Life With Ella

I haven’t written in a few days.  Ella has been great.  Nothing new to report.  There is a big MLK assembly tomorrow at school and Ella’s class is participating with their 8th grade buddies.  Stay tuned tomorrow for a video and some pics.  We did a video chat with grandma tonight and she is making a remarkable recovery!  Grandma drove for the first time today.  Ella loved hearing that news. A little sleepy – Ella and Ann heading to the elevator to go to school.  Check out the cool sweatshirt. Ella drawing in her new cool book that AJ sent today.

So Ella’s fantastic weekend started at the Kim/Arena’s house on Friday night… on Saturday, Ella went to Taekwondo and then went to Brickelle’s for a sleep over.  Ella was so excited about sleeping at Brickelle’s house.  She even told her Taekwondo teacher about it!  Ella and Brickelle had a blast and thanks to Akilah, I have lots of photos to post.  The report from the Bixler house was that the kids were great –  they went to sleep at around 10:00 and woke up at 5:15!  That’s way too early!  Ella kind of struggled through the day today because she was so tired but we had a really nice brunch with Julie and Gilana and then had some serious hallway playing with KJ, Stella and Juliet.  Tomorrow we are going to the zoo with the Kim/Arena clan.  Ella is excited to hang with her buddies and to see the wandering peacocks. Before Taekwondo, Ella was packing her Hannah Montana backpack. Beautiful little toughie. Ella is not as aggressive throwing punches as she is with her kicks.  She had a blast in class. Pure happiness.  Somehow, Ella got lip gloss on her eye lids and her cheeks. Ella loves Brickelle so much that she actually let her take her braids out! Costume change! Ella and Brickelle very early this morning.  They both look so happy. Skateboarding Tiana. Teeth brushing in the morning. Bak at home with incredible focus on 7 hours of sleep.At Crossroads with sweet Gilana.

There was a confirmed case of lice in Ella’s class which meant that Alicia had to bag up and wash all the napping blankets and stuffed animals.  Since Ann (the hippo) comes back and forth from school every day, she had to get washed in the second round.  When I picked Ella up today, Ann was still in the dryer and wasn’t ready for us to take her home.  I asked Ella if it was ok with her that we left Ann at school at night and that she would sleep with her other Ann tonight.  Ella looked at me and said, “OOOKKK”.  What progress!  Ella was in a really good mood after school.   Ella and I had a nutella and strawberry crepe and then came home and hung out.  Ella is hanging out with the girls and boys next door tomorrow night and then on Saturday night, she has a sleepover with Brickelle.  I don’t know if she’s going to be able to wait until Saturday!  Ella is a happy kid. Ella in class this morning with her special Alicia anti-lice do. Playing around with the beach ball this afternoon. Concentration! I took this from the Leaping Lizard blog.  I thought this was terrific and it’s true as far as I know!

I guess it’s lice season here in SF or at least it’s lice season at Ella’s school.  Alicia has been checking heads for the last 2 days.  So far Ella doesn’t have any but ya never know.  Just thinking about it makes my head itchy.  Wednesdays after school are really special for Ella. Stella comes over to our house to hang with Ella.  Ella took an early shower today so that she would have a full hour with Stella.  Juliet also came over after the lesson so all three of them got to play today.  I overheard them reenacting a scene from the Madeline movie.  Too cute. Ella getting her head checked by the multi-talented Alicia this morning. Ella was just finishing up telling her classmate that she had a short sleeve shirt on under her long sleeve shirt.  For some reason, Ella thought that was so cool. Ella was showing me a little routine that they do with Spanish commands. Ella’s window art. Practicing upper case and lower case letters.

We went to the Academy of Science today and had a really fun time.  We started in this igloo house thing and learned about the arctic and then spent a lot of time downstairs in the aquarium part.  We finally went to the planetarium and saw the latest movie in the dome.  Ella was a little nervous – she held both of our hands during the film.  I got a little freaked out because I started thinking about when the earth will not exist.  It’s all too much to think about as far as I’m concerned.  We stayed in tonight – before dinner I gave Ella her first piano lesson.  I started teaching Juliet last week and Ella really wanted a lesson too.  We planned hers for Friday but then she had a lot of plans with friends.  Tonight, Ella asked for her lesson.  She did a fantastic job.  Ella was so focused and really seemed to understand what I was teaching her. Ella and her new Hannah Montana shades. Helping us take the recycling downstairs. Ella and mommy under water. Ella touching some starfish and sea urchins. Ella bumped into one of her classmates Rosie and they hung out in front of the big glass wall. Ella doing some tricks with her new orange furry friend. Ella’s first piano lesson.

I was gone all morning doing volunteer work at Ella’s school.  Sunny and Ella met up with the Kim/Arenas for a bike ride and lunch at Maria’s.  It was super cold outside today but the kids had fun playing around at the little park behind the ballpark.  Ella had Taekwondo today – first week back from a 2 week break.  Ella did a great job and towards the end of the class, one of the teachers asked Ella to show her group how to do an axe kick.  If Ella sticks with this, she can be really great at it!  Tonight we had dinner with Debby and Toby at Nama and then they came back here and watched Despicable Me with Ella.  Ella loves those little yellow guys in the movie.  She speaks their “language” around the house.  It’s kind of cute and kind of annoying. Happy Ella getting the sillies out. Ella and her new assistant instructor. A little meditation at the end of class. Getting ready to go out in the cold.