North Shore Drive

We headed out to the North Shore to see some waves... you can't tell in the photos but there were tons of surfers out riding some huge waves.

Sleep Over

Ella and I spent the night at Emmi and Christina's house last Wednesday. Manny is out of town on business so we thought it would be fun to have a sleep over. For the kids, an opportunity to run themselves ragged and for us a chance to enjoy a few pina coladas without having to drive home. We made pizza, put the kids to bed, and watched chick flicks over pina coladas. Ron says I'm too old for sleep overs, but if they involve alcohol, one's never too old. :)

Emmi's Photography:

Favorites

Ella just came up to me, hugged me tight and said: "Mommy, my favorite." Do you think she'll remember that when she's 13? :)

Another Test

In the spring Ella went through a short phase of testing me. Just misbehaving, terrible two stuff that was short lived. I even warned Erin that Ella had gotten really bad when we were talking about visiting her in Victoria. Because the phase didn't last very long, I had totally forgotten about my warning until were in Victoria and Erin said how good Ella was, that she wasn't "bad" at all. I felt so guilty because in comparison to some kids... Ella really is very well-behaved - even in her testing phase.

Yesterday, while Christina was over, Ella refused to pick up her toys after I asked her to ("No, Mommy"). So I told her in a stern voice: "Ella, help clean up your toys, or you're going to your room." The little stinker replied: "No, Mommy. I not scared you." What???? Christina burst out laughing and I was somewhat shocked.
(I know Ella knows the correct use of "scared" as sometimes when she's playing and Ron chases her, she'll run to me laughing and say "Daddy scare me" and then giggle when Ron catches her and tickles her. It's her favorite game.)
Ella refused to pick up her toys and again said, "I not scared you Mommy." I put her in time out with a warning: "you don't speak back to mommy like that." Geez kiddo, you'd think I torture you. Just another test, but in the words of all parents everywhere at some point: "You may not be scared of me now, but if you keep it up, you will be." :)

Play House

Our neighbors moved and left their play house for us. I cleaned it and de-bugged months of spider webs and geckos from lack of use and now it has become Ella's favorite outside toy. She goes in and out, makes "coffee" and mud pies for us. She loves to play pretend and this has been a great outdoor activity. I'm also hoping to get Ella a play kitchen for her room - at her play group she spends most of her time in the play kitchen "cooking", "eating", and serving me "dinner" or "coffee".

Moon

There is a half moon tonight... Ella says to me: "Look Mommy, moon is broken. Oh no!"

This Week in Pictures

I've been lazy with the blog - sorry about that. All the reading and new fall line-up on TV has consumed this household... Here are some pictures of Ella this week:We went to a wedding today for one of Ron's co-workers. Of course Ella was excited to see a "princess" and though we only met the bride today, we couldn't keep Ella away from her!

Book Worm

We've always read Ella bedtime stories and she has her favorites, but at bedtime lately, I've been letting Ella snuggle up in our bed and we spend a good half hour reading. I've gotten back into reading and will read a book instead of watching TV (always a good thing!). I often read outside while Ella is on the playground, or will read on the couch while Ella is playing contentedly with all her toys. She's picked up on it because now, whenever I have a book, she will get hers and sit with me to read.
She will gather as many of her books as she can carry and bring them out to me and "read" out loud to herself. So before bed, she will gather a bunch of her books and climb into our bed to "read". I offer to read to her, but she'll hand me my book and say: "Here Mommy, your book." I can usually get an easy 30 minutes of reading to myself before being clobbered by Elmo Loves You - a clear sign it's time for bed and Ella's last book of the evening. I'm loving that she loves books as much as we do!

(*note: I just finished The Kite Runner and am going to watch the movie tonight... by far one of the best books I've read in a while.)

2.5 Year Portraits

Just picked these up today....

Lunch Date

Emmi has been in preschool so Ella's really been missing him a lot. Ella will start in March with Emmi but this last month has been tough on both of them. They keep asking Christina and I: "Can Ella come to my casa?" / "Play with Emmi, Mommy". So today we went over to their house and took the kids shopping and for lunch at McDonald's.