Braska Bear

I got some good things on Christmas Day. Books to read and toys to play with and learn with. I've been enjoying playing with all of it this week. Mommy only lets me have some of it at a time so I don't get tired of it all. Grandpa J got me a great big bag of color balls, and they are fun! Mommy put the gate up in the hallway and closed all the doors so I could just push them all over and they couldn't get away. I played with them for a LONG time! Here's a little movie of me playing with my color balls too. I also got some drums to play with in the bath tub, and I figured out how to do them the first time I played with them! Here's another little movie to show you. ( Mommy note: There is a pretty impressive minute in there for us...she "got it" about the drums in a way we didn't expect. Can you tell what it was??)

We had more Christmas today! This morning we got up and had some presents to open from some very nice ladies at Daddy's work. Since we didn't have presents at our house until these, it was fun to get up and have something to open! Isn't that super sweet of them?? I got a very fun puzzle that will be good for me to practice with. It has animals on it!! Then we got dressed and ready to go to Grandma C's house. I played in the paper for a while, and that was tons of fun! Then Mommy said it was time to go have even MORE Christmas! I couldn't believe it! I told Belle all about it, but she just stayed home and napped. I got some fun books and toys, and they'll all help me to learn and get stronger. And there was plenty of Elmo!! It was fun after it was over, but I didn't feel like opening the presents myself. I played with them later after things were quieter though. Here's me and Shaylin. We only have a few weeks left to be THE cousins. My mommy ...

Today we went to Grammy and Papa's house. Everyone was there again, just like back on Turkey Day . We got there and played some games before everyone else got there. I played with some fun toys that Grammy had. Mommy and Daddy played with the other kids and Papa some game about words. Everyone laughed alot today, and I didn't like that. Sometimes people laughing alot bothers me and makes me cry. Today I didn't feel very good, and it upset me a few times when they all got silly and loud. Daddy and Belle tried to make me happy again. We had a yummy lunch, but I only took one tiny bite of smashed potatoes and then I was "Done!" I took a nap while everyone else opened presents. It took a long time, but there was some good stuff. Papa got the most presents, and that was a pretty big deal! I got some neat things, like a REALLY big book! Kinlee even got presents, but she couldn't open them, so Mommy and Daddy did it. We got home, and I'm going to bed...

Well, we're on day 12 of this crazy cough, cold, icky stuff. Braska's first cold, and it's lasting this long? I think there's more to the story. Since she developed a rash yesterday to go along with the rest of the stuff, I took her in to the pediatrician today, and the verdict is a sinus infection to start with. Then the rash is a strep rash, but the strep test came back negative. Many of you know that sometimes these goofy kids of ours can trick the strep tests and carry it to others without actually showing all the signs, like fever, themselves. So we're treating for sinus infection and strep, and hopefully this will prove to begin the end of this. I'm hoping that her getting better will mean I can finally start to get over my side of things too. So we'll be hanging out for another couple of days and hoping that by the time we need to head down to my parents on Wednesday we will all be well down the path toward being all better. Merry Christmas!

I've been working on crawling for a long time. I just don't see why everyone wants me to do it. I can scoot around pretty quick, so why bother, right? But I've been trying it out for a while, just a little at a time. Last night, Mommy caught me coming down the hallway from my room. She thought I had been making it faster than usual when I went down there to play, so she went to see what I was doing. Take a peek at my new little movie!

Me and Mommy are still sick. Can you believe how long it's been?? I hope it's done soon. We've been mostly just resting and napping and playing some too. Here's a couple pictures from the last few days. I'm having lots of fun standing up and playing with stuff that's not on the floor. Everyone says that it's good for me to help my legs get strong. My PT brought me a fun thing that I like to practice my steps with. I can go all the way down the hall with some help. I get to borrow it to practice for a couple weeks. And I'm learning to get up on other things too, like the gate to the kitchen. Sometimes it is to keep Belle in there, and sometimes it's to keep me out! But I figured out today that I could hold on to it and stand up.

Today's Grammy's birthday! She went home yesterday after coming to help us for a couple days since Mommy and I have been sick. We had a good time reading and playing and taking baths. I didn't even yell when she cleaned out my nose! She must just know how to do it right! We didn't take any pictures, isn't that silly!?! Have a good birthday, Grammy!

Today me and Mommy are hanging out at home. Daddy went to play cards with the guys back at our old town, but since we weren't feeling good we didn't get to go. I've had alot of stuff coming out of my nose, and it makes me grouchy. And I learned that when I'm grouchy, Mommy can get grouchy too. So we thought we better not go with Daddy this time. Miss Julie, Jack's mom, brought me some medicine yesterday that works good for Jack, and it's helping me. Thank you Miss Julie!!! This morning I went down the hall to my room, but I found out that the door to the bathroom was open, so I went in there instead. Mommy came looking for me when she heard me talking in there, and she found me. She must have thought it was good because she went to get the camera real quick. The reason it's good is because I can't usually get up by myself. She even sat me back down and told me to do it again, so I showed her how I stood up all by myself! I always like to play at the tu...

Today I practiced standing alot. I'm working on helping my legs get stronger so I can walk by myself soon. I was a little grouchy though, maybe because my teeth hurt some, so I just did little bits at a time. My friends Amber and Katelyn gave me these fun tables to play with, and Mommy put them close to each other so I could go from one to the other. It takes me a while, but I am getting better. I also practiced my standing and sitting today, and I'm getting so much faster! Look at me go! Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com Then tonight I took a bath and Daddy helped me wash my hair. He is so silly, and he made me look silly too!

It's that time again... time to look at what we've accomplished and where we're headed. Or I should say what BRASKA'S accomplished, since I'm not working all that hard, but she IS. Let me back up for the sake of those who are newer to this fun of acronyms. IFSP is the individualized family service plan that is initially done with a kid enters the EI (Early Intervention) system, normally soon after birth for kids with special needs. Every 6 months, or when a change needs to be made sooner (OR when you change states), it is reviewed and updated. This goes on from birth to the 3rd birthday. In our experience, it has included the service coordinator--who keeps everything in line and organized regarding all our services/therapies needed, the various therapists and service providers, and the parent(s). We basically walk through the various therapy categories relating to the goals that we set 6 months ago, discussing how she has done, what goals she's met, what s...

These are some pictures that I didn't get put up when we took them. So I'll just put a bunch of them up for you to see. I borrowed Daddy's hat because it matched my dress pretty good! Don't you think it looks better on me??? We went for a quick visit with Miss Jessie and our friends at her church. Miss Melanie is so nice and she always reads my stories, so I showed her how good I'm getting at practicing steps. We all went to lunch together and it was pretty fun to play with the boys at Miss Jessie's house after. For Thanksgiving, we went to Grammy and Papa's house. It was a nice day, and I just played around on the floor alot. We call it "chilling out." I made some funny faces when Mommy tried to take pictures. The next day, we went back to the kids hospital so I could do another test. This time we got the nice lady who doesn't hurt me when she takes my blood. Daddy went with us this time and we got to look out the big high-up window by where...

Yesterday me and Mommy went on a little trip and came home with Belle . Remember our little dog when we lived in our old house? Well, I don't really remember her very good, and so I was pretty scared of her. Yesterday I didn't want to play on the floor or anything, but today we are doing ok. She just leaves me alone, pretty much, so it's ok. This morning Mommy and Daddy fixed our back door so that Belle has her own that we don't have to open for her. It's pretty funny when Belle goes through it, but she doesn't like it yet. It's a little different than the one at her last house. She's getting better, but I'm trying to help her practice. Here's me showing her that it's a happy thing to use her little door. And then I showed her where to go out. She will figure it out one of these days soon. I'm trying to catch up on pictures, so there should be a bunch soon!!

The OT came today to see me. I've had a couple of weeks off, so this was the day to remember what to do. First we did some really messy stuff with food colors that I got on my face and p-jammies. But then she gave me a box with rice in it that I liked to throw on the floor. There were little things hidden in there.

There are so many good pictures from my birthday that we decided to put a few together to share in one spot. Remember, you can click on the picture to make it bigger to see better. Thanks to everyone who got me nice things and sent birthday cards! I had so much fun with all those envelopes!!

If you missed part 1 , click here to catch up. And before I get back to the story, there were a couple questions, so I wanted to throw the answers in here, even though I replied by email, in case they're helpful or interesting to others. What was the heart defect that Braska had? She had complete AV canal, sometimes known as AVSD in simple terms. She was diagnosed the day after she was born and had surgery to repair it at 3 months. It was a large hole between the upper chambers and another between the lower chambers, and both actually meet to make one hole. She also had some valve issues since there was nothing for one side of the mitral valve to attach to, so they repaired all that in one surgery… 9 ½ hours. But she’s been peachy ever since! Why so many (appointments)?? We just see her reg ped once a year unless she is sick. Much of what we do on these day-long adventures is preventive medicine. In other words, it's making sure we're not heading toward problems, not so...

I hope you all had a fun day eating yummy food and being thankful for all your blessings! We went to Grammy and Papa's house and the whole bunch of Mommy's family was there. I didn't eat anything, but everyone else said the food was super good! (Aunties Julia and Joy in front. Then Uncle Jody, Auntie Skye, Uncle Ryan, Daddy and me. In the back is Papa and Grammy, Auntie Rachel and Mr. Patrick, and Mommy.)

Tuesday we went to Children's to see most of Braska's specialists in one day. This has been our habit at 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months. It's worked well each time. That's the good news. This post will be interesting to some, confusing to many, and is mostly for my own record keeping. So read along, but don't feel obligated to understand it all! And by the way, please feel free to ask questions at any point about Braska's care or therapies or daily life. I love to hear from those of you who want to know more details about things for whatever reason. So don't hesitate to ask! My mother-in-law was good enough to arrange her schedule this week so that she could join us to be extra hands throughout the day. This was a good thing! We met at Children's at just after 8:30am. We headed upstairs to the 3rd floor to start our day of waiting rooms and exam rooms. ENT/audiology (Ear, nose, and throat, AKA otolaryngology): We see Dr. M every 3 to 6 month...

We've been really busy so I haven't been able to show you my other birthday pictures. Here's a little movie of me playing with the best toys Daddy ever got for me! I still have them on the floor because I like them so much!! Tomorrow I'll be gone to see lots of doctors all day long with Mommy and Grandma C, so I'll try to put up pictures later this week.

I had a pretty good day, even though I started to feel sick a little in the afternoon. My nose is getting all runny. I think I caught Mommy's ickiness from last week. I hope not. I'll put up more pictures later, because we took a whole bunch! But I'm really tired, so it's time for bed. Here's just a couple... My favorite present was from Grandma C and Grandpa J. An Elmo chair!! I sat in it almost the whole night!! I'm gonna love watching Elmo in it tomorrow! And I had SO much fun playing the balloons that Daddy got for me and put all over the floor. They were the best!! I am gonna play with them more tomorrow too, but I have to go to bed now. It was a fun night, and I laughed and played more than I can remember ever!

This morning Mommy and Daddy sang a silly song to me because it's my birthday! They sounded silly since Mommy's still a little sick and Daddy just sings funny all the time. I'm 2! I helped Mommy make the cake for my party tonight. This is the first time I ever got to make a cake, so I had to look over the steps on the box. Then we mixed it all up. Now it's in the oven...and it's smelling yummy!

Two years ago, 11/21/06, 2:27 am. Welcome, Nebraska Larae. Our first family pic, about 15 minutes later...when I met her face to face for the first time. It seems so surreal to look back at that picture. I feel like I should have alot of stuff to say about this birthday thing, but I don't. I could go with the "we've learned so much" and "we're so blessed"--both of which are true--but I should sure hope that you know that by now! So I have no wise, moving, and memorable speech about Braska turning 2. We've enjoyed these two years, and we look forward to this new one and the many to come. In case you haven't heard the REST of the story of Braska's entry into this world, you can click here and here to catch up.

Braska's been just loving her words lately. She's still signing some, mostly when we're in public or around strangers, but she's adding more words all the time. Many of her words are just attempts at the actual word, but that's where we all start, right?!? We're not saying that she'll be giving speeches next month, but we are very proud that she's become such a mimic and that she is loving using so many sounds. We practice often, just running through her words, signs, and tricks. She especially loves to chime in with videos of herself, so I've been working on compiling all her favorites for her to work with. As I was editing this, she was sitting here saying the words over and over. So funny to hear her talking to herself on the screen and loving it. So here's a peek at some clips from our practice session tonight. Some words are more obvious than others. They are all great attempts, though, and we'll celebrate that! Make an on-line ...

I've been trying to help Mommy feel better by playing nice lately. So I haven't been putting up pictures as often. Here's some fun ones that we've taken lately though. Mommy found me sleeping funny again the other morning when she came to check on me. I don't remember how I got this way. I helped Mommy take the pictures off Kinlee's walls. It came off really easy. I was a good helper! Daddy took me and Mommy out to dinner last week for remembering their wedding day 8 years ago. I got all dressed in a warm outfit because it was cold!! Saturday night Amber and Katelyn came to play with us again after we went to dinner with them. They brought me a whole bunch of toys!! Isn't that nice!! I really like them and they help me practice my standing. Thanks!! I gave Kinlee my bed, because Mommy said if I did, she would get me a new one. This week I got my new bed, and it's super cool! It even has neat ways to change when I get to be a big girl. I love...