Braska Bear

Tonight I wanted to play Candy Land.  I asked a bunch of times, and Mommy finally said we could play after she cleaned up the kitchen from dinner.  She got the game down for me, and by the time she came in a few minute later, I had it ready. I opened the box, got the board out, got the cards out, and put my little man on there.  “Come on!  It’s time to play Candy Land!”  I said. And we played. And KiKi got to the Candy Castle first.  But that’s ok. It was fun!

Today you would be 5. I know how your family enjoys birthday celebrations.  I wonder what you would have picked for your birthday dinner.  No matter what it was, they would have all loved sharing it with you, watching you charm them all like you did every day.  I bet your rendition of Happy Birthday would have been the BEST. We miss you Laynee Bug … and we are making some BIG birthday wishes in your honor and on behalf of your Mommy and Daddy tonight… 

I took Jingles to church with me today.  I sat with Mommy and Daddy today, while KiKi went upstairs to class. Jingles sat with us.  I think he liked it. Then we went to Costco, and we showed Jingles how fun it is to shop there.  We LOVE going to Costco!! Tomorrow, Jingles has to go back to class, so I get to write all our fun things down in the Jingles Journal that he brought home with him.  We’re even gonna put pictures in there!

We went back to dance class today since it’s Saturday.  Here’s a little movie.  (Me and KiKi are 3rd and 4th from the left, I have the purple BabyLegs on.)

It’s very late and it was big day, so here it is quick! After school, we had a special lunch at Chimi’s and Daddy got to come meet us there too.  It was fun! After Daddy went back to work, we finished up our lunch.  Mommy was giving me drinks and decided to let me try to use the straw again.  And I surprised her BIG!  I got drinks with the straw!  That’s new! After we got home from lunch, it was time for naps. We had to rest up before out big party tonight!!!  I got to bring Jingles home for the weekend. He’s our class pet at school.  I get to do stuff with him and write about it in my journal.  Of course I want to show him to you too!  He tucked me in for nap… KiKi had to take a turn with Jingles, too, of course.  She thought he was cuddly. Tonight we went to Jump4Fun for a big party with all my friends who are “extra” cute like me.  I took Jingles along to show him how fun it is there. We had SO much...

We stayed home again today because KiKi and me were still pretty darn snotty.  It’s hard to sleep when all that stuff is in our noses, so we were a little grouchy. This is our playroom. It looks nice and neat on the floor, but it’s because Mommy put our toys away where we can’t use them for a while.  We left a big mess after Mommy told us to clean up.   Sometimes we don’t listen very well…  especially when we’re grouchy, like today. This is our library. A library is where there are lots of books.  We have little chairs so that we can sit and read.  Since we didn’t take care of our toys, Mommy reminded us to take good care of our books.  We definitely DON’T want to lose our books!! Sometimes we have to learn things that aren’t much fun, like putting our toys away.  But we learned about it and we did better.  And THAT made Mommy happy!

I stayed home from school today because I was pretty grouchy this morning and I was still a Snotty McGotty.  We got our comfies on and watched some shows, and we played some too.  We didn’t want to be in the playroom today. Mommy kept asking us why we were playing in the living room, but we just wanted to play out there today. KiKi got up in the hiding place in the easel.  She almost doesn’t fit. Then I did it too, because I like to get in that spot.  I usually climb up in there when the easel is in the playroom.  Then we played on the floor a little.  KiKi likes to play with Mommy’s phone, and I like to watch her play.

Every day at school, we pick a job.  I like to be the light helper, or the counting helper, or the weather helper maybe.  But at home, when Daddy is working with Mommy’s computer on the couch, I like to be the computer helper.  I asked Daddy, “Can I sit with you? Work on the computer?”  And he said I could.  So we looked at lots of pictures together. I’ve been a Snotty McGotty the last few days… that’s what we call it when I’ve got an icky nose.  It’s all red and it hurts some.  I hope it’s better soon.

Wow. What a busy day we had!! First I went to school.  Mommy and KiKi went to the Y for exercise and Y-School but then they came back for my special snack time with Miss J and Miss S.  And Miss C was there today too. She checks on how big I am and if I’m eating healthy things to make me grow.  Today I wasn’t bigger. I was smaller again.  BUT—I was taller.  So I have to start eating things that will help me get bigger to go with my taller-ness.  (Mommy note: Stats today—26 lbs, 37.75 inches.) After school, we went home for a quick lunch and went to the eye doctor.  It was time for my check-up to see how my eyes were doing. This time I decided I wanted to sit in the big chair myself.  Mommy was really surprised, but I’m 5 now… I can do lots of things myself!  The first doctor looked at my eyes with some lights and showed me a little movie. Then the first doctor put drops in my eyes and then sent me back out to wait a little mo...

Today we went to see Elmo’s show .  It was GREAT!  Sesame Street friends were there and we had a lot of fun! KiKi took a picture with Dorothy before.  I thought the picture time and playtime before was a little too loud, so I didn’t want to do pictures. Then we went to sit in our seats for the show.  We took silly pictures with Auntie Rachel. And Mommy tickled and bounced me a little to get me ready for the show.  It was good to have a minute to relax before the music started. Then they came out!!!  They were just right in front of us! This is what we did when we saw them….. It was a lot of fun!!  We didn’t dance around and laugh like Mommy thought we might, but we watched the whole show VERY carefully and liked it a lot.  We just never saw anything like that before!  When we got home, Mommy wanted to take pictures of our cute shirts, since this was the first time we wore them…  ...

Today we got to go back to dance class again.  It’s always fun! After dance, we went to PaPaw’s house because cousin Xander was there visiting.  We played a lot.  He went to take a nap, so me and KiKi sat with Grandma C a little and played on the couch with PaPaw.

Christmas stuff is gone now, but we liked having cute things around and especially the things on the windows. We call it decorating.  That means sticking things on windows.  So today we got to do more decorating with lots of hearts.

Kinlee’s been into words all her life. Especially since her big sister has been a big fan and forces word flashcards, books, and letter games on her every chance she gets. But KiKi has taken off long ago, passing up her big sis, which is ok and just part of the natural dynamic of our family.  She’s a great reader, which we are very excited about, and lately, Kinlee has been pushing the development envelope a little into spelling and just has started a real interest in writing, too. So a few days ago when she decided to play a new game with her magnetic letters, it blew us away and made us proud all at once. (In case you’ve not got time for the whole thing, there’s spelling at the beginning, then the last minute or so is writing, the first real attempts.) I do so wish the sound was better and I wasn’t so darn loud… you can just barely hear her working out each word, making each sound and thinking outloud about what letter it should be for that sound. Then today, on her ow...

Tonight while Mommy was at work, Auntie Rach came over to play with us a while.  We went to get yummy eats and did some shopping.  And we got this fun thing that matches our room.  It’s so that we can see how big we are getting. My number (37.5 inches) was just a tiny bit above KiKi’s number. (37 inches) It’s gonna be fun to see how fast we grow!  Thanks Auntie Rach!

Today it was cold. REAL cold.  So we had to bundle up a little bit more than usual.  When we got to school, Mommy wanted to take a picture of us in our winter stuff, but KiKi was too cold and didn’t want to stop for a picture. She was happier later when we got home and we asked Mommy to go outside, and she said, “Yes!”  Wow!  We were surprised, but we went right out and had some fun! We like to play on our swingset a lot. Swinging is the best. Like the best thing to do. All the time. Even when it’s cold.

Sometimes I get out of bed but I’m still tired. So when Daddy holds me after nap, it’s nice to snuggle up and get a little more sleep.

KiKi is really good with the computer. She can figure stuff out so quick.  She can find good things to watch and play fun games on the computer.  I like to try sometimes, but I can’t make it work good like her.  So she puts on our songs and videos for me to watch.  Today we watched some good Laurie music. KiKi likes to play Starfall .  She knows how to open up the computer and make it go to where Starfall is.  I like to watch her play and tell her where to go next.