Life With Ella

Ella was at camp at school all week because her school had spring break and we had to work.  She had a really good time at camp.  Today, they got to break open the piñata that they made on Tuesday.  Sunny came early to get Ella for t-ball and Ms. Ngoc let Sunny take one big swing at the piñata.  None of the kids were very successful at breakingit open, so when Sunny took her big swing and all the stuff fell out, they were super impressed!  Ella was chanting, “Go mommy go, go mommy go.”  It was a very exciting part of the afternoon.  We took Ella to t-ball practice and she is getting pretty good at running the bases.  She still spaces out when she is in the field.  Today she picked a flower and did some yoga.  Tonight, the Kim/Arenas came over and we watched The Princess and the Frog.  KJ is crawling all over the place and pulling himself up to stand.  He is such a cute kid and we all had a lot of fun. Ella at T-ball practice.  I’ll get some more shots tomorrow at the game. Ella is getting a lot more coordinated and the more coordinated she is, the more stuff she wants to do.  Here she is climbing her first fence all by herself. The girls watching The Princess and the Frog, eating popcorn and brownies. I just had to put these 2 pics in that I found from 2007 of the girls.  It’s so incredible to be able to watch them growing up together.The beautiful Mr. KJ.I’ll give this guy a year to be taller than Ella.

A few funny things happened tonight.  First, we were having dinner with friends and one of them had a boy who was about 3 1/2.  The mom was taking him out her car for a minute and Ella wanted to go.  Sunny wanted her to stay in the restaurant and Ella was not listening.  Sunny said (in a stern voice)…”Ella, do not go outside”.  Ella said, “But I want to” over and over and over.  Then Sunny said, “I know that you want to but you need to stay here right now.  Please come over her.”  “Ella says, “I don’t want to” Sunny says, “Come over here.”  This went on for a minute or so and then Ella looked at Sunny and said, “If you keep saying ‘come over here’, they are going to kick us out of the restaurant.  Sunny turned away so she wouldn’t laugh.  Instead she started counting.  Ella then said, “If you start counting in the restaurant, they are going to kick you out”.  Pretty funny stuff.  We all went back to Blush and met up with the Kim/Arenas.  The people who work there are super sweet and they always give the kids cups filled with gummy worms and tiny gummy bears.  The kids had a feast and were pretty wired after dessert.  It was pretty late when we came home (late for Ella is anywhere past 8 because it takes her at least an hour to fall asleep).  She went up, brushed her teeth, put on her nightgown and then wanted to listen to a book called “Skippy John Jones”.  She likes to act the book out.  At one point, skippy john jones is jumping on his bed. I told Ella that she could jump on her bed when Skippy John Jones did, but Ella’s plan was to jump during the whole story.  Since jumping makes Ella even more happy and excited, I had to squash her plan.  Then she decided that she wanted to take this box off of her shelf that had some seashells and incense in it.  I told her that she could not get the box because it was bed time.  She told me that she didn’t like my answer no and that it made no sense.  I wanted her to get a little clarity, so I said, “If you were at school and it was time to do something like nap time or art time and you asked Ms. Alicia if you could do something else and she said no, what would you say?  She looked at me and said, “I would say, OK”.  She realized what she said and told me, “Mama, you don’t make sense.”  Oh well, what are you gonna do?  Ella asked me to do something else and I said, “No”.  She then told me that I needed to work on saying yes instead of no.  I told her that  we would have to work together on it.  We are in so much trouble when Ella is 10 or 11. These are a few photos that were taken on Sunday by the babysitter of one of Ella’s classmates.  She is getting her masters at the Academy of Art in photography and was looking for kids to photograph to represent the cycle of life.  She’s going to give me the whole disc next week so stand by.  Goodnight everyone.

I don’t have too much to say –  it’s late and I have to go to sleep but I had to post this picture and a little video clip.  This is how Ella came downstairs dressed after her shower tonight. She was loving her outfit so much.  Then Ella asked us to put on the Broadway soundtrack of Annie and proceeded to entertain us while Sunny was making dinner.

Lately, only with us, Ella has been fake crying when she doesn’t get her way.  Sometimes this fake crying leads to real crying and sometimes it just goes away.  Tonight, we were getting ready to go to dinner and Ella had one of her fake crying fits because I told her that it was cold out and she needed to wear a jacket.  She wanted to wear a “cape” – really just a jacket tied around her neck.  She did her fake crying thing and then calmed down when we told her that she could wear a jacket and then a “cape” too.  This led to a conversation about things we need to work on.  I told Ella that she needed to work on finding other ways to express herself when she didn’t get her way.  I told her that crying just wasn’t working.  Then I said that I would work on getting less frustrated with Ella when she was reacting to not getting her way.  Sunny said that she would work on being more patient and that she would work on not grabbing things from Ella.  Ella also said that she would try to share better (she actually has been doing a great job with sharing).  That was the end of the conversation and then we went to dinner.  We had a great dinner at Nama and then went to Blush for some yogurt and baseball watching.  It was great hanging out there.  Ella was having fun with one of the people who worked there.  Ella was showing her movies on my iTouch – movies of Ella when she was much younger.  It was getting late and we needed to head home.  Ella wasn’t very happy about leaving.  She kept putting on more movies to watch – even after we gave her a one more movie warning.  She didn’t listen so I took the iTouch away from her and we headed home.  As we were walking out, Ella was trying to walk and watch movies.  I told her to turn the iTouch off and she wouldn’t listen so I took it from her.  She became pretty pissed at me but I just put it in my pocket and kept walking.  She kept asking me for the iTouch and I wouldn’t give it to her.  When we got home, I told Ella that if she came up with me, brushed her teeth and got into her pajamas that I would give her the iTouch and she could watch 2 movies.  She was giving me a hard time about going upstairs and finally said, “You grabbed the iTouch from me and that made me angry”.  I then said, “I wouldn’t have grabbed it if you would have stopped watching it.  Watching and walking is dangerous.”  Then she said, “Well…I think that you are going to have to work on not grabbing.”  It was so funny.  I told her that I would work hard on not grabbing and I thanked her for pointing that out to me.  Little Ella is growing up!  No pictures today – just a ballet video.

Today was a strange day weather wise.  It was pretty cloudy for most of the day and the sun was fighting to come through.  It was a little rainy and misty and then it stopped – just in time for opening night for the Giants.  We went to the game with Amy and we all had a great time – except the Giants who lost.  We stayed until the end of the game to see the fireworks.  Ella was amazing during the game and magical during the fireworks.  It was a great night.Sunny, Amy and Ella at Mijita before the game. Here we are in the beginning of the game.  Ella had a churro, cotton candy and a hot chocolate.  We were trying to keep her awake for the fireworks.I think this was after the cotton candy. Ella and the fireworks.  We all loved it, but watching Ella made it so much more meaningful.