Conversations With Ella

Ella: Mommy, my baby cousin is in my belly. I want to see her.

Me: What? ?

Ella: Yeaaaaa, baby cousin is in my belly. She come out soon.

Me: Where does she come out?

Ella: Out of my belly button. Come out soon baby cousin. I want to hold her.

What??? Where the heck did she get baby cousin? I can understand the whole baby in the belly concept but the baby cousin? Too funny.

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Sometimes when Ella is grumpy she actually asks to go to her room for some quiet time. She usually reads or plays with her dollhouse.

Yesterday she was mad at me because Sofia was grumpy and needed a lot of my attention so she went to her room. After about 5 minutes I went to check on her and she was sitting on the floor reading and when she saw me open her door she yelled,

"Don't come in my room, Mommy! Close the door!"

Uhhh, WHAT? Umm, kid, you are 2 not 13! Don't come in my room? Really?

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Ella was going to the bathroom and hears Sofia crawling around the corner towards us...

"Don't bother me in the bathroom, Sofia!"

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Today she was running in circles in the house pushing her baby stroller and she slipped and fell and I heard, "Easy tiger!" then "Are you ok, baby?"

Ricardo always says easy tiger, it's so funny to hear it come out of her mouth.

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When Sofia is playing with something she doesn't want her to play with we always tell her she can't just take it away. She has to give her something equally good and something that Sofia actually wants.

What usually happens is that Ella rips something cool out of Sofia's hands and gives her something like oh a toilet paper roll, and Sofia cries.

So a couple of days ago I hear Sofia happily playing with something and bossy Ella comes up and and I hear, "No no baby Sofia, you're too little to play with that. Here you go. You play with this."

So I come around the corner to see what lame toy Ella has tried to exchange with Sofia. Ella looks up catches my eye and very sweetly says, "I'm so nice to Sofia, mommy." Yea right.
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Yesterday when we were walking home from the library I was on the phone with my mom and I sad, "Are you having a bad day? Why are you sad?" and Ella heard me and yelled up from her seat, "No, I don't want Gaga to be sad. I make her happy. No bad day Gaga! I want to go on airplane to calicforna to see Gaga."



This kid cracks me up.

Sushi, Wine, and Sake = A Good Time!

Last night we went to Flirt Sushi in Allendale with our friends Jessica and Andy, Erika and Rich , Rich's sister-in-law Beth, and Meredith and Marc.


We had such a nice time. The sushi is awesome there and we went through 6 bottles of wine and a bottle of sake! Yikes! Needless to say, we all had fun.


We also surprised (Jessica's idea!) Erika and Meredith with candles on their desserts to celebrate their birthdays (Erika's was on 7/2 and Meredith's is coming up).

Ricardo and me before heading out

The girls-Beth, Erika, Meredith, Jessica,me

The boys-Ricardo, Andy, Marc, Rich

Erika and Meredith blowing out their candles

Date nights are so fun!

Of course when we got home we immediately catapulted back into parenthood as Ella had woken up and was scared when the sitter went to her so we had to calm her down. Poor girl.

Today we took the girls down to Corrado's Market in Clifton. What a great market. The prices are amazing and they have a ton of fresh produce and meats and cheeses. Plus the girls just loved looking around at everything. We bought so much fresh foods for $100. It was great.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

Happy 4th of July!

We hope you all had a nice 4th of July.

We had a wonderful day despite the weather being so-so. It was pretty much overcast all day and when we started to head out to watch the fireworks it started to rain so we just came home, lit some sparklers and then attempted to watch the NYC fireworks on TV. I say attempted, because by 9:00 pm Ella's eyes were so heavy so could barely hold them open, so we just dvr'd them and will watch them tonight.

We started out our day by going to the parade in Ridgewood. Lucky for us, our friend Michelle's cousin Rachel put out chairs a couple days before, so we got a prime location. And yes, people do put out chairs days in advance for this small town parade! You'd think it's the Olympics. What's funniest to me is that no one steals these chairs in the days proceeding the parade. Now that's small town America at it's finest!

So a group of us parked at Rachel and Mike's house in Ridgewood and walked over to our chairs and enjoyed the parade.

Ella LOVED it. We all bought the kids these ridiculous plastic trumpets and they loved them. Any time a band walked by, Ella would spot the trumpet players and start blowing her trumpet too.

I know it's cheesy, but I teared up a little bit while sitting there with Ella on my lap. She was having such a good time watching the parade. I loved watching her little mind soak up all that she was seeing. I loved making a memory with her. It's moments like this that make all the trial and tribulations of parenting worth it.

Even though it was nap time, Sofia enjoyed the parade too. Rachel and her husband Mike have an adorable 12 week old golden retriever named Barney who joined us for the parade. I forgot to get a picture of him but he was a star! Everyone stopped to say hi to him. He's just adorable. So adorable in fact, Sofia said a new word....repeatedly! DOGGY! So now she says Hi and Doggy!

Our attempt at a family picture is becoming futile.

Both girls were exhausted after the parade so we came home and both girls took monster naps. While napping I made corn bread muffins and cupcakes and when they woke, we headed back out to dinner at the Klein's house...this was not a day for a BBQ unfortunately, so we stayed inside. The kids didn't seem to mind.

Spiderman even made an apperance (Sofia says: My hero!)

Charlotte and Ella eating the cupcakes.

Charlotte and Sofia had on the same top, I tried in vein to get a picture of them together but they were all just too busy. This is the closest I got.

It was a wonderful day. The girls were great, the company was fabulous, and the food even better.

Today we're just relaxing and trying to catch up on sleep. Tonight Ricardo and I are going on a triple date (how high school!) with some friends of ours from Ella's school.

Happy 4th of July!

Jon and Kate Plus 8

Have you all heard of this show on TLC. Jon and Kate have a set of twins who are 7 now and 4 year old sextuplets! It's crazy but a great show-very entertaining.


This afternoon was a rough one for Sofia. She was just very cranky and tired and nothing, I mean nothing would mellow her out. We played in the sand box, we played on the swingset, we played with play-doh and little lady was just not having it.

She really has no interest in TV or videos but I went to turn on the TV for Ella and this show was on...before I could change the channel Sofia crawled over to the TV and did this:

She was mesmerized. Ok, so call CPS/DYFS on me for letting my 10 month old watch TV but she didn't leave this position until the show was over. I guess she likes the chaoes...I dvr'd it...Jon & Kate Plus 8 is now my Sofia calming go to show!

Welcome Baby Jamison

Baby girls are everywhere! My friend Corey (seen here a week before Jamison came-can you guess which one is here?)

Gave birth to her second child, sweet baby girl Jamison on 6/28/08.

Ella, Sofia and I were lucky enough to meet her on Tuesday when we went over to drop off some girly stuff for baby Jamison to use. Because you know, sweet baby girls need pink headrests and carseat strap covers. They CAN NOT use the blue things that their big brothers had. :)

She's beautiful and mellow and my girls just loved her.

Congratulations Corey!

I'm a Ballerina!

I'm not sure where Ella got this...it must have been school. But her new thing is to announce that she's a ballerina and then she spins with her arms in the air.

Here she is yesterday dressed in her ballerina outfit from Gaga. This has been in her closet for a year and she's had no interest in dressing up until just recently.

Another Busy Weekend!

We had another action packed weekend this past weekend.

Friday night we went to Chuck E. Cheese for Ella's "potty party". We promised her that when she was 100% day potty trained that she could have a party at Chuck E. Cheese. She's really been 100% potty trained for about 2 weeks but with Ricardo traveling so much we haven't really had a chance to go.

She had a blast! She played a ton of games, ran around, and even want potty there. I also learned that she can count backwards from 10. When we got in to the car I asked her to countdown again from 10 so daddy could hear and she did and this time ended it with, "It's time to go to bed now." HA! She learned to count backwards because we do it when it's time to end something...as in, we're going to up to bed in 5 minutes...3 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minutes, 30 seconds, 10, 9, 8, 7....See, she does listen! :)

Saturday our good friends from San Diego, The Fenilli Sisters, Marianna and Monica, AKA: Mar and Mon were in NYC for a Bachelorette Party so we drove in and met them in Central Park.

It was so great to see them again. Mar and Mon came to the hospital when Ella was born. And they haven't seen her since she was 6 months old (when we moved from San Diego). They also have never met Sofia in person and of course she charmed the pants off of them.

Mar and Mon with Ella the day after she was born

Monica taught Ella how to ride a trike!

Trying to take pictures with Sofia....

Oh, you're pretty

Oh, but you're pretty too

Oh, I'm supposed to look at the camera?

Mar, Sofia, and me

The girls with Mon and Mar...poor Ella was just spent. It was about 3pm and she obviously didn't have her nap. So tired.

Our attempt at a family photo...yup, that's about right.

Marianna is getting married in September in Coronadoand we are so sad that we won't be able to go. Not only because we love her...but the Fenellis KNOW how to throw a party!

Sunday (today) my amazing neighbor came over to "teach" me how to mulch. We have a ton of weeds so she was showing me how to lay down newspaper to block the weeds from growing. She took me to a wholesale market and garden center in Clifton called Carrado's on Thursday to place my mulch order. 100 bags! I thought she was crazy but we used 60 bags on the front yard alone!!!

Unfortunately, we had a crazy storm pass through for the majority of the day but around 3 it cleared and when I went back out to finish what we started in the morning before the storm hit, Susan was out there too and she didn't just teach me, she worked her butt off next to me laying down the paper and mulching. It was hot and humid and we were both sweating up a storm but every time I told her to go sit down or go home, she just shooed me and kept mulching. When it comes to neighbors, we hit the jackpot with Susan and Rick. They take such good care of all of us (including Mikka-they watch her whenever we go away). I don't even know how I can begin to repay them. Ricardo says we just need to pay it forward when we're in our 50's and a young family moves in next door and is as clueless as us!

This is what our front yard looked like when we bought the house in June 2006-look how bad the grass was!

And now-June 2008. Now that the mulch is down, I need to plant some pretty annuals to add some color, but still a MAJOR improvement.

Ricardo leaves on another business trip to LA tomorrow. He won't be home until 1 amish on Friday morning. Ella also started camp tomorrow, so hopefully the week will fly by for us without Daddy around.

Choo Choo Train, Father's Day, and the Beach

Saturday and Sunday were both action packed days, which is why today we are laying low.

Ella had been dying to take the train for probably the last 6 months since we see if go by almost every day.

Saturday morning Gaga, Ella, Sofia and I took the train from Westwood to Hoboken, which is a town in NJ which is on the Hudson River and is directly across from NYC. What a great town and WOW what a view of NYC. Daddy met us in Hoboken with the car (great idea Gaga, since both girls started melting down at lunch) and we all had lunch together, got a parking ticket, and came home.

Gaga, Ella, and Sofia waiting for the train inside the Westwood train station-look everyone is looking at the camera!

On the train! What fun-every time we stopped at a station Ella yelled, "No, I don't want to go home yet."

We were going to go to Chuck E Cheese for Ella's "Potty Party" (seriously, what has become of me?) that night but everyone (read: Ella) was too tired so we just cooked at home.

Sunday Morning was Father's Day! Happy Father's Day Daddy! The girls and I gave Ricardo his cards and he requested a beach day for Father's Day. So we packed everything up and headed down to Pt. Pleasant again.Our friends, The Lomaxes, kids Ben and Jessica-with whom Ella is slightly obsessed with, met us down there too.

Ella thinks she's a mermaid because we couldn't get her out of the water! Sofia just manned the cooler and halfway through the day we saw another family with a tiny baby pool and thought it was a great idea so we bought a little baby pool at the store on the boardwalk (only $8!) and filled it with ocean water so Sofia could play in the water without worrying about the waves. She LOVED it-of course I didn't get one picture of her in it.

Sofia and Daddy

Ella and Daddy in the water

Sofia at the cooler-I want to eat those legs!

I tried to get a picture of the Ella, Jess, and Ben. Jess and Ben cooperated. Ella looks like she's yelling, "C'mon MOOOOOMMM, just let me go to the water!" Oy.


Sofia just chilled, happy as a clam.

Around 3pm the beautiful blue sky began to turn a horrible shade of black. Within minutes the lightening and thunder started and the lifeguard were blowing their whistles getting everyone out of the water. Man, I've never seen a beach clear so fast. For these Californians, it was actually pretty cool getting caught in a summer thunder storm. Of course, we all got soaked! But we didn't mind, we were too busy talking about how fast the rain came and how fast it flooded the roadways. With that, we decided to pack up and head back home. I tried to get some pics while we were loading the car but I don't think it's accurately shows the amount of rain that was falling!




Kind of a cool way to end our beach day!

Today Ricardo left on a business trip to Miami again, but not after getting over the GW(George Washington Bridge)and realizing he left his wallet at home! Oops. Good thing the driver picked him up a little early or else he would have missed his flight.

Hope everyone had a nice Father's Day!

Thursday and Friday

We've had such a wonderfully busy 4 days that I'm going to break them up into Thursday/Friday and Saturday/Sunday.

Gaga arrived bright and early Thursday morning after flying in on a red-eye from San Francisco.
There's no rest for the weary in the Martinez Household and Ella was on her like white on rice the minute she arrived.

Thursday afternoon we had the YJCC's End of School Year Picnic. Ella had a blast.

Ella and Gaga walking in

First there was a concert put on by the Little Maestro's band. This is actually the band, yes BAND, that performs for the music classes that I'm taking with Sofia this summer while Ella is in camp. It includes a keyboardist, drummer, guitarist, and a lead singer. It's so awesome. I can't wait to do it with Sofia.

Ella loved it too (and so did the hysterically funny little boy in red in front of her!)

During the concert, Sam (Ella's friend Jordy's little brother) couldn't keep his eyes off of Sofia...or maybe it's her pretzel.

Naw, I think it was this face he couldn't stop looking at.

After the concert we went outside for the picnic. Ella just ran off and had a blast playing frisbee...look at that athleticisms-in air shot!

She then had a popsicle...or two.

The picnic was a blast and Ella had a great time.

Friday evening, Ricardo and I had the wedding of one Ricardo's close college friends, Tyson. Tyson and his now wife, Hannah live in NYC now, but a ton of Ricardo's old buddies from his SCU days were there. It was like a mini-reunion.

The wedding was AMAZING! Seriously, one of the most amazing weddings I've been too. I can't even bring it justice in this blog. It was at OHEKA CASTLE in Huntington, NY (Long Island). This place was beautiful and we had the ENTIRE castle to ourselves. The ceremony was outside, the cocktail reception was in one beautiful ballroom and included 8 appetizer stations, the dinner and dancing was in another ballroom, there was an entire room devoted to dessert which included (but was not limited to) wedding cake, chocolate covered strawberries, 8 different cheesecakes, a sorbet bar, freshly made crepes topped with rum covered bananas, and fresh fruit tarts. The evening ended with a walk across the grounds with sparklers to end in the library for after dessert cocktails.

It was such a great evening, in addition the breathtaking scenery and mouth water food, we were lucky enough to have great company. I always love being around Ricardo's college friends. Inevietably, Ricardo winds up in tears from laughing so hard.

Before we left Gaga tried to get a picture of Ricardo and I (btw, Ricardo did wear a tie, he just didn't put it on until we got there)...

But what you don't see in the above picture is this:

Awww, so of course we had to get a picture with her!

I tried getting pics with my pocket camera but they really don't do justice to this place, definitely take a look at the website.

When we walked in we were greated by this beautiful floral arangement, which was surrounded by our amazing placecards. They had gotten a picture of every singe guest and used it as our placecard instead of our name. It was amazing and I can't even imagine how much time this took. Luckily there were only 120 guests!

Here are our placecards. They took these pictures when they came to our house for Easter Sunday.

We then walked outside to the cermony location...breathtaking.

The new Mr. and Mrs. Brown


Our amazing centerpiece at dinner.

ok, something is up with blogspot and it took me 2 hours to post this (no lie). So I apologize for any typos but I just went a little blind trying to get this up (cue the violins) so I'm going to bed now! Saturday and Sunday (train ride to Hoboken and the Shore) coming up tomorrow, maybe more pics of the wedding if I can get the pics to load.