Ella at almost 6 1/2

This morning, for the first time ever, I dropped Ella off at the car-pool gate instead of parking up the street, walking her to her classroom, waiting til class starts and walking back to my car. I do enjoy spending a little more time with her in the morning, and being involved (the small amount that I can) with her classroom, but it does take up a chunk of time in the morning. I would have been early for work, too, but the traffic lights were out on Mulholland and Sepulveda (a large, busy area) so I ended up being a bit late.

We rented "Charlie & The Chocolate Factory" (Tim Burton/Johnny Depp 2005) from Blockbuster on Thursday and she loved it so much, she watched it every day for 5 days until we had to return it. She loves the book which we read to her at bedtime (in English) and she's been reading it by herself during quiet time in her class, and now I am reading it to her at bedtime in Dutch as well. I loved Roald Dahl when I was young as well, so I'm happy she likes it too. The illustrations by Quentin Blake in these new versions of Charlie are a bit quirky and not as beautiful as the edition I remember reading, but unfortunately the version with illustrations by Joseph Schindelman is no longer in print.

Speaking of Dutch, she attends Dutch School every Saturday morning and is doing well. Last year when she started, she did not say much in class, but Juf Iris reports that she is starting to speak up more. One of Ella & Felix's favorite songs is "Isabella Caramella" by Annie M. G. Schmidt.

We have not yet been visited by the Tooth Fairy. The one wobbly tooth (bottom, front) has been like that for about a year. I suppose it will come out eventually. There is one girl in her class who already has braces.

Funny: the other day when we were walking to her classroom, there was a car parked on the sidewalk, very close to a hedge. She said, "Only a pencil could get through there... a walking pencil!"