Life With Ella

With the amazing help from Helen, Ron and Nikki B, we pulled off another really fun birthday party.  We had Ella’s third birthday party at My Gym and Ella was so excited.  It started with Ella, Stella and Juliet and then Ella watched her school buddies come in one by one.  We also had some old friends from the neighborhood.  The kids were all fantastic.  Ella was like a new kid at My Gym.  She did all of the activities and danced her little heart out.  I have so much footage and not so much time before I have to go to sleep so I will just put in some photos and I will work on the movie tomorrow.  We ended up back at our place after the party and Amy gave Ella her very first princess dress (we have been avoiding this for 3 years). Ella was in heaven and Stella and Juliet changed into theirs too.  After a lot of playing in the house, we went to Moki’s for dinner where Ella passed out at around 6:30.  What a great day and night.

Ella happy and up on her toes as she gets ready for her party.

Jumping on the trampoline with Juliet.

Our beautiful wild child.

Getting ready to do warm-up exercises.

Backwards on the slide.

Stella getting ready to jump into the ball pit.

Mommy helping Ella to rock climb.  Ella is saying, “no photos please”… just kidding.

Getting ready to conquer the piñatas (which were duds), but Mommy and Helen came to the rescue and ripped them open!

Playing a game led by Luis.

Being pulled out on the birthday sled.

Ella and some of her friends.

It’s cupcake time!

Waiting for the candles to be lit.

The 3 of us.

Hanging with mommy.

Amy is the guilty party who went to the Disney store and bought Ella’s dress (and shoes and crown).  Oy vey.

I look at this picture and think…”CRAZY!”

Playing catch with princess Juliet.

Setting up for a fastball.

Ella has let Nikki B put her to bed for the past 2 nights.  It’s super sweet.  Today, we hung around the house – wanted Ella to lay low and be healthy for her birthday party tomorrow.  In the early afternoon, Ella and I went over to see Sunny who was at an event for work.  It was an empowerment celebration for the survivors of domestic violence.  It was a really beautiful event and Ella had a great time with the kids in the playroom.  You can really tell that she’s in pre-school and learning to socialize.  Tonight we had a great dinner at Nama with Becca, Amy and Kate.  Ella had a blast.  When we came home, we baked cupcakes for the big party tomorrow.

Onour way to the event to meet mommy.

Holding hands with Nikki B on the way to dinner.

Having fun in the lobby.

Little sprinkle face.  Ella ate a bunch of sprinkles while I baked the cupcakes.  Kate was entertained by Ella’s sprinkle consumption.

Today Alicia called us about 1/2 hour into the school day and told us that Ella felt really warm and that she should really go home.  Sunny picked her up and took her home.  Ella had a fever.  She stayed home and relaxed for the whole day – took a nap and then was a different kid by 7:30 while we were stuffing her piñatas for her birthday party on Sunday.  She was so excited and happy.  Nikki B has been here for the past few days and we are all having a lot of fun.  Ella has been having a blast with her.  We have not taken any pictures yet – but I’m sure I’ll have some great ones tomorrow.  Ella had one complete week without accidents.  Alicia is the greatest!  What an amazing move with the stars and gum.  Ella loves chewing gum and although I can’t handle the chomping, she looks so cute.  Here are a few pictures from yesterday and today.

Ella has 2 jobs – going to the bathroom and being the attendance helper.

Hanging on the yard.

More balancing.

Not feeling so well this morning.

Feeling a lot better.

Dancing around.

Writing in the journal that KK sent for her birthday.

I couldn’t post on Tuesday night because I couldn’t get onto wordpress.  I guess there were millions of bloggers doing their election blogs.  Ella woke up on Tuesday morning and asked me her usual question, “mama – is it warm out?” and I told her that it wasn’t.  Then she said, “I have to wear pants and I want to wear my coat that I wore last night”.  I told her that that would be great.  Then she said, “I want to wear my Obama shirt – Obama is going to win”.  She had no idea that it was election day, but I guess we have been talking about it so much that something sunk in.  Well – she was right and we are really happy.  Last night, Helen, Ron and the girls came over and we watched Obama win and the girls played their little hearts out.  We were very upset about Prop 8 winning.  In time, maybe we will see that change too.

Ella has been accident free at school for the past 3 days.  She loves getting gum after school.  She is so cute just standing there chewing it with this proud look on her face.  Alicia’s plan is working incredibly well so far.  I also think it’s a relief to Ella that she’s not having accidents and that we’re not bothering her about going to the bathroom.

Alicia took this picture of Ella sometime in September.  Ella had gone to the bathroom and then was so excited to wash her hands, she forgot to pull up her pants and underwear!

Ella representing!  If anyone is interested in this shirt, you can get it at www.theressomethingaboutbarry.com

Sunny made these signs for Ron to hold on election night outside of the Cal Train station.  Ron couldn’t make it out of work early enough, so Helen held Ron’s sign!  Thank you so much for supporting us and trying to get out the No on 8 message.

Ella running down the hallway this morning.

Smelling the flowers after school.

Ella is getting really good at balancing.

I don’t think that I wrote about this but if I did, forgive me.  On Friday when we went to pick Ella up from school, Alicia told us that Ella had 2 accidents.  She then told us that she and Ella came up with a way to hopefully stop the accidents.  Ella now has a new job at school.  The job is going to the bathroom.  Every time Ella goes to the bathroom on the toilet, Alicia gives her a star.  If she has 3 stars at the end of the day, then Ella gets (she picked this herself) a piece of gum.  Ella hasn’t chewed gum yet, so we thought that was a great idea.  Today when we picked her up, it was reported that Ella got 3 stars!  She chewed her first piece of gum, loved it and of course, swallowed it.  Check the video at the end of this entry, it’s pretty funny.

Tonight, Becca’s sister Leslie got married to her partner Jenny at City Hall.  We  all went and it was really sweet.  Mostly, people were standing and watching the ceremony, but there were a few people sitting in a u shape of chairs.  Becca was one of those people.  Ella was reaching for Becca, so I gave Ella to Becca.  Becca had her on her lap for a minute but then Ella told her that she wanted to sit in the seat next to her.  Ella sat there for the entire ceremony and looked so incredibly cute and sweet.  She was so well behaved and we were shocked.    What a great night.

In the hallway…Ella was a little needy this morning.

Another hallway shot – on the way to the wedding.

Running in City Hall.

Best buddies.

Ella watching the wedding.

Puddle jumping afterwards.

This kid is having a blast!

Ella is really showing signs that she is becoming a 3 year old.  Her control stuff is coming out all over the place.  We also think the whole accident with peeing thing is all about control.  Ella knows exactly what she wants to do and knows exactly what she wants other people to do and she has no problem expressing herself.  We are trying to help her find a good balance.  Today was a great day.  The sun came out and it was beautiful.  We went downtown and did some shopping.  Tonight we had Chinese food for dinner with Amy.  Ella, of course had brown noodles and tofu.

Having a little morning fun.

What an outfit to have Chinese food it!  I can’t believe what a big girl Ella looks like.

Amy and Ella playing around at the restaurant.

As we were going to the car, Ella noticed this Tinkerbell ad in the bus stop.  She ran over to it.  She thought the mustache was very funny.

Ella decided that she wanted to take the bus home.  Here she is waiting for the bus to come.

Amy and Ella were asking the map how to get home.

Halloween officially started for Ella after school today.  We came home and Ella changed into her skunk costume and mommy painted a beautiful skunk design on her face.  Then Juliet came over and we all headed over to a Halloween party over at 255 Berry.  After the party and some condo trick or treating, we went back to Helen and Ron’s for dinner.  After dinner, Ella changed into her dragon costume and the girls went trick or treating in our building.  After a lot of candy and running around the halls, we had a dance party at our place with the lights out and florescent glo-sticks lit!  It was a blast.  I think Ella had an amazing Halloween.

Ella in her Obama t-shirt before she transformed into a skunk.  Go Obama!

Front and back of our little skunk.

Mommy the make-up artist.

WOW!  What a beautiful job!

Ella and Juliet in a skunk hug.

Getting ready to go to the party.

This is one excited skunk.

On our way to the party.

Ella won these two puppets in a game where she put the spider in the web.

Taking a break from trick or treating to look at the bay.

Having a little party on the 7th floor of our building.

This morning when we dropped Ella off, she was out of sorts.  We have been harassing her about going to the bathroom and I think she’s pretty sick of it.  The problem is, she either waits until the last minute or she has an accident.  Today Alicia told Sunny and I that we are stressing Ella out and that we shouldn’t mention the potty for a week.  She also told us not to stress out about Ella being kicked out of school – she was doing just fine and that she wasn’t in jeopardy. We didn’t mention anything about going to the bathroom to Ella all afternoon and all evening and she went on her own – no accidents and virtually no stress.  Alicia is a smart woman.

Today after school, Ella was playing around on the outdoor structure with a classmate of hers named Kaliko.  Kaliko really cracks Ella up.  Here are some pictures of a beautiful exchange between Ella and Kalkio.  Ella was under the structure, and Kaliko was hanging his head upside down and talking to Ella.

Here’s the beauty running down the hallway this morning.

Having a blast.

Ella loves getting her picture taken against this wall.

I actually couldn’t think of a creative title for this post so this is it.  Ella had a great day at school.  The water table in the classroom had sparkly blue water and a lot of spider rings.  Ella loved it so much that she had to change her shirt because it was so wet and she also had an accident because she didn’t want to take a break to go to the bathroom.  Oy vey.  After school, Ella tried these little stilt like things that were on the yard.  They are what we used to call “romper stompers” from the TV show Romper Room.  She really did well on them – especially for the first time.  Ella likes this TV show called Max and Ruby.  It’s a cartoon about these little rabbits.  Ruby is Max’s big sister.  We bought Ella a Max and Ruby DVD tonight and she watched all the episodes.  The shows are about 10 minutes each, so they are tolerable.  They really make Ella laugh.  Ella really loved this one episode where Max wanted strawberries but Ruby wouldn’t let him have them until he ate his eggs.  Every time she tried to give him eggs, Max said, “Bad egg”.  This made Ella crack up.  After the DVD was over, she made me act out the bad egg skit about 20 times.  First I was Max and she was Ruby and then we switched.  Then Ella had this whole skit about the 3 of us going to school.  She has a great imagination.

Running down the hallway to get to the elevator.

Alicia put these posters up by the kid’s cubbies.  They asked the kids some questions about the classroom and their families and here are their responses.

Ella on her “romper stompers”.

Here we are doing our Max and Ruby skit.

Smiley kid wearing smiley face pajamas.