Life With Ella

Tonight there was a HOA board meeting and Sunny is president. Another member of the board has 2 young kids. Ella and I went upstairs to play with the other kids while the moms were serving their board duty. Right before we went up, Ella shot a video for uncle Jesse’s birthday. A while back, Sunny bought Ella a Mickey Mouse costume but we never gave it to her. I thought it would be more than appropriate to break out the costume to sing happy birthday to Jesse.

On the way to Hannah and Max’s house.

Hannah also enjoyed playing with the Mickey Mouse costume.

Max accompanying Ella on “ABC”.

Today, Sunny, Ella and I volunteered to help the Giant’s Community Fund raise money for the Junior Giants. We told Ella that we were going to go to the ballpark and try to get people to give money to help kids. We told her that there were some people in the world who needed help from other people and that it was really good to try to help people whenever we could. Ella said something like, “So we will go and get money for kids so that they can buy toys and computers.” It blew us away that she even understood the concept. Ella is a natural for helping others. Here are some pictures from today.

By far, Ella was the cutest volunteer today!

Mommy and Ella waiting for them to let us into the ballpark.

Snoopy and Charlie Brown helped us raise money today.

This is Toby. He helped us collect money today. Ella and Toby really hit it off. He was terrific with her.

Ella and Toby playing around.

Learning a new skill.

It wasn’t all work today. We had a lot of fun running all around the ballpark.

And of course we had strawberries and whipped cream.

New buddies – Ella really had a blast with Toby today.

Today, we went to a birthday party of a child who just turned one. The parents were really smart and had the party at a really sweet playground so that the older kids played hard and the little ones were held and played with and everyone had a great time. Ella played for about 3 hours straight. We came home and Ella was pretty wiped out. We tried to keep her awake until bedtime but she passed out at around 5:30. She woke up at about 7:00 and ate like an animal. We had a fun family day.

Ella came downstairs this morning in her pajama tops and underwear. She said that she wanted to put on a robe because she was a little cold. Here is Ella in her “Champ” robe that KK brought Ella from Las Vegas. She’s too cute.

Actually playing in the sandbox!

Ella was on this platform thing with a little boy and they were taking turns “flying the plane”.

On the merry go round with her buddy Ava.

Here is Ella trying out something new. Mommy is helping her climb the ropes.

Ella taking a pretend nap on this spider web structure.

Going down the curly slide all by herself.

Today, we had a special treat. Heather is in town for the weekend and Ella and I hung out with her for a few hours today. Ella was really excited to see her. She kept asking me when she was going to come (I told her this morning that Heather was coming). Ella also asked if Jesse was coming too but I told her that Jesse had to stay home with their doggies. We had a sweet time together, Heather and Ella had a great conversation about things that they liked and realized that they had a lot of things in common. Ella really liked that. Tonight, we went to Acme for dinner. Ella insisted on wearing her purple tutu to dinner. She is so much fun.

A picture from earlier this afternoon. Ella was watching Sunny take a bandage off of Towby’s leg. (A little mishap at the groomer with one of his nails)

So happy to see Heather.

Running around at the crossroads cafe.

Hanging out.

Getting a ride home.

Running down the hallway after dinner. Ella loves it when we hide from her and pop out of nowhere. I was hiding and caught these pictures of Ella running towards me.

Who is really blowing the bubbles…Ella or mommy?

You’ll notice in the pictures that Ella hasn’t been insisting on wearing sun dresses every second of every day. She has been pretty cool about wearing long sleeved shirts and really loves leggings which she calls tights. We took Ella swimming tonight. It had been a month or so since she was in the pool and she got freaked out about walking on her tippy toes. We asked her why she was crying and she said, “I’m scared, I’m afraid to walk on my tippy toes.” We asked her why she was afraid and she said, “Because I might sink.” We told her that we would be with her and that we wouldn’t let her sink. We got her to jump into the pool (she loves jumping so much) and after she had the confidence from jumping in, she gradually started to tippy toe. By the end, she said that she was happy that she went on her tippy toes and that she was brave. It’s incredible to watch her, be with her and listen to her thought process.

Say cheese!

Going down the slide at My Gym.

Walking to the car like an old lady after My Gym.

Tonight we celebrated Amy’s birthday a day late by taking her to the ballgame. Becca was supposed to come with us but she fell and really hurt her foot during work. Sunny took Becca to the hospital to get x-rays and Amy came over to pick up Ella and me. Ella was really tired – no nap today, so she went to the game with her blankie and binky. Amy and Ella did some serious bonding before the game – it was really sweet. Once we got to the game, Ella took out her binky, shared a bag of popcorn and some cotton candy with Amy and then fell asleep. Mommy joined us in around the 5th inning. Becca’s foot isn’t broken but it’s really badly bruised. We hope you feel better Becca.

Ella and Amy…

Ella and her pals Charlie Brown and Snoopy.

I went for a massage today and mommy and Becca took Ella, Towby and Tucker to the dog park and then to get some yogurt. Later in the afternoon, we went over to the Kim/Arena’s and had a great dinner. The girls were so sweet with each other. Emily came to dinner too, so we had the girls eat dinner at their own table. They were doing cheers with each other (shot glasses of club soda) and did a great job eating dinner. After dinner, at Ella’s request, the girls all took a bath together. It was a really fun night.

Having fun with Towby.

Eating yogurt with Becca.

YUM!

Drawing with Juliet.

Cheers.

Getting love from Juliet.

Dancing in the mirror. (Notice Ron in the background dancing too!)

Today we went across the street to a Giant’s Community fund event at the ballpark. There was face painting and people out on the field hitting and fielding balls. Basically we had free reign of the ballpark. Ella had a blast. She had her hand and face painted. We had her in a really cute outfit – even got her to wear leggings and a long sleeved shirt. At the last minute, Ella decided that she needed to wear her purple tutu over the outfit. Needless to say – she looked crazy and adorable. After the event, we went to Debby and Toby’s for a going away party for Rachel. It was a sweet party and Ella really had a good time.

Ella and her face/hand painting.

Here’s the whole outfit.

Ella calling the bullpen to get another pitcher in the game.

Future major leaguer?

Going home on mommy’s shoulders.