Braska Bear

Four years ago today, I handed my girl to a team of people. Basically strangers.  Their plan was to cut her perfect skin, crack her sternum, stop her heart, poke, stitch, and patch, and then bring her all back together again.  And I still let them have her . Amazing. Though not without lots of prayers in the moments before… See that tiny girl up there?  3 months and 1 week old. About 11 pounds and 20 inches, at the very most. Her life to this point had been largely sleeping and watching the world go by, punctuated by lots of doctor appointments.  And now we were going to introduce her to “real life” in this way ? (If you haven’t read through the story as it happened, you can go here and find links to all the posts about the experience. There are videos, pictures, and more details about how it all went.) I often call Braska my little SuperStar.  She amazes me every day.  She has already, in just over 4 years, totally surpassed all the expectatio...

Maybe it’s because music is part of my core nature, maybe it’s because I have a daughter with Down syndrome, or maybe it’s because it’s just an inspiring story.  No matter why it caught my attention, I’m glad it did.  (Thanks Ria for posting!) It’s really short…take a look.  I just LOVE seeing girls about this age who are just living life. Who knows where Braska will be and what she’ll want to do, but it’s fun to think about her in an opportunity like this. I couldn’t quit focusing on her speech and articulation… so good. Now if only we could commute to that class once a week…

That’s what I tell Mommy every day.  “Uh-wanna watch-a show. Puhleeeeeze!” So this morning, for our morning show after breakfast, and after we were dressed in our hang-around-the-house clothes—warm shirts and BabyLegs --Mommy put our pink princess couch in the watching spot and turned on the TV.  I even have TV buttons of my own.  Me and KiKI both wanted to watch Word World . It’s our favorite show right now!  We have lots of them saved on the TV, so we can watch it anytime Mommy says it’s ok. “Let’s build a word! Oooooooh. M-ILK. MILK!  Hey, I know that word!” “Let’s back that up and watch it again!  M-ILK… MILK!  I love milk!” ”Ah yeah, that’s better. I just love Pig and Duck. They are the best.” If I try real hard, maybe I can talk Mommy into some Sight Words or Sesame Street next. But she probably will make use go play a while first. Can’t hurt to try, right? So that’s what we’re doing today. What are you doin...

Today we’re having a big winter storm. We had ice everywhere yesterday and today we got a bunch more little ice balls called sleet.  It looks like snow if you see it in these pictures, but it’s not.  All that is just little tiny ice balls.  Daddy is trying to shovel it so it doesn’t get too deep. But there’s big bunches of snow coming now that’s gonna get all over the sleet. KiKi wanted to go outside and play while Daddy was working. She she got on her snow bunny suit and Mommy and I stayed inside to watch them from the warm, through the window. When KiKi Came in, her face was ALL red and wet and COLD!  But she thought it was still pretty fun.  No, thank you. I’m gonna stay inside. Where it’s warm.