Ella's Pages

For Halloween Ella’s horseback riding is done in costume. Here she is ready to go.

As Bethh always said, Ella would be the flower girl at her wedding. As she predicted… Ella performed her task flawlessly (with some help from Netta). A lot of excitement all around…

Well… Ella’s cast is finally off. It was only on for less than three weeks, but with it being on her good arm, it really incapacitated her. We are noticing a slight regression in her skills as a result. I hope it will be very temporary and she will be back to where she was before the fracture very shortly. In the meantime we need to work with her to encourage her to try and do things as before. These include walking up the stairs with no help, taking off her shoes and socks, handling a drinking cup. We know she can do it, she just has to get back to it.
The process of removing the cast with her was quite amusing, as she was very involved and responsive. When the cast first came off she was totally ecstatic, staring at her hand, wiggling the fingers and yelling out in delight.
When the doctor came in to examine her she handled it all on herself (maybe for the first time). I said nothing
Doctor coming in.
Ella:’hi doctor waters’ (how she remembered his name is beyond me)
Doctor:’how are you Ella?’
Ella:’dud’ (good)
Doctor:How does your hand feel?
Ella:’dud’ (good)
Doctor:’can I take a look’
Ella:’yup’
Doctor:’does it hurt?’
Ella:’nope’
Ella:’all done’
Ella:’I want bye bye’
Doctor:’I think you can go. It is all fixed’
Ella:’bye bye’

It seems like forever since I wrote…and Ella has made so much progress. I especially saw it after returning home from being away for almost 4 weeks in Europe. Ella seemed to me much stronger in her walking and also much more able to carry on a “conversation” of sorts. One has to know what kind of sentences she can answer and also know how to prompt her. Most of the time, I really enjoy figuring these things out. For example, this morning, while trying to figure out how to fill the time until the morning babysitter arrived, I suggested that Ella and I walk around the house singing “Chitty, Chitty, bang, bang” songs. She is really into the music for that movie. She knows all the songs and can certainly get her idea across about what song should be sung when. So she was all for that idea of walking around the house and singing. Thinking about the “conversation” I am not sure who actually suggested it. Just goes to show, Ella really does communicate and is a master of her own fate.
Lately, Ella gets really exhausted in the evening. So much so that she can barely walk up the stairs without me pulling the left side of her body up, step by step. And the last couple of days she hasn’t been able to take off her own shoes and socks as she had been doing every night with me. I hope it is because she is getting so much exercise with her babysitters.
This week is free. School is over and her camp starts next week. Yesterday she was at the zoo with Stef. Day before that, she took the T (train) to the swan boats in the public garden. That includes tons of walking and tons of excitement for her. On the one hand that is great exercise for her. On the other, we get “zombie Ella” by the end of the day!
By the way, Ella is now 7 yrs. old.  We celebrated her birthday last Sunday. It turned out really nice for her.  About 12 of us were there.  All the Portman cousins, Angela, Greg and Karen.  Everyone sang “Happy Birthday” and Ella just about flew around the room from excitement.  This year, as Etan said, we were sure she understood the whole birthday ritual.

For her birthday Ella got to go to StoryLand. Her favorite ride: The Whales

Ella at the Friends for Tomorrow annual riding show. Totally enjoying it, cracking up herself and the handlers.

We are really lucky to be living in an area where the school system is so great. We would not be able to put together such a program for Ella otherwise even if price were no object.
The level of attention, dedication and seriousness never ceases to impress me.
Today we had Ella’s annual assessment/progress report/planning ahead. It is when the so called IPE for next year is put together determining what services Ella will get next year.
This year had an added importance since we also discussed whether to have Ella spend an additional year in first grade. We’ve been having discussions with the school, reading up on this and trying to think if this is the best option for Ella. The bottom line is that we think it is. With the progress she has been making with her communications as well as with her academics we think she will benefit greatly from having access to the mainstream first grade again, this time taking more advantage of it as she is able to connect better to what is happening in the classroom. And build a better base for her reading and writing that are so important.
We shall see.
It was an emotional meeting with (I felt) the staff backing this decision and optimistic about what Ella will be able to achieve.