Blog and Facebook Relationships

Blogging is addictive.

I blog to keep in touch with everyone and I love posting Ella's news for our family and friends (it's a good way to journal too). I get to read, post and share comments among my blogger friends and family. I am finding that after almost 2 years of it, I am not posting as much - not because of having little time, but because there doesn't seem to be anything new to say. I used to be able to take pictures every day, but now I find a week goes by and there are no pictures because it hasn't been all that exciting. And without pictures the blog can be pretty boring. :)

I'm also addicted to Facebook. All my friends from home and abroad are on and I get to catch up with everyone through little notes. Most of my friends are good with pictures and little updates so I get to spend a few minutes a day seeing what everyone is up to - it really makes me feel connected because I know what's going on in their day-to-day lives. I guess it's the delusional way of the internet world and I would think it's weird if I lived in the same town as my girlfriends (unless we were stuck at work and could get away with this as opposed to chatting on the phone - at least typing looks like real work).

I love checking the blog or Facebook and seeing new comments or updates. Just a quick "Have fun at the park" or so-and-so "is going shopping / taking the kids for ice cream, etc, etc." brightens my day. Given that many of my closest friends and family live oceans and continents away, there isn't anything better than a little note to say "I'm thinking of you" or an update that someone I love is "happy and enjoying the sunshine". Well, of course there is something better, living in the same city or talking on the phone. But let's face it, with everyone in different time zones and with a million things going on, I'll take my few minutes on the computer to reach out and say I am grateful for all the wonderful people in my life. No matter how far away you are physically or geographically, I get to spend a little time with you all, here at my desk and usually while Ella is asleep. :)

Lessons Learned

Here is Ella dancing to Disney Channel's Choo-Choo Soul. We have been watching Dancing with the Stars and Ella will imitate the dances so well. It's hilarious and I'll try to get some video of it, but this will do for now.

This morning at breakfast, Ella decided to climb on the table (she gets in and out of her highchair herself now). I warned her to get down into her seat or she would fall and sure enough, she slipped off as she was hanging from the table trying to touch the floor with her toes. It was such a short little fall but sure enough she busted her lip, blood everywhere. She had a bit of a moment but the bleeding stopped quickly as most lip cuts do and Ella is fine. Since she's been climbing on things, I warn her of the dangers and then let her figure out the consequences herself (nothing too dangerous of course!). So far we've tumbled off the bed, the couch, the crib, the highchair, the coffee table, and now the dining table... I'm all about letting her learn the hard way and she either never does it again, or figures out how to do it safely. So it's all good. Here's a video of her busted lip...

(Just a director's note: Ron accidentally scratched her eyebrow once with his nail when he was getting her dressed, and I have scratched her leg accidentally with my nails too - apparently this is cause enough to blame every "boo-boo" on Mommy or Daddy - she still points to her eyebrow and says "Daddy boo-boo". Nice try Ella, you can't get off that easy, we all know you have half my genes and it's more than apparent you did get the clumsy one from me! )

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!