We love you Grandma

This morning Ella's great grandma passed away while she was sleeping. She loved seeing Ella soooo much. Ever since Ella was a few months old, Grandma was asking to see her.
We know that you are in heaven watching down on us and we love you so much.

Bendicion Grammita.

Here is Ella's great grandma holding her at Christmas 2006:

Grandma and Ella in April 2007:
The four generations:
Ella with her great grandma last month (December 2007)

Fun weekend

Ella and Mama went up to visit Lori and Ellie on Friday and Saturday in Waukesha, WI and then headed to Owen Lamz's first birthday party in Omro, WI. Aside from another double ear infection, Ella was very pleasant and had a great time at both places.

Here is a picture of Ella sitting on Ellie's big girl rocking chair:

Here is a picture of Ella and Ellie modeling their birthday buddy tees:

Dance Dance Revolution

I have decided to purchase Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) for our playstation in an attempt to work out at home. Ella decided that if the music is playing....she should be dancing.

Ella's portfolio

Ella started at The Goddard School in Elgin on Monday in the Toddler room. The great teachers from the St. Charles Goddard School put together a portfolio of her work from the 6 months that she was a student there. Here are a few picture of the book:
The cover

Pictures from her first day at school:
Some pictures of Ella playing with Ms. Nancy and walking around the classroom
Pictures from Halloween 2007. She used her feet and hands to make a ghost and a bat.
A fall collage

We are sad to be leaving St. Charles, but Ella will be able to spend only 10 minutes a day in the car and more time at school learning and playing.

Climbing video

It's been a while since I posted a video, so here is Ella's new talent. One day I was in the kitchen while Ella was playing and next thing I know, she is standing on this seat clapping her hands.

Another boo-boo

We got a call from school yesterday that Ella fell down while she had a toy in her mouth. She cut the inside of her upper lip pretty bad. It bled for a little while and once they could see the damage, the school asked me to take her to a doctor just to make sure that it wasn't anything too serious. The doctor said that it was a deep gash, but that since it is in her mouth it will heal quickly.

So, no citrus fruit for the next few days so that it doesn't sting. She was pretty crabby last night and I'm sure it hurt her, but she didn't mind brushing her teeth last night or this morning. She's a trooper!

Messy Cupboards

Ella and Mama stopped at Oma and Opa's house for dinner during the week. When Ella was done eating, she decided to investigate just how organized her Oma and Opa are (or aren't).

What Ella would say:

"This needs some serious attention."

"I've got a lot of work to do"

Chronic Ear Infections

Since October, Ella has painfully experienced three double ear infections. It is obviously very hard on all of us because she has a hard time sleeping, which means the whole house does as well. We decided that we didn't want to just sit back and watch them continue, so we took Ella to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor at the end of December. He determined that there is still fluid build up in her middle ear even after the infection was gone. This doctor suggested that we have tubes put in her ears and have her enlarged adnoids removed. We decided not to take this surgery lightly, and went to a different ENT for a second opinion.

The second doctor that we saw was excellent. The office was very kid-friendly and they explained everything in great detail. The audiologist on the staff also did tests to check if the fluid was disturbing her hearing. Turns out that her right ear is significantly blocked with fluid and therefore she has a very hard time hearing out of it clearly. Her left ear does have fluid, but not enough to significantly affect her hearing. Which is good news because it shouldn't delay her speech.

This new doctor did strongly suggest getting the tubes put in because if 4 bouts of antibiotics did nothing to get rid of fluid, he doesn't think it will come out on its own. He also suggested having her adenoids taken out as well. We have decided to schedule the out-patient surgery for sometime at the end of the month. The procedure is only 40 minutes long and she is even able to go back to school the very next day.

Thanks for reading the world's longest post, and I post again once we schedule a date for the surgery.

And so the post isn't all words...here is a picture of Ella lounging in her chair.

Ella's first pet

Since it seems as though Polly the Yorkie is more like Ella's sister, I would like to introduce Ella's first pet. Oma and Opa bought her a pet goldfish which we appropriately named: "Miss Dorothy Fish"

She has been named after Elmo's pet fish in the Elmo's World DVDs that she loves.

P.S. She is the biggest goldfish that I have ever seen....in a sort of scary way. Everyone who knows me understands that I hate eating seafood, but evidentally I am equally scared of live fish.

Pizza dinner and sleepy Ella

There were a few accidents on the way home from work on Thursday so traffic was extra heavy. Ella and I got home around 6:20 pm and J pulled in at the same time with some pizza for dinner. We could tell that Ella was a little crabby because she was either tired or hungry.....based on the videos I would say she was both!