Braska Bear

I have been busy thinking...how did these spots get on my dress?? Daddy's been trying to help me have some fun... click here to see how he's doing it. Funny stuff!!

Today I met a new friend that lives really close to our new place. He is "extra" cool just like me. I wanted to talk to him about who he likes for people who teach him stuff like crawling and playing. It's always good to get the inside tip, you know. His mommy, Miss Julie, and my mommy both talked about alot of stuff, so I think we'll be able to play together soon. He's good at eating and crawling, so Mommy says I need to have him teach me some things about that. (ETA: Don't miss Jack's blog !!) This is how it went for us when Mommy sat us next to each other. Jack: Ummmm, there's someone new next to me. Braska: Ummmm, there's someone new next to me. Jack: Hey, she's kind of cute. I wish she'd look at me. Braska: Uh oh, I think he's looking at me. Is he looking at me? Jack: Oh. Maybe she's gonna look over. Should I say hi? Braska: Hey, is he still looking my way? Should I say hi? Jack: Maybe she's not gonna say hi. What's she...

Today was pretty fun for me. We didn't really do much, but I found all kinds of good stuff to get into. Mommy thinks it's funny how I can get all over the living room and stuff now by scooting and rolling and stuff. She is surprised when she's in the kitchen and then I just show up! First we watched a little HGTV . Mommy always laughs when she notices that I'm watching. It's not as good as Food Network , which is my favorite, but I like to see all the colors and pictures of neat places. Then Mommy started taking pictures of me being silly. Sometimes she takes too many pictures. You'll have to excuse her. And then, in the afternoon, after I'd made a mess all over my shirt and was playing in my "naked baby" outfit as Daddy calls, Mommy caught me playing with new things. (Mommy note: This qualifies as a grandparent video. It's cute and all, but it might be too long for some. But hey, it's got great music, so enjoy that for a little br...

Now that we are in St. Charles, we've been doing regular stuff again. I'm hanging out with Daddy some when he comes home for lunch and after work. Monday we went to Uncle Ethon and Miss Cheryl's house. It's nice to only have to drive a little bit to see Grandma and Grandpa and the uncles. We even get to go back home the same day! I wasn't so sure about everyone, so I sat with Mommy most of the time. I did play on the floor some, and I liked watching when they were playing games on the TV after dinner. Today, we went to see Dr. G at the DS Center. She's always so nice. We got to see Miss Alison too, and she always helps us with stuff to make sure we're all taken care of with my other doctors. It was so neat to go to the appointment and be home by lunch time! First I read my book a little while we waited just a minute for Dr. G. They took me to the silly scale too, and I'm 18 lbs 7 oz now. Dr. G looked me over and said I was doing really good. She said my ...

Today we're trying to get all these boxes out of our house. There are alot of them, but Mommy's getting rid of them one at a time. Daddy and I helped a little while this morning, but then we thought of something better to do. Shhhhhhhhh....Don't tell Mommy we're not working.

Tomorrow I'll be 18 months old. I think that sounds pretty grown up. Since I'm having that birthday, I went to see Dr. Y last week on Thursday so he could see how good I'm doing. We won't get to see him anymore since we're moving to St. Charles. That's kind of sad, because he's a very good doctor for me. I got on the silly scale again. It said I weighed 18 lbs and 1 oz. 18 pounds and 18 months! Dr. Y said I really need to try to gain some more, but I think I've got enough on me for now. Otherwise, he said I was doing really good. Miss Courtney gave Mommy a package of all my papers from there, so we can take them to our new doctor. On Saturday, lots of people came over to help us load up a big truck. It was like people all over and they kept carrying our stuff around. I just stayed out of the way and played by myself. I thought they might accidentally put me on the truck too! Mommy even had to go get another truck so they could load it too! O...

Things at my house are really messy. Mommy is putting all our stuff in boxes, and it is making for a real messy place. I don't hardly have places to play anymore, but she says it will be done soon. Since everyone has been busy doing things, I've had to find stuff to keep me from being bored. Daddy was packing some books, so I looked through a few of those. I also thought I'd help by packing up the trash in Daddy's room. Mommy said I should find something else to do. On Monday morning I found some neat lines on the floor while I was waiting for Miss Judy to come. Miss Judy said this is the last time she would see me. I guess she's not coming with us to St. Charles. She showed me some pretty fun bubbles that come out of a little stick. I thought it was really neat! I even tried to do it myself. Here's a little movie of me playing with the bubbles. After Miss Judy left, Miss Andrea came over with Josiah, Ty, and Levi . She helped Mommy and played...

Today is Mother's Day, so I gave Mommy a big hug this morning extra special. Happy Mothers Day to the grandmas and all too! It's also Daddy's birthday, so it was his special day too. I took a nap on him today at lunch. After church we went to lunch with Mr. Dan, Miss Jennifer, Olivia, and Hunter. Then I spent the day playing while Mommy packed and worked on the house, and Daddy painted a little and played on his computer and watched movies. We have alot to do, so I better go help Mommy some more.

Last week on Friday and Saturday, my friend Olivia came to play with me for all day both days! Her mommy and daddy and baby brother Hunter were moving to a new house, so she came over to our house while they worked. It was fun to have someone around to play with. We thought it would be fun to take a bath and splash alot, so that's what we did. Olivia can splash better then me, but I got her good a couple of times. Then we got out and dried off in our big towels. After our bath, we watched Baby Signing Time together. We both have poky dot shirts on too! On Monday we were in St. Charles and got to have lunch with Auntie Rachel. She liked my Cardinals outfit, but she should...she gave it to me! When we got back Monday night, Miss Jen came over with Sophie and Alexander. She got a new computer that Daddy was helping her with. We played while they worked. I'm gonna miss my friend Sophie alot.

It's big news time--We're moving to St. Louis. Well, actually St. Charles, just NW of St. Louis. It's where I lived before we got married 7 1/2 years ago and I moved to Champaign. It's where M got a new job, just finalized yesterday after a whirlwind process that only began late last week. It's a bittersweet time, as we will miss Champaign a whole lot. This is the longest I've lived anywhere in my life, and that's something. It's been very good to us, and sometimes it's been a little cruel to us, but that's life in this world. All in all, I will think on my time here very fondly. We are excited about being close to family, close to friends in that area, close to Braska's doctors, eliminating the trips down for appointments and such, trading a 3 hour drive for about 30 minutes to downtown. The new job is very good, and it seems like it will be an easy transition for M to slide right into. He starts in 2 weeks, so the chaos will be overwhelming...