Braska Bear

Today's my Papa's birthday. Mommy and my aunties and uncles call him Pa Beagle sometimes, so I call him Papa Beagle, or Papa for short. I don't know how old he is exactly, but I'm pretty sure he is older than me by a little bit. Happy Birthday, Papa, from me and KiKi, too.!!

Now that I’m feeling all better after my surgee, I’m back to sleeping really good.  I even sleep on my back sometimes now. And I’ve never done that before. See my cool shirt?  Miss Julie got it for me from Miss Amy .

Today we went to church at PaPaw’s church and then we went to Miss Cindy’s for a pool day with Daddy’s side of the family. First, we had to take our pictures on the rocks. We do this every year because it is so pretty there. Here’s a peek at last two years of pictures with me and Daddy.  Then I did some pictures on the big rock at the top of the waterfall.  Here’s the pictures from before on the big rock… I’m getting bigger!! KiKi got on the big rock with me for a minute.  It’s fun to watch the water under the rock. Before we put our swim suits on we sat with Grandma C for a picture too.   We had alot of fun swimming today.  It was sunny and hot. Just right for splashing! KiKi did a bunch of swimming today. She likes to go all by herself and kick and turn all around.  She did take a break on the big floaty bed for a few minutes. She wasn’t scared to sit up there o...

Me and KiKi are at Grandma C and PaPaw's tonight while Mommy and Daddy are at the baseball game. We went on a walk and now are reading books with PaPaw. Its ok with me if Mommy and Daddy stay at the ball game for a long time. This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless! To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture . Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Today was the first day of school!  I didn’t get to stay the whole time since I’m not all the way better from surgee yet, but I had a lot of fun while I was there!   Me and Jack decided to wear our shirts that he got for us on his trip a few weeks ago.  He came to my house before school so we could take some pictures.   “Good morning.” Braska: “We’re not going in the house. Pictures are outside today. You ready?” Braska: “Come over here, and we’ll let KiKi in the picture with us.” Jack: “What if I want to just stand here?” Girls: “Is he going to sit down?” “I don’t know.” “Does my hair look ok?” Braska: “What if we kind of sit like this?  It’s what the cool kids do.” Jack: “Ok, I’m here. What now?” Girls: “Just wait for Mommy to take the pictures. Do your hands like this.” Jack: “You want cheese? I’ll give you cheese!” Braska: “Don’t look now but he is being goofy again. No! Don’t look...

My Auntie Rachel is 30 today.  That is a way bigger number than I know how to count to!  She’s far away in a place that grows grapes that belongs to somebody named Martha. I don’t know why she would want to go there for her birthday when we could make her a cake and have a party at our house!  That would be more fun, I think. We have a present for you, Auntie Rach, when you get home.  We miss you!    (Mommy note: Clearly, I need to do better about taking pictures with the girls with Rachel. These are pretty old!  Classics, we’ll call them. )

  After a bumpy start to the night and a few fussy times, we finally had a block of several hours of sleep.  Praise God!  This morning, Braska woke happy and ready to go.   So yes, I took pictures of her doing nothing. But it is everything just to have her feeling good enough to want to play on the bed again!   (click on the pics to make them bigger)

I’m still not feeling good at all.  (Mommy’s telling about it more over here .) But Mommy and me were looking at some of the pictures, while she was holding me today, that we haven’t been able to tell stories about yet, so we thought we’d show you a silly one. This is what we do when Mommy wants us to “say cheese.” KiKi started it.  We have a lot of pictures like this. 

I feel really yucky.  I hurt a lot and I don’t want to do anything but sit on Mommy and sometimes that doesn’t work either.  I hope I feel better soon. (More details over here on Braska’s progress if you’re interested.)

My awesome bud Jen has had a MARVELOUS idea that I’m unfortunately late getting in on with all the hospital happenings of late. Most of you know Sarah, a very cool young lady with Down syndrome, and Joyce, her lovely mother, from My Name is Sarah (formerly Class of 2008).   Joyce is opening a new fabric store and Sarah has been super excited and helping get it all ready. This is a dream of Joyce’s, having a fabric and quilt store and a place that can employ those with various disabilities.  This Monday, 8/9, is the grand opening, and it’s also Sarah’s 21st birthday!  So how awesome would it be to flood their mailbox with best wishes for store success and birthday wishes for Miss Sarah?!?  (By the way, you don’t HAVE to know them to participate.  How fun to congratulate someone on a special event just because they will appreciate it!!) PLEASE get a card in the mail to them asap.  I know it’s short notice.  They will be celebrating all week. If it ...

First, if you haven’t had enough sad hospital pictures of Braska, visit the other , the lesser , the more boring my blog for some additional posts about our stay.  Now that we’re home, and she’s in bed snoozing, though fitfully, we wait…  Wait to see if she will sleep soundly tonight. So far it doesn’t look likely. Wait to see if she will take in more fluids/food tomorrow. She did surprisingly well today, though not near her “norm.” Wait to see if the dreaded “painful days,” days 3 through 7, are truth and not myth. I’ve never SO wanted something to be myth. Braska had a few tablespoons of pudding this afternoon as well as some ice cream.  AND a couple of ounces of milk from a cup.  Yeah. Amazing on a good day. Darn shocking today. Tonight before bed, she started to really seem unhappy and uncomfortable.  She gets such sad, pathetic faces when she hurts or feels sickly.  I gave her the first dose of the (very hard to find) Tylenol #2 th...

A little while ago, they said I could go home.  But I had to wait for things to get all done.  So I rested on the couch a little. Then I waited some more.  I’m tired, you know.   Very tired. Then my super great nurse, Miss Amy, came to get me all unhooked from my cords and stuff.  She took my cover off my arm and there was all this weird tube and tape on my arm.  Maybe THAT’S why my arm hasn’t felt very good! She started to take it off, and she did it slow and nice, but it still wasn’t much fun. Then I had to wait just a second for her to get the rest of it.  Almost done. Now she’s working on the hurty part.  I really really really don’t like that hurty part. I tried not to cry as long as I could, but it just hurt too much.  But I only cried a little bit. (This super sad face is ‘specially for Daddy and Grandma C.  You’re both a little tiny bit mean, you know it.)  When we came home, we ...