LegoLand

Tuesday of our vacation, Ella and I, and several other family members, headed to LegoLand on Tuesday. Once again, Ella was Miss. Dare Devil and wanted to ride all the rides. We went and saw a little Christmas show (which Ella sang along to…shocking) and then got some pizza (which I had planned on sharing but instead Ella ate the whole thing by herself). Then we headed to the rides. We first went on a little boat ride and the wait wasn’t too bad, maybe 30 minutes. Next we went to this safari ride and the wait was an hour. While the wait was terrible, the worst part is that I had to hold Ella the entire time. With so many kids running around and bopping in and out of line, I just didn’t feel comfortable putting her down. There was too much risk of someone knocking her over. By the time we got to the ride my back was killing me.

While we were standing in line a nice woman tapped me on the shoulder and said, “I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but they have special passes for kids like her.” I had emailed ahead of time to ask what services they had for kids with special needs and they told me that I needed a note from Ella’s doctor stating that she couldn’t wait in line. That was going to take too much effort, especially 2 days before we left, so I just didn’t do it. I assumed that the lines wouldn’t be too bad in the off season. Boy was I wrong! After we got off the safari ride I decided to ask the worker about the passes. She was so nice and gave me one to accommodate 6 people so that others in the family could ride with us. The pass was great! We were able to go directly to the front of the line and I would give the workers our pass, then they would write a time on the pass and we would just come back at the time noted. Shortly after I got the pass I met up with Joe’s sister, Mo, who has a 3 year old (just 6 weeks older than Ella) and a 5 year old. Since the girls are close in age we were able to take them on the rides together and they all had a great time. Ella even rode her first roller coaster! She yelled “I’m all done!!!” the entire ride, but I was so proud of her for getting on the ride and doing it. I LOVE roller coasters, so I really hope Ella learns to love them too.

It was a fun day, although we missed having daddy with us. Half way through the day Joe called to tell me that he was feeling much better, so that was great news!

Wednesday was a rainy and dreary day, so we spent most of our time inside. It sounds sad, but after 2 days packed full of activities, I was glad to have a day to relax. In the afternoon we had our family pictures taken (minus Katie and her family since they couldn’t make it this year...we have a new nephew coming soon) and afterward the men headed out to an all you can eat restaurant.

Thursday was the day we were supposed to pack up and head home. In true Murray fashion, we missed our flight. There was a mix-up and we thought our flight was at 4:15 when in reality it was at 1:45. It actually worked out for the better because we got to spend another night with the fam, our new flight we had a direct flight from San Diego to DC (otherwise we would have had a layover in LA), and our old flight left at 1:44 pm and had us getting into DC around midnight (putting us getting home around 2 am) but our new flight left at 8 am and had us getting into DC at 4 pm. So, it all worked out great. The only bad part was that Joe, Ella and I all shared a bed, which meant that neither Joe nor I got any sleep.

Ella was a complete champ on the flight! 5 ½ hours is a long time to sit on a plane, but Ella was great. I had lots of activities and snacks for her, so whenever she would get bored I would hand her something new. It was a great trip and we had so much fun spending a week with Joe’s family.

Quick Story

I promise to get a post about LegoLand up soon. For right now, I have to tell you this little story. It probably won't mean as much to you all as it does to me, so just humor me.

I've mentioned several times how shy Ella is. I try to make light of it, but it really bothers me. I want others to see the funny, smart, adorable little girl that we see at home. While she has grown leaps and bounds in preschool, we still have some struggles. She cries every day when I drop her off. While it does make me sad, it's more annoying (does that make me a bad mom?). She's going to have to go whether she cries or not, so I just wish she wouldn't fight it so much and would just walk in without a problem. The teachers assure me that within a minute she's completely fine, and when I pick her up she's smiling. And I believe that if she did cry the entire 4 hours they would call me to come get her, or at least tell me about it at the end of the day.

The problem is that Ella still isn't really talking to the teachers and she's not really playing with other kids. She more just sits on the outskirts of the class and watches what the other kids are doing. I think part of the issue is that there are 10 boys and 4 girls in her class, so I think Ella spends a lot of her day just trying not to get pushed, bumped, knocked, etc. by any of the boys. Don't get me wrong, the boys in her class as good kids, but boys are, well...boys. And anyone who's been around 3 year old boys and 3 year old girls knows that they are VERY different.

Anyway, it really worries me that she's been in school this long and is still having problems socializing with other kids, as well as her teachers. I want Ella to grow up and be a well-rounded person, but I can really see how being an only child and being at home with a nanny for 3 years has caused her to be very introverted and unsocial. Until this year she has never been anywhere without me, Joe or Metti standing right by her side, holding her hand. At the time we really felt like we were doing what was best and were taking every precaution to keep her from getting hurt. Now I feel like that has kind of back-fired. Sure, she didn't get hurt when she was 1 year old, but instead she doesn't have social skills. Of course the second she gets in the car she tells me all about the kids at school and she calls them her friends, but she won't interact with them during the day.

I am part of a bible study through our church that is specifically for moms of special needs kids. I'll tell you more about this group later, but today when we were doing prayer requests I mentioned how I really want Ella to learn to play and interact with other kids her age. It's really bothersome to me that she's been in school this long and still has trouble interacting. So as we were praying the leader specifically prayed, "Lord, please give Ella a friend." It was so touching to hear her pray that.

When I picked Ella up from class a couple of hours later, I got to talking to her teacher about some things and the teacher and her assistant told me about something that happened in class. Apparently all the kids were sitting on the floor and the teacher asked them to get a partner (I don't remember what they were going to do). She said that one of the little girls instantly scooted right next to Ella and put her arm around her.

Well, you know me...I burst into tears! I told them all about how the bible study leader had prayed specifically that Ella would get a friend, and now one of the little girls was reaching out to be her friend. It's just so awesome how God not only answered our prayer, but answered it immediately.

This may have been a fluke and not happen again, but it was the encouragement I needed. I have to keep reminding myself that Ella is only 3 and if we keep putting her in situations to interact with other kids, eventually something will click. And I have to keep reminding myself where Ella was this time last year. Compared to last year (even compared to last summer), Ella has made remarkable strides! I know that she'll get through this, it just may be a long road.

Christmas, Part Deux

At 11 am on Christmas morning we loaded the van and headed to the airport. We were off to sunny California…although they had been experiencing some pretty intense rain so the sun hadn’t been out in awhile.

We arrived around 8:30 pm San Diego time, which meant that it was 11:30 pm DC time. Yeah, that wasn’t working with Ella. Once she started preschool we put her on a pretty strict schedule, so she’s in bed by 9 at the absolute latest (typically between 8 and 8:30). We had a short flight from Los Angeles to San Diego (30 minutes) and Ella fell asleep within minutes of getting on the plane and slept the entire flight. She woke up when we had to pick her up to get off the plane, but fell back asleep in her stroller. The poor child was so tired and kept trying to go back to sleep, but we were too mobile and had to keep moving her from the stroller to the bus, from the bus back to her stroller (inside the car rental place) then from her stroller to the car seat (which was broken, so we had to take her back out of the car seat, install a new one, and strap her into the new one). She was a trooper, but was definitely not happy about it. When we got to the room we put her to bed and within 30 seconds she was snoring. I felt bad because I knew the rest of the family wanted to see her, but it just wasn’t happening that night. They had to wait until the next morning…when she woke up at 6 am (oh west coast time, how I am not a fan of you). Fortunately I have the best husband on the planet, so he got up with Ella while I slept.

Sunday was family day with the Murray’s having a big brunch together and singing cheesy Christmas songs (just imagine the 12 days of Christmas with different groups doing different days…we had “6 geese a laying”). Unfortunately sister Mo and her family had mechanical problems, so they arrived a day late. We were all bummed by that.

Monday was when the excitement really began.

Yep, we got a private tour of behind the scenes at Sea World. A girl that Joe’s sister, Sue, grew up with works at Sea World, so she gave us a private tour. It was absolutely awesome! We saw the walrus’ up close and personal…some family members got walrus snot on their pants and shoes, and we got to feed the walrus. Then we headed over to see the Polar bears. In the words of Ella, “They were CHUGE!” Finally we got to go see the Beluga Whales (above) and got to feed and pet them. It really was the coolest experience of the trip. In the afternoon we got to see the dolphin show and Ella got to ride several rides in their Sesame Street section of the park. This was the first time she was really excited to ride the rides. Usually she’s a big chicken and we have to coax her on the carousel, but not this trip. She rode everything without a problem and even saw a big roller coaster on the boardwalk and asked if she could ride it.

Unfortunately Joe was up most of Sunday night not feeling well, so he left right after the dolphin show. The poor guy spent 2 days just sitting in the hot tub and sleeping (although the sitting in the hot tub doesn’t sound too shabby to me).

I knew San Diego would be warmer than DC, but I never imagined that it would be hot! I lost my mom of the year award when I forgot to bring Ella's baseball hat with us. She wore Joe's throughout the entire dolphin show. Then I re-won my mom of the year award when I bought her this:

I hate to say it, but this hat may replace her "Mets Princess" baseball hat.

I’ll post about LegoLand soon. There's just too much excitement for one post.

It’s over…Now things can get back to normal

The house is a disaster with presents scattered everywhere, we had a situation where a portion of the basement flooded so Ella can’t play down there until we get the mold taken care of (fun times) and I am completely out of laundry soap, which means there hasn’t been a dent made in the piles of dirty clothes. All that said, we had a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Now, school is back in session, Joe is back at work, and I’m attempting to put the house back together.

I’ll have to take the Christmas break in steps because too much happened to report in one post.

On December 16^th Ella had her preschool Christmas show. Her 3 year old class joined another class and sang 2 songs. Here’s the video of the second song. Ella was singing along great, but she wouldn't do the motions. Oh well. The little boy next to Ella is in her class and stared at her the entire time. Apparently she was singing pretty loudly (he knows Ella so I’m sure he wasn’t staring at her because of her EB). By the end of the song she was tired of the staring, so you can see how she responded.

The program was precious. Grammy Janet was able to come down and see it with us, and Boppie joined too. Isn’t the dress fabulous!? It was a present and you could tell that Ella felt like a princess. She flittered around all day. In fact, on Sunday I was going to put her in another dress and she wasn’t having any of it…only the red polka-dot dress would do.

I loved being home with Ella the week before Christmas. She’s such a fun kid and I love her little personality. We were able to go see The Festival of Lights out at Bull Run Park, and the National Zoo light show (where she got to ride a little train).

We spent Christmas morning at home (which was wonderful). We were able to attend the Christmas Eve candlelight service at church, and Santa even came to visit! Ella wasn't too excited about Santa until she saw the presents he left her on Christmas morning.

Just about a week before Christmas Ella added something else to her list...a Princess Maker. If you've never heard of a Princess Maker, it's ok...Ella's mom and dad had never heard of one either. Luckily Santa is a smart guy and knew that the best place to find out was on facebook, so he posted a message asking his friends if anyone had ever heard of a Princess Maker. Luckily Santa has several friends who have little girls, so they were able to help him out. Then Santa sent me a picture and asked me to confirm with Ella if that was, in fact, the Princess Maker.

So, on Christmas morning Ella walked downstairs and saw this

She was beside herself with excitement! The only other present that got this much attention was her Rosetta dress-up outfit from cousin's Thomas and Jessica (although I'm pretty sure Thomas had nothing to do with the gift). She played with this non-stop until we forced her to change clothes and we had to head out to San Diego. And the minute we got home from San Diego she started playing with it again and it pretty much consumes her day from morning until bedtime.

2 years ago we had an Elmo filled Christmas. This year we had a Princess filled Christmas, and Ella couldn't be happier. She got books, dress up clothes, videos, a purse, etc. She loves those princesses...but when your name is Ella, just like CinderELLA, of course you have to love princesses (although right now Ella's favorite is Snow White...shhh, don't tell Cinderella).

Santa also brought Ella her bunny slippers, which she was very excited about. He decided that this wasn't the right year to get her a doggie. Maybe when she's older.

Joe and I have a deal when it comes to presents: He gets me what I want and I get him what he needs. It sounds like a bad deal, but it works since Joe will buy himself what he wants and I buy myself what I need.

So before Christmas Joe got all sorts of hunting gear that he wanted, which meant that for Christmas I got him the luggage that he desperately needed. Before Christmas I got myself a new purse (since I had the other one for 3 years) and for Christmas Joe got me a new video camera! It's one of those tiny little cameras that will fit in my purse. I was so excited! It has become clear that the older Ella gets the more we're going to need a video camera and can't continue to use the one on our regular camera, so this is perfect!

We flew out to San Diego on Christmas day. That deserves a post of it's own. In the meantime, Merry Christmas...belated.