Life With Ella

Sunny’s dad died this morning.  He was very sick and 91 years old but that doesn’t take away the pain and sadness.  I am so grateful to Seymour because he brought Sunny into the world and the world is a much better place because of Sunny.  I think Seymour always wished that Sunny would become a mother and I am so happy that he was able to see her as a beautiful and incredible mother to Ella .  He would sometimes look at Sunny with tears in his eyes and say, “You are a wonderful mother – I knew you would be”.   Music was Seymour’s world and he was playing his horn up until about a year and 1/2 ago.  I am so happy that we were all able to hear him sound the shofar at the end of Ella’s baby naming ceremony.   He was 88 years old when he did this.  I attached a clip of that at the end of this entry.  We hope your soul is free Seymour.

An old photo of Seymour and his horn.

Meeting Ella for the first time.

Hanging out at the park together.

Mommy, Ella and grandpa Seymour.

Hey – that’s your nose!

Sunny and her dad at the baby naming.

Ella said that she had a great day at school.  As a matter of fact, today right before she went to sleep, she was on the toilet and she looked at me and said, “School is fantastic”.  We think the school is pretty fantastic too!  After school, Ella and I relaxed – watched a little Dora, and then Ella did some watercolors.  She has been letting us know what her paintings are.  Here is a mouse.

After the painting, Ella built a huge playground with her legos and put all of her friends on the playground.

Ella doesn’t have imaginary friends, she just has conversations with all of these little friends.

We watched the debate tonight – Ella was not interested at all.  She watched Peter Pan as we watched Sarah Palin not answer any questions.  Scary.  After the debate, Ella told us that she wanted to dance.  Ella danced to about 3 songs – she wanted “Independent Women” by Destiny’s Child 2 times.  She really likes the part that says, “Throw your hands up at me”.  Very cute.  After dancing Ella went straight to bed.  She’s so much fun.

Ella dancing the night away.

This is one happy kid.

Ella on her way to school this morning.

Sunny and I went to Las Vegas last weekend and had an amazing time.  Grandma and papa came here and stayed with Ella and the 3 of them had an amazing time.  We got back and celebrated Rosh Hashana together.  Happy New Year to everyone who celebrates.  It was a great trip.  We are looking forward to Thanksgiving!  Ella is doing really well at school.  We kept her home on Tuesday because she had a pretty bad cold and cough.  This morning when she woke up, we asked her if she felt well enough to go to school and she said that she wanted to go.  I think Ella’s favorite thing to do there is art.  We wish we could spy on her at school during the day.

Grandma and Ella checking out the rays at the Pier 39 aquarium

Going down the slide at the Yerba Buena park

Ella and papa taking a nap after a long fun day.

Getting ready for circle time at school.

Papa pushing and grandma catching.

Lighting the candles on Rosh Hashana

Getting ready to blow bubbles on top of tall mountain.

Check out the HUGE bubble.

About to make a big jump.

Sharing ice cream.

So peaceful taking a nap.

Getting ready to go to school today.

Ella’s new job as  lunch mat helper.

Ella had a great day today – second day in a row without having an accident.  I checked in with Alicia about the reason why Ella ripped the book (I saw one of the books – she did a tremendous job!) and she said she thought Ella was just bored.  I told her that Ella told me that she ripped it because she couldn’t go outside to the water table and Alicia started to laugh.  I had a feeling that Ella made it up but I just needed to check it out.  As a morning activity, Ella’s class visited the farm.  Ella loved seeing the sheep and chickens and she is learning how to be with them.  She couldn’t wait to bring us over to them after school.  Grandma and papa come tomorrow night and to quote Ella, “I am so excited – I can’t wait – I am very excited”.  Mommy and I are taking 2 days and going to Las Vegas while grandma and papa party with Ella.  “I can’t wait!”

Running down the hall this morning.

Ella is a table washer again.

Visiting the sheep and chickens after school.

Ella and Ms. Ngoc – another one of Ella’s amazing teachers.

We arrived at school a little bit later than usual and by the time we got into the classroom, the good morning song was just starting to play.  Ella heard the song, looked at us, said, “School is starting, you have to go now” and sat down in the circle.  That was it!  It’s amazing how things change every day.  Ella had a great day at school – she had an accident while she was playing at the water table outside.  I told her that if she knows that she will be playing at the water table that she should go to the bathroom first.  She agreed.  When we came home, Ella put on her leotard and danced around for a while.  We had dinner at Eliza’s with Becca and Amy.  It was a great dinner.  Grandma and papa come in 3 days – we are so excited!

Morning hallway picture.

Circle time

Our beautiful little ballerina.

Ella was just having a little bit of fun with Becca!

So happy.

The bullfighter.

Having fun with Amy after dinner.

Whenever Ella wants to try something but she’s not quite sure if she wants to do it now she says, “I can do that when I’m older”.  Today, we were going to the Channel park to take Towby for a walk (Bug is too old to go that far and be happy) and Sunny and Ella were both holding Towby’s leash.  Ella looked at Sunny and said, “When I get older, you don’t have to hold the leash with me mommy.”  Mommy asked Ella if she wanted to walk Towby alone (we were right there) and she said yes.  It was a very cute 10 feet.  We went to the Channel, Ella climbed up and down “tall mountain”, hung out at Phils Coffee and had a fun afternoon.  Tonight, Ella watched Peter Pan.  She really liked it.  We had a nice relaxing weekend.

Our big girl taking Towby for a walk.

Ella was just standing there saying, “Oh look at the ocean, it’s so beautiful”.

At the top of “Tall Mountain”

“I think I can…I think I can…”

Walking down Tall Mountain.  Ela used to do this on her tush.

Balancing and getting in touch with her inner airplane.

Ella nameed this masterpiece “Baseball Chihuly Sculpture”.

Putting on the finishing touches.

Not much to report today.  It was a beautiful day.  We spent a good part of the afternoon outside – the weather is heating up again.  Tonight we had dinner at Acme with Becca and Debby.  It was a great day and night.

Some pictures of Ella dancing around in the park today.  There was live band that she was dancing to.

What a crazy head of hair.

Well hi there!

Making a funny face during dinner.

Heaven for mommy – Ella sleeping in her arms and the Giant’s game on TV.

Yesterday I wrote funny stories, today it’s a story about Ella acting out.  This afternoon when we went to pick Ella up, Alicia told us that she needed to talk to us.  We were standing there with Ella and as Alicia started talking, Ella put her hands over her ears.  Alicia told us that she asked Ella if she wanted to tell us or if she wanted Alicia to tell us and she told Alicia that she wanted Alicia to tell us.  After Ella put her hands over her ears, Alicia picked her up and then we were all at the same eye level.  Basically, Ella ripped some pages out of 2 books.  Alicia and Ella spent a lot of time taping the pages back in the book and Ella couldn’t do the morning activities until she was finished taping.  Ella said, “I will not do that again.  It’s not nice to rip books.  It can make people sad”.  Later on, we asked her why she ripped the books and she said, “because they wouldn’t let me go outside and play with the water table”.  Oy. We are going to ask Alicia if that was true- not that it would make a difference.  We just want to see if Ella was making it up.   We went to get ice cream after school.  The book incident was over and done with.  Ella hung out with this kid Ana Pria who is in preschool but a different class.  They were funny together.  We had dinner at Nama and Ella ate everything.  Can’t wait to try to sleep in tomorrow.

Looking a little sleepy this morning.

I wonder what she’s thinking about.

Walking to the ice cream store with a little bit of attitude.

High fiving Ana Pria

Delicious!

Hanging out on the bench enjoying their ice cream.

This morning, I had a chance to talk to Alicia for a while.  I asked her if they learned the song, “This Land Is Your Land” in class and she said that they did sing it earlier in the week.  The reason I asked is because Ella started to sing the song out of nowhere the other day and it wasn’t one that we have been singing around the house.  Alicia said that Ella picks up on the songs really quickly.  She told me a story that really cracked me up.  She said that they sing a song right before nap time.  One day, the kids were all trying to nap.  Alicia walked into the room and heard someone singing the nap song at the top of their lungs.  She asked Ngoc, another teacher in the classroom, which kid was singing and she said, “That’s your Ella”.  Alicia said that she had to explain to Ella that the other kids were trying to sleep and that she couldn’t sing out loud during nap time.  Now somebody has to sit near Ella during nap time.

Another funny thing Alicia told me was about the kid’s trip to the kitchen yesterday.  I told her that I was trying to get information out of Ella about what they did in the kitchen and she wouldn’t tell me anything.  Alicia told me that they learned about the kitchen and that they had to wash their hands any time they went into the kitchen.  Then Ms. Misty told the kids that if they sneezed or coughed that they should wash their hands again.  Ella proceeded to fake cough and sneeze and washed her hands 5 times in 1/2 hour.

The last funny story for now…Ella was on the toilet going to the bathroom and she got off the toilet, forgot to flush, forgot to pull her pants up and went over to the sink.  She turned on the sink, pants around her ankles, butt sticking out and started playing with the water.  Alicia said that she took a picture of it.  I hope we get it!

After school we came back here and relaxed for a while.  The 3 of us then went to the new Academy of Arts and Sciences in Golden Gate Park.  We went to a preview tonight.  The place is amazing.  Ella was running and running and pointing to things and running to the next thing…she was moving so fast that it was hard to get good pictures but I did manage to get a few.  What a great place.  I can’t wait to spend a lot of time there.

The hallway shot of the morning.

Ella and Ms. Gladys.   Ms. Gladys is the Spanish speaking teacher in the classroom.  Ella really loves all 3 classroom teachers.

Getting ready for “circle group time”

Ella and Towby after school blowing bubbles in the garden.

Bug chillin’ in the sun.

Waiting for the elevator.

Look at all the fish!

This is how Ella was all night…”Look at this, look at that, look over here…”

Ella had a good morning this morning.  She also had a great day at school and didn’t have any accidents.  Ella was in a really good mood when we picked her up.  Ella had a great afternoon.  We kept Ella in her Music Together class and her teacher who took about 6 months off came back.  Ella gave her a big hug.  Tonight mommy was at a fundraiser so Ella and I went over to Amici’s and had a really fun dinner. Nothing like a morning smile. I asked Ella all about the kitchen and she wouldn’t really give up any information. Ella’s out to dinner outfit.  Ella had a leotard on under her sweat pants.  We made a deal that she had to wear her sweatshirt outside but she could take it off inside.  I also let her go outside in her ballet slippers which made her so happy. Very busy drawing. Check out the ringlets. As you can tell from her leotard…Ella loved her dinner!