Life With Ella

Today was a beautiful day.  We spent a lot of it outside.  Ella rode her scooter over to the Java House and we had lunch with Kate.  After lunch, we played around in the park and had a lot of fun being outside.  Tonight we had dinner at Pasta P with Debby and Toby.  Ella said that it was the best dinner ever.  Ella says this a lot and we love her for it.  She is such an enthusiastic kid and so much fun to be with.

Having fun in the elevator.

Tag…you’re it.

Cooperating with me while I try to get the perfect jumping picture.

I think these are pretty good.

Kate and Ella on the sandbox boat.

Mommy and Ella meeting at the top of the red thing.

My turn!

Today we met Brickelle, her parents and younger brother Brooklyn at a park near our place.  The weather was beautiful and we all had a great time.  After the park we had lunch at Extreme Pizza.  It was great to watch Ella and Brickelle running around, playing, laughing and being completely independent of us.  They have a life totally separate from us at school and you could really tell from how they were playing today.  In the early evening, I took Ella swimming.  We spent most of the time in the deep end where Ella let go of me and was playing around under water.  She is getting so confident in the water.  She told me that she wanted to be on a swimming team and that she wanted to win a race.

Ella decided that she wanted to wear pants today…go figure.

Brickelle climbing the ropes.

Beautiful Brooklyn.

Soaring down the slide.

Brooklyn greeted Ella at the bottom of the slide.

Hanging out.

Jumping around on the concrete furniture.

Brickelle, Brooke and Ella playing “Red Light Green Light 1 2 3” with Sunny.

Taking turns on the scooter.

Look at these beautiful girls!

Ella has graduated from her toddler bed to this beautiful “big girl” bed. The bed was a gift from grandma and papa and Ella loves it.  Now we just have to fix up the rest of her room to a “big girl” room and we are all set.  Ella said something about wanting a huge rainbow the wall above her bed.  Here are 2 pictures of Ella while she was on the phone thanking grandma and papa.

Here are some more great pictures of Ella during her lesson today.  The teacher, Megan said that Ella was going to be a great swimmer and she is truly impressed that Ella remembers what she learned in the previous lesson.  She spent 10 minutes in the shallow part of the pool and the other 20 minutes in the deeper part.  Ella is starting to do her arms in a freestyle motion.Doing a great job in the pool.Playing around in the quad after swimming.

As you can tell from the past few months of pictures, Ella loves wearing dresses…sun dresses, long sleeved dresses, princess dresses and fancy dresses.  She likes to wear tights under the dresses but she’s not into wearing pants or jeans.  She does wear the occasional sweatpants every once in a while but it’s rare.  I got Ella a skirt the other day and she told me that she wanted to wear it under her dress.  She said that shirts and skirts weren’t pretty.  This morning, Stella came over to say hi and she was wearing a skirt and a shirt.  Ella decided that she wanted to wear a skirt and shirt too.  When we went upstairs to find an outfit, she went a little coo coo because she wanted to wear the same shirt that Stella was wearing…a Lucky Kid lucky cat shirt.  She doesn’t have that shirt so it took a while to get an outfit together.  When she finally decided what to wear, she loved her outfit. The 3 of us went to Noe Valley to pick up a round challah for Yom Kippur dinner and we also had lunch at a cute diner on 24th street.  Tonight, Becca and Debby came over for dinner.  It was a sweet dinner and we had a lot of fun.  Ella was a huge help – she kept asking what she could do at the end of the meal so I let her help me wash the dishes.  She did a great job.  I hope that everyone who is fasting today has an easy fast.

Ella jumping in her new outfit.

Look at Ella – growing up right before our eyes.

A beautiful hug at lunch.

Raspberries on the finger.

Hanging out on a stoop with mommy and eating a cupcake.  Life is beautiful.

Having fun before lighting the candles.

Drinking our grape juice after the blessing over the wine.

Washing the dishes.

There is a movie to be made but I am way too tired.  Ella was absolutely adorable in class today.  She really loves it and she looks beautiful.  Here are a bunch of pictures from the class.  Movie tomorrow.  I also want to give a shout out to Ms Alicia.  Thanks for the beautiful ballerina bun.  You’re the greatest.