Chuck E Cheese

The playgroup had an outing to Chuck E Cheese this morning. Despite the fact that if you don't have a child, it's probably THE most annoying place to eat, but the pizza is delicious! The girls love going and Ella loves Chuck E and the animated characters - she's not the least bit intimidated by the giant mascots - such a fun, brave little one we have!

Potty Update

Last Thursday was day one, we made it til Saturday afternoon before reverting to diapers as Ella could just care less about learning to use the potty. As Murphy would have it, the minute we stopped "teaching" her and put her in diapers, she's been going on the potty all week. So successful, that I didn't buy any more diapers and have been using pull-ups (less stress for me having to clean up accidents).
On average, we go through 1-3 pull-ups a day but she is staying dry through the night and nap time, as long as we get her to the bathroom as soon as she wakes up. She also pees "on demand" before bedtime, nap time, bath time, upon waking up... Knock on wood, but it's been a week and we've been seeing whole days in the same DRY pull-ups. Who knew?? We also don't really care about how quickly she learns as she'll be in pull-ups on the plane to Canada and the long drives in the rental car anyway. We're just happy she's learning and we don't have to spend so much $$ on the darn things.

Chatting with Grandma

Potty Training - A No Go

Day 3:

Potty - 1
Floor - 4
High chair - 1

Day one was so successful, but yesterday and today, Ella has fought us with everything she has and refuses to sit on her potty. We did the bad parenting thing and made her sit on it and she just cried (our mistake, never doing that again). She does love her big girl underwear, but has no intention of using the potty. We also did the "Bad Ella, pee in your potty not on the floor.." thing but this last time she peed on the floor she just looked at me and said "Bad Ella". So now I am heart-broken that not only is she overwhelmed but I may have contributed to her potty self-doubt.

Once again, she seemed more than ready but it turns out she's not, or we're not. Seeing as most kids were 2 1/2 and the potty video has 3 year olds - I am going to give Ella a break and revert to diapers. She really is such a good little girl, so smart and so eager to learn, I sometimes think she's ready for more than she can handle. "bad mommy." :(

Day Two

Potty training hasn't gone as well as yesterday...to say the least.

Potty - 1
Floor - 5
Outside while playing - 2

Good thing I rolled up the rugs - easy cleanup but boy is it annoying!
Any tips from those who have done this????? She really seems to be fighting me on this today and even gets mad when we take her to the potty. Perhaps she is just overwhelmed...

Potty Training for Real This Time

Okay, so now we've really decided to potty train Ella. I've made a few feeble attempts in the past but both of us weren't too ready to move to that phase. Today, we decided to make this last pack of diapers the last one we buy.

It's been quite successful this morning... I'll keep posting the score:

Potty - 6
Couch - 1
Floor - 1

Aloha Grandmas

Last night we took Ella's Grandma and Great-Grandma out for dinner and took them to the airport. We were all sad to see them leave and hope they had a good time, saw enough of the island and spent enough time with Ella. Ella was tired so she didn't really pay attention to what was going on but when she rolled over at 5am this morning and didn't see her roommates, she was so upset, screaming and crying "Grandma", "Daddy", "Grandma". I ended up bringing her to bed with us and while we tried to get a couple more hours sleep, she poked and chatted with us until finally we reluctantly got up at 7. Here are some pictures from the last couple of days they were here...

Monday I set up the pool and the girls played in the water all afternoon. Ella continues her bravery and "swims" the length of the pool over and over. And by "swim" I really mean she crawls on her hands and knees with the odd attempt at kicking her feet behind her.

Tuesday, Grandma and Great-Grandma took Ella to gymnastics, and I hear, had a great time watching Ella and her Daddy do all the circuits. We headed up to the Dole Plantation for one last pineapple ice cream run. Yummy! Here are the pictures from Dole and then dinner before the airport...

Sunday Drive

We headed out to the south part of the island on Sunday, through Honolulu and Waikiki, past Diamond Head and Hanauma Bay to Kailua. We had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and then ice cream at Cold Stone. Here are some pictures of Iolani Palace, Waikiki, a scenic lookout on the south coast and from our lunch in Kailua.

(I've also updated the map from the previous post...)






When we got home, Grandma played with Ella on the playground. So many new things to show Grandma!

The Grandmas' Visit Thus Far...

My computer has been on the fritz for a couple of days and I've been frantically saving all my photos, files and music so Ron can work his magic and restore it. Here's a recap of the last few days...

Thursday we headed to the outlet stores and a did a bit of shopping. We had lunch out at Chilli's and then came home to watch a movie. Grandma, Ella and I went for a walk in the evening and then Grandma took Ella to the park.Friday, we headed to the beach at Ko Olina and had a picnic lunch. On the way home we drove up the west side of the island and through the mountain range and Kolekole Pass (an ancient site where it is claimed that defeated warrior chiefs were beheaded). We ordered Thai food for dinner. Today was the first time Ella ventured out into the water without being held by one of us. She has loved playing in the surf, but once she gets to her knees, she has to hold onto someone (a very safe thing - thank goodness!). Today, I kept backing away from her as she took more steps deeper into the water. She's still shaky so I am just inches out of her reach, but she walked out to her chest and made a jump into my arms. Then, once she could touch the bottom again, pushed me away and made her way back to shore (with me very close behind). She was so proud of herself that she continued to walk out to me as far as she could touch and then make her way back to shore, over and over. Could this be a first step in learning to swim??? No worries about her safety, I have no delusion that one little misstep could be fatal so I stay right behind her. I have turned it into a game of "I'm going to get Ella" - she loves making it to the shore without me tickling her and triumphantly shouts, "Mommy funny" before coming in again. Today after lunch, we drove around the north part of the island, up to the North Shore and through Waiamea Bay to Turtle Bay. We stopped at the Dole Plantation for some pineapple ice cream. We had some friends and neighbors over for a small BBQ tonight.

I will post some more pictures once my computer is fixed so keep checking back. I've also updated a picture or two from previous posts. Here is a map of Oahu that I edited to include the places we've taken Grandma and Great-Grandma, and to give you all a sense of where we live in relation to some famous landmarks such as Waikiki, Pearl Harbor and the North Shore. (Click on the map to see it full scale)

Horton Movie

Ella finally went to sleep last night and slept in later than usual - all that girl talk with her Grandmas wore her out. We lounged around all morning and took Ella to see "Horton Hears a Who" in the late afternoon. It was loud in the theater, though completely deserted except for us and 4 other people. Ella sat in my lap, or Grandma's the whole time, I think the volume and the giant screen scared her a little bit. Cute movie, but I think Ella's not ready for the movie theaters yet. I used to take her as an infant and she'd sleep through the whole thing but now I think the screen's a little too big, the volume too loud and the motion too startling for her.

She's been hard to put to sleep tonight, and I'm not sure if it's the excitement of having 2 wonderful, all-spoiling roommates, or perhaps left over theater fears. I think tomorrow night we might have to do what we usually do when guests visit - have Ella bunk with us. A late bedtime the night before does not a happy toddler make...

Happy

Both Ella's Grandma and Great-Grandma arrived tonight, safely and on-time. We picked them up from the airport and had dinner before heading home. They are sharing a room with Ella who's been talking for the past hour and a half while her grandmas got ready for bed. It's going to be a fun week - first night and Ella is spoiled already!!! Such a lucky girl, she is so excited and happy (and we are too). Aloha, Grandma and Great-Grandma, welcome to our home, a little place we like to call paradise.

Indian Princess

Today we went out to Bellows Beach for Ron's command picnic. Unfortunately, Ron woke up in the middle of the night with chills and has the flu. I moved into Ella's room to avoid the germs and left Ron in bed this morning when we left. We met up with Jeff, Sara and Baby Wyatt, and headed out to the other side of the island. Bellows is an air force base and has until recently been off limits to the public. The beaches have been open to the military and there are vacation cabins, camp sites and picnic areas for the armed forces and their families. Because it's been private for so long, it is almost pristine in it's condition. An absolutely gorgeous beach with white sand and turquoise waters. We had lunch, the girls had their faces painted (they had a professional face painter), we played in the surf... it was a gorgeous day. Here's Ella as an Indian princess.

Mommy's Little Girl