Today was a beautiful day and we spent all of it outside. Ella’s school had it’s annual Country Fair today. Sunny and I volunteered to work a few shifts at different games and Ella just played hard for the entire event. This is the third year that we have gone and the first year that we knew that Ella would be safe and happy without us right next to her the whole time. After the Country Fair, Ella had a T-ball game. All of the kids from the team were at the Country Fair so the 3:00 game had a bunch of exhausted kids (and parents), but they still had a lot of fun. Ella actually fielded a ball today and once she made the play she yelled, “Mommy, mama, I got a ball! I got a ball!” It was really cute. Here are some pictures from today’s events.
Ella and one of her friends Layla hanging out in the school garden.
Mommy and Ella waiting in line for face painting.
Pretty incredible rainbow butterfly!
Ella and her 7th grade buddy Casi.
Ella and her friend Emmi chatting.
Ella and her friend Clark climbing the structure.
I think at this point, Ella was spinning around in circles.
Mommy helped with coaching today.
Batter up!
Ella just having a lot of fun.
Fun filled day
May 2nd, 2010The end of a long week
May 1st, 2010Today while Ella was at school, Sunny and I were at Pacific Primary (Stella and Juliet’s school) as their special friends. We had a sweet morning with the girls and were honored to be their special friends. Here are a few pictures from today.
A frame that Stella and I made in its early stages.
Sunny and Juliet during a musical performance by Stella’s class.
Me and Stella at the end of the assembly.
Here is a shot of Ella this morning in her classroom. The class has been “raising” some silk worms over the past few months. They started out really small and now look at them – they are huge! Soon they will build their cocoons and turn into moths. Ella is totally into these worms.
Another beautiful hairstyle by Ms. Alicia.
Ella enjoying a salted caramel ice cream cone at Bi-Rite after school today.
Ella and her buddy Maya at the playground before t-ball practice. CHeck out the video to see Ella getting better at the monkey bars.
For some reason, Ella thinks you need to squat down in order to field a ball.
Batting practice.
Happiness.
We met up with one of Ella’s old classmates and her parents at Los Jarritos for dinner. Here are Ella and Maya at the jukebox. Maya told me that she has been picking Ella up since pre-school. Very cute. A whole bunch of other CDS families showed up after t-ball practice. It was lots of fun.We came home from dinner and Ella ran into the house, changed into her pajamas and went over to Stella and Juliet’s to do Friday night movie night. They watched Madeline again and Ella was really happy to be with her buddies, Helen, Ron and KJ!Here is the video…
It’s all about Broadway showtunes
April 30th, 2010Ella has been singing her heart out since she was able to speak. Her favorite show right now is Annie and she loves belting the tunes from Annie. Last week, I played her a song from Les Miserables – “Castle On A Cloud”. She loved the song and after playing it about 5 times for her, she had it memorized. Tonight’s videos are Ella singing “Maybe” from Annie and “Castle On A Cloud”. Ella was dancing around her room and singing and I had to film it. She is too cute. She loves singing so much. She really gets into the songs. Today when I picked up Ella from school, she greeted me with a beautiful hairstyle. Looks like Ms. Alicia is back in action. Ella looked great and she loved it. When we were driving home, I asked Ella what her favorite part of the day was and she said, ‘When Ms. Alicia did my hair.” Those moments are very special to Ella – unlike when I do her hair and she yells and screams. I love that she loves when Ms. Alicia does her hair and gives her special attention. Here are a few shots of the reverse braid style…
Just beautiful. If we could only get her over here at 7:30 every morning…
Later on in the evening, Helen gave Ella a very special gift. She gave her a peacock umbrella and a peacock pair of boots. Ella loved it. She can’t wait for it to rain.Now for the movies…
How I love life with Ella
April 29th, 2010Ella is growing up day by day. Right now her sleeping really sucks. Even thought we get her in bed by 8:30 the latest, she doesn’t fall asleep until around 10:00. It’s not the biggest problem in the world, but we think that its important that she gets at least one more hour of sleep at night. Waking her up in the morning can be tough. I depend on her stuffed animals to wake her up in the morning. Some of them are pretty funny and make her laugh – especially Tweety who is a wise ass. Anyway, we’ll see if this is something that lasts or just another developmental stage. Ella had an amazing swimming lesson today and I have a video to share with all of you. It looks like she is beginning to do breast stroke, she can float on her back alone, she can flip from front to back, she’s working on her freestyle and side breathing and today she learned how to dive down and retrieve an object. Really cool stuff. Enjoy the movie.
Ballet and Basketball
April 28th, 2010Ella is a determined person. When she sees something that she wants to do, she keeps practicing and practicing until she gets it. At school, she sees kids doing things and if it’s something that she wants to do too, she keeps trying. There is this bar that the kids hang from on the “structure” area of the yard at school. Some kids are tall enough and coordinated enough to get up there and hang upside down. Ella isn’t really even tall enough to reach the bar and yet she wants to hang upside down so badly. I’ve seen her try to do it – to try to climb up the pole while hanging with her hands but she’s not strong or tall enough to do it. She’ll get it soon and I can’t wait to see her do it. Another thing that she’s been watching kids do is dribble a basketball. She has been watching kids dribble at school and talks about it all the time. We got her a basketball last week and she has been practicing. She’s getting pretty good. Check out the video at the end of this entry. Tonight, Ella and I had dinner together at Nama while Sunny was at a Giants board meeting. Ella ate like a champion and then we met up with Stella and Juliet in the lobby to practice dribbling the basketball. The girls had a lot of fun. I have a lot more to say but I’m tired… more tomorrow.
This is from Monday night…Ella Sunny and I were playing charades. This is a shot of Ella trying to figure out Sunny’s word.
Ella tonight at Nama.
Chopsticks and a spoon!
Dribbling…
Passing…
Eating keys…
Looks like Ella is getting ready to take a shot.
Stella all dressed up in her Belle dress going for the ball.
Ella and Juliet having lots of fun.Now for the movies…first Ballet from Monday – Sunny got to go to the class while I was at the doctor, and then a quick basketball movie…
A beautiful day in Golden Gate Park
April 26th, 2010Today was another gorgeous day and we spent most of it outside. Ella told us that she wanted to go to Golden Gate Park and go on the pedal boats. We thought it sounded like a great idea so we did just that! We went around Stowe Lake and then Ella rode her bicycle around the lake again! We all got some great exercise today. After the park, we ended up at a little park close to where we live. Ella has been really into dribbling basketballs lately. I think a lot of kids are doing it at school and she loves a challenge. She has been practicing and getting pretty good. After our basketball game, we had dinner at Amicis. It was really a wonderful day.
Ella with her basketball. She has been practicing dribbling in the house…good thing nobody lives under us!
A rare shot of the 3 of us. The guys at the boat dock took this. Ella had her popcorn ready to feed the ducks.
ELla was throwing the popcorn left and right . The ducks weren’t getting it though…
The seagulls were! Here is one on our boat who we were trying to chase away.
Ella biking through Golden Gate Park.
Ella spotted these cute goslings on her bike ride.
We warned her not to get too close. This goose looked like she was ready to kick some ass.
Ella also spotted this gopher.
Ella was so curious about the gopher. She had no fear.
T-ball and baseball
April 25th, 2010Ella had a t-ball game this afternoon. She is really funny – she has a great time, loves being with her school buddies, loves being outside, but is probably the most un-focused that I have ever seen her. She actually did a pretty good job today. She is completely focused when she is batting and now knows how to run the bases, but once she in on the field, she starts playing in the dirt and talking to the other kids. The whole experience is pretty fun to watch. Tonight, we went to the Giants game. The Giants won and we stayed for the entire game. Ella was terrific! It was a super fun night.
T-ball!
Ella in her Giants getup.
Ella insisted that we take this huge finger thing to the game.
We bumped into some of our Community Fund buddies and Ella played this game and won a Tim Lincecum poster.
The iTouch is a great tool to keep Ella happy at the games. Here she is learning how to write owl.
The beautiful orange lit trees in front of the ballpark.
Finding Ann safe and sound
April 24th, 2010Last night, Sunny wrote an e-mail to Alicia explaining about Ann and asking her if she could put Ann on her desk in the morning so Ella could see that she was OK during the night. Well…the incredible Ms. Alicia did more than that. When we came into the classroom this morning, Ella found Ann on Ms. Alicia’s desk like this…
It was such a beautiful thing to see Ella so relieved that Ann was OK and so happy that Ms. ALicia took care of her. It’s late and Ella is sleeping right now. I took this picture about 5 minutes ago. Ann and Ella are safe and sound and under the covers.
Here are a few sweet pictures from today at Ella’s school.
This one is actually from early this morning in the elevator.
Ella checking out the silk worms in her classroom.
Brickelle, Ella and Casi at the sutainability fair.
Ella and Brickelle with the penguins they just made with Casi.Ella and I went to bi-rite after school for ice cream. Ella ate most of her chocolate ice cream and then finished my salted caramel. After ice cream, Ella had t-ball practice. Ella did a pretty good job today – I think she may have a future in being a groundskeeper. We’ll see. Tonight Ella went to Stella and Juliet’s and watched Madeline and had a great time. Sunny and I went across the street to see some friends at Mijita. The Giants won tonight, it’s the weekend and life is beautiful.
Leaving Ann at school
April 23rd, 2010If you have been following this, you’ll know about Ann…the free hippo that Ella got in NJ while on her first outing to Toys R Us with grandma and papa. Ella loves Ann so much. She sleeps with her every night. Lately, she has been bringing Ann to school for nap time. This afternoon, we forgot to bring Ann home from school. Ella realized this just as she was getting ready for bed. She began to cry and cry and say, “I want Ann NOW”. It was really sad and really sweet at the same time. I quickly pulled out one of her other stuffed animals – a very big headed Tweety and said in my worst Tweety voice, “Hey Ewa – why awe you so sad?” She looked at Tweety and said, “I am sad because we left Ann at school and I want her here. I sleep with her every night and I miss her.” She began to cry again. Then Sunny talked to her through another stuffed animal Dog Dog. Dog Dog was saying that she has been with Ella since she was little and that she would sleep with her. Ella talked to Dog Dog too but just really wanted Ann. I suggested that she write Ann a letter that she could give to her in the morning at school and Ella really got into the idea. Here it is…
She told Ann that she loved her so much and that she missed her so much. How beautiful is that? After Ella wrote the note, she felt all better and went to sleep. We also told her that if Alicia got to the classroom before her, maybe she would take Ann out of Ella’s cubby and put her on Alicia’s desk. I’m sure Ella is going to be so happy to see Ann in the morning.
10 beautiful years together
April 22nd, 2010Today Sunny and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. Happy Anniversary Sunny. I love you. We told Ella that it was our anniversary this morning and she was really into it. Today when Ella came back from swimming, Ella made this for us…
The three of us went out to dinner at the Crab House to celebrate. Ella ate like a champion, she had clams, crab, fried artichokes and noodles. For dessert Ella had chocolate mousse cake. Either Ella was super hungry after swimming or she is going through a serious growth spurt. Ella also has a cold again. It is so red under her nose. At least now she is putting vaseline on it. She used to go crazy if we even tried to touch under her nose. It was a really sweet night full of a lot of love. I also want to wish Uncle Michael a Happy Birthday! Sorry we don’t have a video for you. Wishing you a beautiful year Michael. Lots of love to you.
We took this tonight with the self timer. Look at Ella’s red nose. Poor baby.
Ella took this one of us…(after she dropped the camera and kind of broke it).
I took this picture on Tuesday night. Ella wanted to wear her old rat costume. It may have had something to do with Ella and her classmates spotting a rat in the garden at school. Wildlife in SF. Ella’s class is celebrating Earth Day and Alicia asked the parents to send the kids to school with stuff that we recycle. Ella brought in a small bag of stuff to school this morning. Tonight, Ella said, “Ms. Alicia told me that I brought great stuff for our art project”. She then decided that she wanted to collect stuff around the house for tomorrow morning. She was very cute with her brown bag going through the garbage and asking us for magazines. Ella is really into school.