.  The class did an amazing job with the announcements and with this song in Chinese and English, but Ella just sort of stuck close to Alicia and cried.

Pretty sad but pretty cute.

After the assembly, we were invited back to the classroom where the Leaping Lizards proceeded to entertain us with an original song.  The class was adorable and so great with their song.  Ella was still freaked out and sat next to me and did the song from a distance.  We talked about it later at home and she said that she wouldn’t be so scared next time.  She said that she missed her mommy and mama at the assembly and that’s why she felt sad.  It doesn’t make too much sense since we were there, but that is her reality for now.

I had a performance with my kids a little  while later and AJ and Jordin came to it.  I was happy that they could see the kids and the school and some of the work that I do.  After a great lunch with mommy and a little walking around the Mission, we picked up Ella.  This time she was thrilled and had Jordin push her on the swings.

Jordin was pushing AJ and Ella.

In the afternoon, we hung around the house, did some puzzles, danced around and sang some songs around the piano.

Ella and Jordin doing the Green Eggs and Ham puzzle.

Dancing with AJ.

A piano lesson with mama.

This could be an album cover.

That night we had some delicious crab at Scomas and laughed a lot!  The next day, we went over to the Academy of Sciences.  It was not nearly as crowded as it was when we went with grandma and papa.  We were even able to go into the rainforest part (always a huge line) and we were up close with some beautiful butterflies.

WEEEEEEEEE!

Ella walking with AJ and Jordin.

Waiting on line to go into the rain forest.

We’re finally in!  Here is Ella looking around.

Looking for butterflies with mommy.

Ella loves the butterflies!

Ella was having so much fun looking for butterflies.

This is one happy kid.

We actually got Ella to wear jeans today.  She looks like such a big girl.

AJ putting lip gloss on Ella.

Sadly, the trip had to come to an end and AJ and Jordin left this afternoon.  We had a great time with them.  We love you guys.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 4:57 am and is filed under pictures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.