Extreme Bubble Bath

When we were in NJ, Ella enjoyed an extreme bubble bath on Saturday night. Mom and Glenn's tub is a jacuzzi tub with jets, and Ella had a ball!

Many bubbles!












This video clip shows what she did pretty much the whole time - dancing and laughing at herself in the mirror!

Central Park Zoo

Our trip to the Central Park Zoo was Ella's first trip to the zoo. It was a cold and wet day, so not ideal for being outside and walking around, but the upside was that we pretty much had the zoo to ourselves!









Ella took full advantage of wearing her boots - here she is enjoying some serious puddle-splashing


Petting a turtle


My favorite exhibit was the tropical bird house. There were beautiful birds all over who were not at all afraid of people and it was so pretty so see them all. This peacock had his feathers all puffed out and was about a foot away from us, just walking around proudly and strutting his stuff.







Snow leopard. There were a few people with really nice cameras that seemed to be intently and seriously photographing this snow leopard. Unfortunately Ella yelled and it ran away! (In her defense, he came back after a few minutes.)






The sea lions were very neat. It was about half hour before their feeding time and we figured they must have been hoping we had food, because they came right up to where we were and put on a little show!







Red panda


A stork, standing on one leg


There were a ton of penguins, it was really neat to see them swimming around and socializing on the rocks







A little family of monkeys, they were all snuggled up and huddled together, pretty cute


Me and the Wild Woman


Fast asleep on the way home!

Trip to NJ

Ella and I took a trip to NJ last weekend for a long weekend. I haven't been home since summer of 2008 when Ella was about 8 months old. We see everyone so often down here that it's not really necessary, but a lot of time has passed since I've been back so I really wanted to make the trip and thought Ella was definitely old enough to be manageable to travel with. It was Glenn's birthday weekend, so seemed like a perfect time to go. Plus I figured by waiting until the first weekend in April, we should avoid all possibility of winter weather.

Ella of course doesn't remember her first plane ride since she was just a baby, but got very excited for the prospect of the plane ride to NJ. Due to bad weather, we had a 2 1/2 hour delay at the airport and Ella wanted to play the whole time. I had brought a bunch of quiet, in-place activities like books, coloring, and some games I downloaded on my phone for her, but she wanted none of that - instead she wanted to play store which involved several rows of chairs and of course the 'cash register' was over by the window! When we finally got on the airplane it was dark and most people tried to sleep - not us! Ella narrated loudly throughout the entire flight - she was really cheerful and happy and just talked and talked nonstop. When we finally landed she was so excited to be there and said really loudly "when we getting off this rocket ship?!?"

Mom and Glenn picked us up at the airport and Ella was so happy to see them and show off all her tricks. It was late by the time we got home but of course Ella said she wasn't at all tired, and after taking a tour of the house and meeting all the cats was finally ready to go to bed.

We woke up to snow on Friday morning! Glenn was at work so we went over to his office so that Ella could meet the ladies that work for him and see where he works.






On Friday afternoon we headed into the city. We went to the hotel that Mom stays at a few nights a week for work and met some of the people she knows there, and then went to her work and met many people there. Ella was really shy but everyone was so sweet and friendly, and I was really glad to meet everyone. Then we went to Central Park Zoo, many more pictures of the zoo coming!

On Saturday my friend Courtney came over for a great breakfast that Mom and Glenn cooked, it was so great to see her. She hasn't seen Ella since that summer we were last home, and I was so excited to catch up with her after so long and get to spend time together.



Ella took this one!


Then my friend Ashley came over and we went out to lunch together. Mom and Glenn stayed home with Ella and Ashley and I got a chance to catch up and talk and enjoy some girls' time together.

Here's a picture Ella asked me to take of her "doing a trick"



Grammy and Ella decorating foam Easter eggs



Ella with some treats from the zoo - her new favorite purse and water bottle



Mom, Glenn and Ella


We went out to dinner to an Italian restaurant on Saturday night to celebrate Glenn's birthday. Glenn is friends with the owner who gave Ella a little pizza cutter and asked if she wanted to come in the kitchen and see the ovens where they cook the pizzas. She wanted to, but didn't want to go by herself, so I went with her. When it was time to touch the pizza tray, she didn't want to, so I did it!



One of the cutest things Ella said all weekend was when we got home from dinner, Glenn was getting Ella out of her carseat and she said to him, "That was a great restaurant!" - it was adorable!

Singing Happy Birthday and birthday present for Grampy


Ella spent all weekend chasing the cats around the house. She knows all of their names, loved feeding them and talking about them, and here she is feeding treats to Tessa and Romeo


Checking on Tucker


After church on Sunday (Ella played hooky with Glenn halfway through!) Glenn and Ella made whipped cream for a special dessert


Enjoying their product!


It was such a great trip and we were not ready to leave on Sunday afternoon. I loved being back home and getting to show Ella lots of neat things for the first time, plus getting to spend the time with Mom and Glenn. Ella keeps saying she wants to go back to NJ so I hope we're able to go back again soon!!

Ella-isms

Some recent memorable quotes from my little lady -

Steve was giving Ella a bath upstairs and I could hear all kinds of wild laughter and hooting and hollering. He got her out of the tub after a while and it got pretty quiet and I heard lots of loud whispering. I went upstairs to get a basket of laundry. Ella had her back to me, but heard me coming up the stairs and yelled out "Daddy, it's the monster!" Then she turned all the way and said "Oh, it's Mommy. Mommy's not a monster, she's a great girl!" It was music to my ears - I couldn't ask for anything more than for Ella to call me "a great girl" :)

We were on a walk and Cory stopped to do her business. After she finishes, she has a habit where she uses her back legs to kick up grass and whatever else is on the ground. On this morning the ground was wet, and Ella happened to be in a bad position behind her. She kicked up footfuls of mud, and it went directly into Ella's face. She shrieked, turns toward me with a face full of mud and said very sadly, "Cory kicked mud on me. She's not being friendly."

We were driving down the road and there were a few birds in the road so I started to drive very slowly so they would fly away. Ella asked what I was doing and I said there were birds in the road and she said "Oh no, we don't want to hit them! Then they will have big ouchies and their Mommies will have to come give them kisses and keep them safe." (It made me so happy that this is how she views mommies.)

We were playing store and I was the shopkeeper and Ella asked me where all the different things were and I would point them out for her to pretend to get them to buy. They were all normal store items, like "where is the milk?", "where are the snacks?", "where are the sodas?", and then all of a sudden she said "where are the pink alligators?" - ha!

On the way home from school Ella said to me "Mommy, there were seeds in my sam-wich today." I told her, "it's okay, it was just some grains from the bread." Her reply: "I don't like seeds. You need to buy me other bread at the store."

Ella wanted a cheese stick but wanted to open it herself. After a few minutes of trying she asked me to help her but I was in the middle of feeding Cory so I asked her if she could ask Steve to do it instead. She was like "nooooo Mommy, you need to open it" so I walked over to open it and at the last minute she said "Daddy you can open it! Mommy, don't worry - you're still my best friend!"

I used the word "debacle" to describe something and for some reason she was really fascinated by the sound of it, and she laughed and asked me what it meant. I wasn't sure the best explanation to give her, so I said "it's when several things go wrong in a row." About an hour later I was asking her to calm down and stop jumping so I could brush her hair and she said "sorry, no, it's a debacle."

After an exceptionally procrastination filled bedtime, we hadn't heard from Ella for about 10 minutes or so, then she started saying "Mommy, I need a kiss. Mommy, I need a kiss." (she knows this always gets me!) So I go in, she's in bed playing with a toy, wearing her watch (which she did not have on before bedtime). I saw something on right next to her lip that looked like food and I said "are you eating something?" because I just couldn't figure out what she'd have in bed. Her reply, "no Mommy, it's lipstick!" Ah, of course it's lipstick - why didn't I think of that?

Quick Update

Thank you for the sweet and caring comments on my last post, we really appreciate the prayers and kind words. I wanted to give a quick update on Ella. By the end of the night on Friday her leg was hurting again, but she was fine when she woke up on Saturday morning, and has been great all weekend. The top of her hand is bruised from the IV and has been bothering her, mainly just putting a shirt on and off, but I'm assuming that should heal in a few more days.

Steve went up to MD and VA for his Uncle's funeral, so it was just Ella and I this weekend. We took it VERY easy, and barely even left the house except for the grocery store yesterday and church today.

Last night Ella had us play a long game of 'sick animals' (with her many stuffed animals) that had to go to the doctor. Some kept coughing and that's why they had to go, and some had ouchies on their legs and couldn't walk and had to go to the "hop-si-tal" and get a shot, and they didn't get lollipops after. It's amazing how much I learn about how she experiences things and remembers them, from listening to what she says while she's playing.

Anyway, I definitely think a quiet weekend was good for both of us, and I think Ella will do great at school tomorrow!

Scariest Night as a Parent

Monday night was the scariest night we've had as parents so far. I'm sure this will be a long one to read, so I will start with the most important part first - everything worked out okay, and Ella is going to be completely, 100% fine. BUT, oh my goodness, what a night we had with her.

Ella had intermittent leg pain starting last Wednesday, where she could complain that either her knee or her thigh hurt for a little bit, but then she would be fine. On Friday afternoon it was really bothering her and she didn't want to walk on Friday night, so we decided that we'd take her to the doctor on Saturday morning.

The night before this started, Ella threw a legitimate, crazed-toddler tantrum after dinner. Steve gave her the color vitamin that she didn't want, and then when he went to give her the color she wanted instead, she popped the first one in her mouth so then we said she couldn't have the second one. Well, this was the wrong answer and she went berserk. She threw herself on the couch and kicked her legs crazily for about 2-3 minutes. I've never seen anything like it. Because this happened the night before she first complained about her leg, we thought she must have strained a muscle during that crazy outburst.

On Saturday morning, she woke up completely pain-free and was back to normal, so we were convinced that our theory was right and her muscle must have healed itself, and we did not take her to the doctor. She was fine all weekend and we had a great weekend. Monday morning, still fine, but then on Monday afternoon her teacher called to tell me that her leg was really hurting her, and that she had been limping since lunchtime. She didn't sleep at nap time, I'm guessing because she was in so much pain, and after nap time was over, she said she couldn't stand up because her leg hurt so badly. I went and picked her up, and she wasn't crying, but seemed miserable and just wanted to be held. As soon as I got home we decided she couldn't wait until the morning to take her to the doctor, so we headed to the urgent care nearby. The doctor there told us just to take her to the ER because she was in so much pain.

By that point she was in so much pain that just getting her in and out of her car seat was causing her to cry. We got to the ER and while we were in the waiting room, she wanted to be held by one of us while we were standing, not sitting, and would cry out anytime she shifted at all, it seemed that she was in pain in both legs and her torso or ribs. We couldn't even imagine what could be wrong with her, but knew we had never seen her in so much pain, including when she broke her leg and sprained her foot, this was much worse. It took a few hours to get checked into a room and she got worse very quickly during that time. Her legs went completely rigid and she wasn't able to bend her knees at all, even with the doctor trying to force them to bend. She laid in one spot in the bed and couldn't move her legs at all, and was in so much pain.

The doctor told us they were concerned was a septic infection in one or both of her hip joints, but could also have been a necrosis of her bone due to the prednisone she had been on for croup a few weeks ago (she got hives for several days following the prednisone so we know she had an allergic reaction to it), very low potassium levels causing muscle problems, or another problem with the joint, but they really weren't sure. From the outside, everything looked fine, no swelling, redness, or bruising, so it was clearly something internal vs. an injury.

They x-rayed both of her hips and took tons of blood, and after that gave her morphine for her pain. She'd been awake from 7am until 1am without sleep, so in addition to being in the worst pain of her life, she was exhausted, hungry because we hadn't eaten dinner and they wouldn't let her eat the snacks I had brought for her because they weren't sure if she'd need surgery. She finally fell asleep about an hour after the morphine, and was really out. She fell asleep holding some stickers one of the nurses had given her, like they were her little treasures. I cannot even explain how it felt to see her in so much pain like that, it was the worst feeling ever.

The X-rays ruled out bone necrosis and blood work ruled out low potassium, so they were more convinced it had to be her hip joint, because it was not the bone itself. They decided we needed to be transferred to the bigger hospital that has a more specialized pediatric department. Around 1:30 am the transfer team came to get her and I drove with her in the back of the ambulance. She looked so tiny and sad strapped in the stretcher and I was so glad she slept through the whole transfer and ride. While we were in the ambulance, her blood pressure dropped to 70/40 and because it dipped so low they had to quickly give her some fluid in her IV. Fortunately it quickly came back up, but that was one of the scariest parts of the whole of the whole night.

Once we got to the other hospital, they did ultrasounds of both hips, which she stayed asleep for. After that the orthopedist came to talk to us and said there was fluid found in the ultrasound, which indicated either septic joint or transient toxic synnovitis, but they couldn't be sure which one. Then they did x-rays on both knees, she woke up at that point because it was so painful to bend her knees, but she fell back asleep after. It was about 4am by then and Steve and tried to take sleep as much as we could until about 5am.

Throughout the whole night, there was tons of waiting. We'd have one thing done, then wait for several hours until the next time we saw a doctor. Plenty of nurse visits in between, but they were really just to check on Ella and keep track of all her vitals than to give us any news.

Sometime a little later in the morning the orthopedic surgeon came by and said he thought that from her blood work and ultrasounds, that it was very highly unlikely he would need to do surgery on her, that there was a less than 2% she would need surgery and he seemed really confident she would not. That was really good news and was the first time we started to feel a little better about things.

They took some more blood to check again on her counts and make sure everything looked good, and her blood work was very good again. A few hours after that, they told us we were going to be discharged because she definitely did not have a septic infection. What a relief! Though they were not 100% positive, they were pretty confident it was the transient toxic synnovitis, that is where the joint has fluid and inflammation around it due to a virus, and in many cases patients that have it will have had an upper respiratory infection a few weeks ago, which was exactly the case with Ella since she had croup a few weeks ago. He told us we need to follow up with a specialist but were officially free to leave, and that it should heal on its own with rest and Motrin for pain / inflammation.

We got home, totally exhausted and worn out from lack of sleep, worry, adrenaline, but so very relieved that we were home and grateful that Ella was okay, etc. We've been home the past few days with her and she is doing so much better - she is up and walking around, having fun, and in no pain at all. She has a very different idea of 'resting up' than we do!

This was without question the scariest thing we've been through with Ella - she was in so much pain, we knew something was wrong but had no idea what it was, and we were just so helpless to do anything. I prayed non-stop throughout the night and knew that when we aren't able to do anything, when even the doctors do not know what is wrong, that God was holding Ella in His hand the entire time, and I knew that He would take care of her.

We are so grateful to have been blessed with Ella as our daughter, and I absolutely know what a precious gift health is; this experience certainly confirmed those thoughts. I am one lucky Mommy.

My Big Girl

We had another first today. Ella can be very shy and is generally very attached to me when we're in new or unusual places. She warms up after a little bit, but is still typically a lot more secure and comfortable the closer I am to her.

Well, today we were getting her 3-year and Easter pictures taken, and there was a table with a bunch of legos on it that she wanted to play at and build. She wanted me to sit next to her and build the legos with her, and so I sat in a little chair (that was way too small for me) and we played legos for a while.

After about 10 minutes or so, another little girl came over, and said "hi, what's your name?"; Ella said, "Ella. What's yours?"; The girl said "I'm Isabella. I'm 3." Ella said, "I'm three years old! We're all 3!" Then the little girl said "Can I play with you?" and Ella started handing legos over to her and said "sure you can, we can both build." I was so proud of her for being so friendly and willing to share the toys.

They had a little conversation and played for about 2 minutes and then Ella said to me "Mommy, you watch us play. You go sit over there." I couldn't believe it! Not only was she being friendly and playing with a new little buddy but she wanted me to leave so they could play by themselves! I went and sat in a chair right behind her and she said "No Mommy, you sit over there" and pointed to another chair a little further away. They talked and had fun and played really nicely together; and I was so pleased with her being so independent, such a big girl!

Super Girls

Ella and her friend Kati in their superhero capes at gymnastics this week. My friend Nicole is very crafty and she and Kati made a cape for Kati; then Kati decided they should make one for Ella too - it was so sweet, and they were adorable in them!

Trip to Maryland

We went to Maryland this weekend to visit Steve's side of the family, it was great to see everyone. We got to Steve's Dad's house on Friday night and Teresa came over for the night - Ella had so much fun playing with her and then they had a sleepover on Friday night. Ella stayed in her room the whole night, we were impressed, and Teresa got to discover the joy of sleeping with a 3-year old :).

Big hug for Aunt Tesie


On Saturday morning we went over to Steve's Uncle Carlos and Aunt Suzanne's house. They have several grandchildren and so they were well prepared for our visit! It was really nice to see them and Ella really enjoyed her time with Tia Suzanne.

Having fun with Grampy and Grandma Carole




Throwing rocks in the creek with Grampy. We had nice weather and Ella loves being outside and throwing rocks, so this was a hit!


Tree climbing with Steve...she always says she wants to "climb trees" but then once she gets up there, she's not so sure she likes it!


Pretty girl


Making breakfast with Grampy. Ella cracked eggs and stirred, she loves to help in the kitchen.


We had another reason for our trip as well, that was to visit Steve's Uncle Doug, who was very sick and passed away yesterday. We were able to see him on both Friday and Sunday. Steve and his Uncle Doug were very close and we will all miss him. I am glad we were able to visit with him this weekend and say goodbye.