Braska Bear

Today’s my birthday.  I’m 7.  But I’ve been telling people I’m 67 all day.  I think it’s silly. Mommy made me a sparkly bling shirt and I did my picture by the door like all the other birthdays. Mommy came to school and brought cupcakes and goodies for my friends.  Mr. H gave me a cool birthday hat when I went to his class.  When my friends sang to me in Mrs. F’s class, I put it on again. This is when they were singing to me.  It made me laugh.  And my picture is on the big board behind me too.  Mrs. F made that for me.  Saturday is my big party.  Lots of my friends are coming, so it’ll be so much fun!  I’ll show more pictures after that. But being 7 is kind of tiring, plus I had extra therapy tonight and I stayed up a little past bedtime to finish my Christmas show I was watching, so it’s time for sleep.  Mommy and me took a quick picture before bed… we’ve been together for 7 years!

Braska reporting: Ta-da! Soon the rest of the little parts will be done too. But for now, I love to slide and sit on this new floor!

Braska reporting: We had a fun dinner with Mommy for her birthday last night. And to finish the night, we did pictures just like the one from last year… with a little extra silliness… This is from last year… Today’s a big day, too.  Me and Mommy and Coach Katie (one of our cheer coaches) are going on a trip to talk to a whole BUNCH of kids about Down syndrome.  Me and Mommy went last year.  I’m sure it will be fun again.

Mommy reporting: So…. today I’m 40. And I’m good with it. I’m actually excited about what feels like the beginning of the next big life stage, but there’s always a slight tinge of sadness for me when it comes to birthdays and anniversaries of different things.  I’ll not go on about that here, but I did want to show you some things that made me smile as I looked back. Miss B in some of her earlier cute glory.  (If you need more, go to the archives in the left margin and go back to 2007 and 2008… lots more where these came from…) From October 2007 From October 2008

Kinlee reporting: Friday was 50s day at my school. Mommy made me a skirt really fast for me to wear. Braska’s school was on a vacation day so she came with Mommy to my party.  She has lots of friends at my school since she went there last year, so everyone is always glad to see her. This is all of the kids from the kindergarten classes at my school with all 3 teachers. We had a fun 50s day!  We even had a sock hop…it’s a dance! In the afternoon, Auntie Rach came to pick us up and took us on a secret mission. We went to get ready for a surprise party for Mommy’s birthday.  It was a super fun time! There was a lot of music and friends to see. It was a great day of parties! Mommy has more pictures of her party on her page too…

Today it’s Papa Beagle’s birthday…  So we made him a movie. Hope you had a really great birthday Papa!

Today was my big fun birthday party!  I’m not quite 6 yet, but I will be on Wednesday. Auntie Cheryl decorated my cupcakes and they were SO cute! I had friends there from lot of different groups and places…  35 kids!  (A couple were missing from the picture…) Plus lots of parents and some teachers and grown-up friends. It was really nice that so many people came out for my party today.  Thanks, everyone!!!

We got to see Grandma C on her birthday this year! She usually goes to have a birthday visit with Miss Karen, but this time she stayed home.  So we went to have dinner with her and then we went around her neighborhood to a few places with nice people. Wanna peek at last year and the one before?? See if anything looks familiar? Here’s when KiKi was 1 1/2 and I was almost 4. (2010) And here’s when KiKi was 2 1/2 and I was almost 5. (2011) And here’s this year, KiKi’s 3 1/2 and I’m gonna be 6 in a few weeks!! I’ve worn the same bumblebee for 3 years!  The same one, not a bigger one.  And KiKi wanted a ladybug again, but she couldn’t fit in the one from before, so we found another one just like it only a little bit bigger.  Next year, we’re going to try something new… Hope you had a great day!

We went to take PaPaw to lunch for his birthday today.  When we got back to the office at the church, before we left again, I got to play in Grandma C’s chair.  We went around and around, and it’s WAY fun! We went to Grandma C’s and PaPaw’s house for some playtime.  We worked on a puzzle with my name in it.  KiKi is really good at knowing where all the pieces go.  (Mommy note: Kinlee was doing the states puzzle recently and saw that the Illinois piece had a picture of an ear of corn on it.  She said she didn’t know why there was corn on there, there should be a Chicago Bear on there! ) KiKi asked PaPaw how many he was today, and he didn’t say anything. So Mommy said “40.”  And then she said “plus 20.”  And since I don’t do that much math yet, I just left it at that. Before we left, we had a family group cuddle.  We love group cuddles.  Especially when we get to be right in the middle! Happy Birthday, ...

It’s KiKi’s birthday today.  She’s 3.  And really, she likes to be called Kinlee now most of the time.  I guess it’s a big girl name for her.  We still all call her KiKi sometimes, though. Mommy asked us to do a nice picture, but KiKi was squeezing me really tight and it made us giggle… She had a fun day, and I had fun with her.  She’s a pretty good sister. (Mommy has more pictures and stuff on her page if you want to see it .)

Yep, that’s what I’ve been saying all day. “It’s my birthday! I’m 5!” It’s been a pretty fun day, and there’s more fun tonight. So I’ll tell you about it soon!

Today was Thursday.  On Thursdays I don’t have school.  So Mommy asks us what we want to do and then if it’s not too hard, we go and do it. Fun! We decided that we needed to go see Grandma C today.  At her work.  And we needed to take her an apple.  That’s what KiKi said.  And we needed to wear our costumes, too. So we did… Since we didn’t get to see her on her birthday on Monday, we gave her birthday kisses today.  (And we got to see PaPaw John and Uncle Ethon too. Extra fun!)

Today is my Grandma C’s birthday. So me and KiKi sang her a song this morning. She is far away at Miss Karen’s house, so we had to take a movie of our song. Here you go Grandma C! We love you!

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month. So we’ll highlight a few little special things about what DS means in our house. [I have Down syndrome.  I like to celebrate with my friends and sing them Happy Birthday.] Today its Jack’s birthday.  He’s 5!!!  We went to lunch today for his birthday, and I had lots of fun, but our mommies didn’t enjoy it as much.  You can see about it over here .  I especially like his birthday because it means that MINE is only a few weeks away!!! Since Mommy forgot to take any pictures today, I thought I’d show you a few old ones of me and Jack…. Here’s one from the first day we met … 5/29/2008 Here’s one from when we were signing together … 10/2009 Here’s one from Halloween a couple years ago … 10/31/2009 Here’s one from my first day of 3-school … 11/23/2009 Here’s some of our Christmas p-jammies pictures … 12/11/2009 And one from this year… 08/15/2011 Happy Birthday Jack!!

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month. So we’ll highlight a few little special things about what DS means in our house. [I have Down syndrome. I love music and singing, and especially singing Happy Birthday when someone has a birthday happening.] We had a nice day. I’ll have to tell more about it later…  but this was one more time for singing right before bed.  We did a good job of remembering and we sang to Mommy this morning when we got up, and it was more perky.  But here’s a little movie of the night-time one…

Today is my Uncle Ryan’s birthday.  He’s had 20 of them.  I can count to 20, but it’s way up there.  When we went on a trip last month and saw all our family for a few days, Uncle Ryan gave me my first class about guitars.  I really like guitars.  I like pictures of them and I like to see them on TV.  But I ‘specially like to get to see them for real.  I watched him play for a very long time.  And every time he was playing or Auntie Julia was playing I had to go sit by them again.  It was very fun. And guess what?  Uncle Ryan even let me play his!  Someday I’ll get another guitar class.  Maybe at Thanksgiving or Christmas.  I can’t wait! Happy birthday, Uncle Ryan!

Today is Daddy’s birthday.  We didn’t make him a cake because he doesn’t like cake.  We didn’t get him new golf clubs because he doesn’t play golf.  We didn’t get him a new car because he already has one.  We didn’t throw him a party because he isn’t really into parties much either. Instead, we just got him a bunch of extra hugs and kisses to give him when he gets home from work.  Those are his favorite thing in the world.  He gets all happy when we give him hugs and kisses.  And since he’s a pretty good Daddy, we like to make him happy. He plays with us, even when KiKi stands on top of him. (Daddy’s family—Do you see something familiar in that face up there? Wow.) He reads us stories every night before bed. And when Mommy’s at work, he tucks us in and brushes our teeth really good too. He loves to sleep. A lot. And he likes it best when me and KiKi will cuddle, too.  He even let KiKi sleep in the living room one night ...