Scooter Scooter, I Love You!

Ella got a scooter from Abuela for her birthday. Not only did she get a scooter but she got matching knee and elbow pads, a helmet, and a backpack with sunglasses and a cell phone. Can we say true love?

Another morning of waking up to a present!
Riding

Even Sofia took it out for a ride

I know it has been post overload these past couple of days but things have slowed down considerably in our household so the posts should too. Time for us all to take a little breather.

The Jewish New Year started tonight, so L'Shana Tova to all our Jewish friends. Ella doesn't have school but we are going to children services tomorrow at the Temple and then to the Duck Pond to celebrate.

Sunday is Ricardo and my 6 year wedding anniversary so we are taking advantage of having Abuela around to go out for Thai food on Saturday night. Besides that we plan to just have a nice low key weekend.

Happy New Year!

The Finale to Ella's Birthday Weekend-The Party!

Today was Ella's big birthday party and boy was it fun...and loud, and chaotic. All I can say is, thank god we did it at In The Swing and not at our home. We had 23 kids, 3 babies and countless adults. All we had to do was provide the goody bags, pizza, fruit and veggie dip and the staff took care of the rest. It was a great time and Ella loved playing with her friends and is loving playing with all her new toys.

Playing

The main play area
Sofia and Abuela
Daddy and Ella (fake smile-just put me down!)
Sofia and her BFF Sammy
I turned around and found Sofia lying on her back on the mat. I thought she must have fallen (although she showed no signs of distress) so I picked her up and she just threw herself back into this position. Just chillin'
Pizza Time-Can you say CHAOS!?

Singing Happy Birthday to the Birthday Girl!
The Birthday girl and her parents (cute pic of Ricardo and Ella, not so much of me)
An attempt at a picture with all the kids. I think we're missing a couple of kids in this picture.
In a sea of presents

Sofia the Monkey and Ella the Princess

Sofia is SUCH a monkey. All she wants to do it climb. She climbs things that Ella would have NEVER EVER even thought to climb. She gets such a smug look on her face when she climb up on the couch. Yes, she climbs on to the couch! I don't think Ella was able to climb up on the couch until she was close to 16 months old. She climb on to toddler sized chair and then stand on them to reach up on cabinets and tables. It's insane!

With Ella we never really had to baby proof. We would just tell her no and she would listen. With Sofia, we tell her no and I am almost positive she flipped me the bird.

Here she is climbing in to one of Ella's chairs. This was about 5 days ago. She's already doubled her time.

Some pics

And just because I can't believe she has so much hair at 11.5 months! I'm also proud to report that she is 100% off of bottles. She drinks her milk from a regular sippy cup and her water from a straw sippy cup.

She's such a little chatterbox. She says: hi, mama, dada, doggy, cat, done, "I did it", and she kind of sounds out "ashes ashes we all fall down". She's obviously hearing the last two from Ella.

I've been trying to catch "I did it" on video and I got this one the other day. You can also see her vampire top teeth. The front two are actually coming in now.

In addition to the above words, she signs: milk, more, and done. I cannot believe my little baby is going to be 1 year old in less than two weeks!

As for Ella-Gone are the days where I get to make every decision for her. She gets really upset if she doesn't get to pick out her outfit and the other day I told her that I was going to do a monkey party for her 3rd birthday. I thought this was a great idea since we are doing it at an indoor play area called "In The Swing".

I was informed I was sadly mistaken that a monkey party was a good idea. " No mommy, I don't want a monkey party. I want a princess party. A purple princess party!" Ok! So it must be a three year old thing because out of the 3 birthday invititations for girls that we've received for the month of August, 2 have been princess themed.

Of course, Ella is ever so untrusting, and has to remind me daily that I am NOT to throw her a monkey party but a princess party. Yes Ella, I got it! A purple princess party you shall get.