I’m not so into mother’s day, but I do want to wish my mom happy mother’s day just because I love her. I love you mom. Hope tomorrow is a fun day. Let’s see…on Friday night,we met up with a friend of ours who we met through another friend. Tonia and her husband Simon are about to move back to SF. We got to spend some time with Tonia in NY and Ella really hit it off with her. We thought last night’s dinner would be great and it was. Simon Directed “The Bee Movie” – one of Ella’s favorite movies and when we told her that Simon was an import “player” in the movie she was impressed. She looked at Simon and said, “Do you know Barry and Adam bee Simon?” When Simon answered, “Why yes I do”, Ella could hardly believe it. The dinner was a lot of fun and Ella spent most of it sitting between Tonia and Simon.
Ella with Simon and Tonia
Ella and mommy coming home on the train.
Bouncy houses galore! This morning, we went to Tyler’s birthday party. The party was all about bouncy houses. I do know who had more fun, the adults or the kids. Ella loved running and bouncing, but she did not want to go on the slide. I, of course took her down a slide and made her cry.
Here are some shots of Ella running, jumping and climbing. She had a blast.
Here I am jumping
Here we all are having some food after a hard work out.
Here’s the birthday boy Tyler with his parents and with Ella.
I had to go to a work thing this afternoon and when I came home, Ella was a fully dressed ballerina. Here is the ballerina playings some baseball in the hallway.
Check out the swing.
And check out this throw!
After playing ball, we went out to dinner and after dinner, Ella told us that she wanted to go watch Kaboom…traditional fireworks that we coul see in our hood.
Here we all are watching Kaboom shich was beautiful. Ella had her fingers in her ears for most of the time. What a great morning and night.
Happy Mother’s day – happy love for each other day
May 10th, 2009Time flies
May 8th, 2009I can’t believe this week is over…where has the time gone? I feel like we have been super busy this week, but it really wasn’t any different than any other week. Ella has been doing really well. She hasn’t had any accidents since she stopped using her night time diapers. Ella is still using her pacifier to fall asleep. Before we fall asleep, we go in and pull it out of her mouth. Ella went to the dentist last Friday (not sure if I wrote about it) and she did a fantastic job. They took x-rays of her front upper teeth and front bottom teeth to see how her adult teeth were growing in and they seem to be where they belong. It was like looking at a shark’s x-ray. Here are some pictures of Ella this week.
Ella on her way to school Monday morning. Notice the Dora lip gloss that she is sporting.
The next day going to school. Ella told me that she loves this dress. I do too.
Walking on the “balance beam”.
On the playground today. The weather is getting nicer.
At Acme tonight after digging into chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce. It was kind of hard for Ella to fall asleep tonight…I wonder why.
Playing frozen statue on a walk.
Staying warm in mommy’s sweater.
A very happy Belle/Ella.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!
May 3rd, 2009Today is my mom’s birthday. Happy birthday grandma! We love you so much. Hope you have a beautiful day. Can’t wait to see you.
Fun, fun, fun
May 3rd, 2009We have been super busy these past few days, and having a lot of fun. On Thursday night, we met up with Phyllis, Naomi and Michael for dinner to celebrate Naomi getting into Berkeley. Ella had so much fun and went to dinner in her leotard, tutu and silver shoes. Max’s (the restaurant) had a mirror and a railing that Ella used as a ballet bar. Here are some pictures of Ella doing her thing.
Ella gave us each an individual lesson.
Ella and Naomi putting french fries in a glass.
On Friday night, Helen and Ron went out to dinner and we had a special dinner and movie night with Stella and Juliet. They came over wearing Cinderella dresses and of course Ella wanted one. I pulled out one that I claimed to have thrown away. The three girls had a great night together and ended the night watching Wall-E. There is a video at the end of the post showing their dance moves.
Nothing like a good Backyardigans episode during dinner.
Today, we started the day at the Children’s Day School Country Fair. It was raining and I didn’t take any pictures. We had fun for the hour that we were there. After the Country Fair, we came home and Ella changed into her sparkly dress to go meet her buddies for a modern dance performance. It’s Juliet’s birthday on Monday and Helen planned a special day for Juliet and her friends. We met up with Helen, Ron, Stella, Juliet, and their big girl friends Ella and Julia. Our Ella was in awe of big Ella and wanted to hold her hand all day. The kids did a great job watching the performance and when it was over, we went to the Farimont for high tea. It was a lot of fun and tasted really good. The girls had a blast running around the Farimont. Here are a whole bunch of pictures.
The Kim/Arena family crossing the street to meet us at the Yeurba Buena theater. Ella and Julia are with them.
Juliet, Ella and Ella.
Getting ready for the performance.
Ella was very excited.
The girls after the performance.
Ella climbed up here for a picture with the colorful Keith Haring sculpture.
Ella and Stella fooling around at the Fairmont.
Running around on the rooftop garden.
Beautiful Ella.
The two Ellas.
Beautiful girls having a fun day out.
Officer Amy visits Children’s Day School
April 30th, 2009Today our friend Amy visited Ella’s class with her partner Officer Dagget. A while back in Ella’s class, the kids were playing around and Ella said that she was going to be a firefighter and one of the boys said that girls couldn’t be firefighters. One of the boys in the class actually has a mom and dad who are firefighters, but this obviously didn’t make a lasting impression. Ella came home and told us that she couldn’t be a firefighter because she was a girl and we had a really good talk about it. We let her know that girls and boys can do whatever they want to do as long as they work hard at it. This conversation gave us the idea to have Amy come into Ella’s class to show the example of a woman being a police officer. They did a great job with the class and the class really loved the presentation. Ella was pretty good – a little spacy but fine. When it was time to go outside and check out the police car, Ella became very sad and told us that she wanted us to stay with her. She wouldn’t go and check out the police car and she wouldn’t take a picture with Amy and Ariana. Sometimes it’s too much for her when we’re in the classroom. All in all, the visit was really successful and the Leaping Lizards thank you Officer Amy and Officer Ariana.
Officer Ariana and Officer Amy walking into the school armed with coloring books, stickers, tattoos and pencils.
Leaping Lizard circle time listening to Officer Amy.
Ella actually having a good moment out by the car.
Officer Amy and Officer Ariana after the presentation. They made it! Preschoolers can be exhausting.
Ella is taking charge…
April 29th, 2009In the past week, Ella has made 2 decisions on her own. The first one is that she decided that she doesn’t need a night time diaper anymore. One night, she simply said, “I can sleep in my underwear, I don’t need a diaper” and that was it. So far, no accidents. Her other decision was about her pacifiers. On Sunday night, she took a handful of pacifiers, walked to her bathroom, opened the garbage can and threw them away. “I am a big girl, I don’t need my binkies anymore”. Well…that was a really great idea and she is working on it, but Ella had trouble falling asleep and woke up in the middle of the night for 2 nights. Tonight, I gave her a pacifier to fall asleep because we all need some sleep. Ella told me that the binky fairy needs to come soon to take the last binky away. Maybe we’ll try it on the weekend. It’s so amazing that Ella feels confident enough to make her own life choices. We love it.
This picture is from last week when the weather was beautiful. We were out with the Kim/Arenas and stopped by the ballgame. Sunny and Ella went into the free area and watched a few batters.
Ella calls the steps in our building the secret stairwell and sometimes likes to take it in the morning on the way to school.
Ella in one of her crazy getups onour way out to dinner.
Fun with chopsticks at Nama.
Just want to give a happy birthday shout out to Nikki B. Happy Birthday! Hope you have a beautiful day.
Another Sunday party
April 27th, 2009We have had quite a fun and busy weekend. Today, I took Ella to Fiona’s birthday party. Fiona is one of Ella’s classmate. The party was great…a lot of kids running around and having a blast.
Ella and some of her buddies from school. That’s Ella, Tegan, Brickelle, Fiona and Sammy.
Ella waiting her turn next to the birthday girl to play pin the tail on the fairy.
Afterthe party, we met Kate, Jen and Karen for brunch. Ella loved hanging out with the girls.
Sunny and Ella brushing their doggies.
An incedible happy day and night for Ella.
April 26th, 2009Today, Helen and I went out to the Puma outlet and Sunny had to do some work so Ron watched all 3 girls. He did what every great dad would do – he inflated the bouncy house!
He also had the kids playing with special Tinkerbell glitter glue and of course let them dress up in their favorite princess outfits.
Does this look incredible or what?
At night, Sunny and I went to a party hosted by 2 parents from Ella’s class and Helen and Ron let Ella be their third child for the night. Ella was so happy to be able to spend such quality time with the Kim/Arena’s. Thank you so much you guys – you are the greatest. After a wonderful dinner, they all watched Wall-E. Ella was the first to fall asleep during the movie.
Beautiful balmy SF night
April 22nd, 2009It was about 80º tonight – very rare for San Francisco. We had dinner behind the ballpark at the Java House and then met Stella, Juliet, Helen and Ron for some ice cream. It was a great night and the Giants won!
Beautiful friends out for a stroll.
The girls having an ice cream party.
If you couldn’t tell…Ella loves to jump!
Beautiful ballpark, beautiful night.
Happy Birthday Uncle Michael
April 22nd, 2009Yesterday (I am actually writing this on Tuesday, Michael’s birthday) was Michael’s birthday and I wanted to post a video message from Ella. Happy birthday Michael. We love you!