Braska Bear

Braska reporting: Last week on Friday, Mommy and I took a trip with Coach Katie.  She went with us to talk to a bunch of 6th graders in another town a little far way from here about Down syndrome.  Mommy talked to 6 classes of them… she said the same thing every time and they watched a video.  Coach Katie talked, too. She told a little about my cheer squad that I was on last year.  After we talked, we went and had some lunch with the teachers. One of them is Mommy’s friend from a long time ago.  Me and Katie took some silly pictures, too.  Well, mostly I was silly… It was fun day.  This is our second year to go down there and talk to the kids. And we’ll probably go next year, too.

There’s been some things like web pages and booklets that have my pictures on them lately.  And lots of my friends are there, too.  Here’s a couple if you want to see them! **Be sure to check out the DSAGSL.org page about WDSD. Some familiar faces helping the page be adorable!  **This was the All Ability Expo where my cheer squad did a show.  I’m in there if you look for me. (5th picture from the top) **And here’s our little email newsletter from the DSAGSL .  Each week I get to be up there in the top with my smile! We heard that I’m also on one of those big signs next to the highway for one of my schools, but we haven’t seen it yet.  It’s on one of those like a TV that changes it’s picture every minute or so, and we haven’t been able to see if it’s me yet.

We're really busy (we say that alot at our house!) lately, and so we haven't had time to put up stories.  My mommy has 3 jobs now and some days she does all 3 in the same day, so she hasn't had time to be on the computer much. But she found this movie and remembered we never put it up for you to see!  It's from my competition routine in Joplin last month.  We did a super good job on this day, and Mommy got to get right in front to get the movie, so you can see me in most of it.  We even added little things to the movie to point to me! I've got another competition in Cape Girard-O this weekend.  That's how I like to say it. Girard-O!  We'll be cheering on Sunday all day if anyone's down there and wants to come see us. Hope everyone is having a great time getting ready for Christmas!

I got another one today. My team is the winner again!  But I am VERY tired, so it's time to sleep early. We are staying in a hotel, so I hope I sleep good. And mommy does too.

Today I got to do another cheer competition. I told Mommy when we were getting dressed, “I LOVE cheer competition!”  And we had lots of fun today! I was so excited. And I did my parts really good today!  There were lots and lots of cheerleaders there, from lots of different states.  But the big news is that we won our division! Woo Hoo!  Our team got a big sign to put in our gym. I got some neat stuff to take home, too… another medal, and a super cool sweatshirt. Next weekend I have one show in St. Louis on Friday night to do, and then we go to a place called Joplin for another BIG competition on Saturday and Sunday. KiKi’s team didn’t do their routine today, so she watched with Mommy and Daddy. She was a little sad.  But when we go to Joplin, her team gets to go and do their stuff there, too.   It’ll be a fun girls trip with Mommy. This time we had 3 new cheerleaders, from my group of “extra” cool friends in my town.  I love my team! I ...

Tonight at cheer, I went ALL the way up! High as they could reach me. And I didn’t get scared at all.  Coach Steve put KiKi up on his hand again, and he even walked around with her up there!  She didn’t get scared.  She’s really good at being up there and staying straight up. We also practiced tossing tonight.  We stand on their arms and then they toss us up in the air.  I didn’t mind it, but I didn’t stay up like I was supposed to.  KiKi flew pretty high on hers.  Mommy caught a picture as she was coming down. KiKi also helped Coach Becky with the rope on the Tinker Bell swing.  I didn’t know she was that strong, but she sure tried to pull on it. We have some more of our friends who visited tonight and who are going to be cheering with us.  YAY!

First we started with some pictures in the backyard with the leaves. We didn’t want to take real pictures, so Mommy just got some of us being silly. But we’re still cute, I say. KiKi just kept wanting to pose. We did stand together. For just a second. But then we wanted to just throw leaves in the air. Then we went to the store and got a few last things we needed for the big picnic. It was the picnic for all my friends here who are “extra” cool like me.  KiKi tried to do monkey bars but Maddie had to help her.  She’s nice like that. We had to leave the picnic early to go to see Coach Sara and Coach Steve at their game.  They teach us to cheer so we wanted to see THEM cheer at the football game!  Go LU! KiKi sat with Coach Shannon, Coach Sara’s mommy.  I sat with Daddy. The cheerleaders did a little show at halftime. Coach Sara’s up in the air. Here’s a close shot of her. Then Coach Sara and Coach St...

First Daddy went to popcorn church early to help set things up. Then he came home and we all went back to popcorn church. (Have I ever told you why we call it that??) Then we came home for lunch and changed clothes to play clothes. Then Mommy went to meetings at work and Daddy took us to Jon’s birthday party at the new playground. It was a little chilly and we got rained on.  Miss Jenny was there and she took this picture of us trying to get warm. Then we came home and Mommy came home and we changed into cheer clothes super fast and got back in the car. Miss Linda came over and hopped in with us to go to cheer. She wanted to see how we practice. KiKi’s working on doing one-leg stunting. And I went all the way up tonight and didn’t get worried at all.  Then we went to dinner with Miss Linda. Then we came home and got ready for bed right away. Now we sleep. Phew!  That’s a lot in one day!

Today Coach Katie came to play with us and shop with us and Mommy was really glad about it.  We sure get more done when Mommy has extra hands to help get us in and out and all around places.  We’re gonna do it again this week, I hope! This is from tonight when we went to cheer practice.  They let us have an easy night since we worked so hard this weekend.

Today we went to our cheer gym for another show.  This time we also got to play at the end. We showed lots of people what we do and they came to see if they wanted to do it too. This is me and my buddy Olivia.  She helps me remember where to go and what I’m supposed to do.  I forget sometimes, so it’s good to have a buddy to help. Here’s me and Olivia from yesterday.  Her sister Lily cheers with me, too. Lily’s 12. KiKi is the smallest one and she stays really straight like they tell her, so she gets to be the flyer a lot. That means she goes way up high.  Today, Coach Steve held her up on ONE hand! KiKi is not even scared!   I would be so so scared. We had a really fun day.  Our cheer gym and our friends there are super cool!!!  We love cheer, and Mommy loves it because it helps me get stronger and jump and run even better all the time!

I’m tired.  It was a fun day but it was a lot. So here’s a movie of my cheer routine and one of Kinlee’s too.  I’ve got lots more pictures to show you and we’re doing another one tomorrow, so there will be even more.  Then I’ll be ready for a break! Here’s me.. BOMB squad. I start out right in front with my buddy Olivia helping me. Here's TNT... KiKi’s in there, 2nd from the left.

Here we are after it was over.

This is my whole team and our buddies. Soon it'll be time to do our show!

We are all ready to go. We have to go do practice in a few minutes. But Zeph wanted to smile with us. She's lots bigger than me, and her birthday is 5 months before mine. But we have lots of fun together! :) Go AEC!!!

That’s right, it’s time again.  31 for 21 is here.  Hooray! October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month and we’re cheering about it! (Or maybe Braska’s just trying on her new uniform for Saturday’s competition.) Kinlee is wearing a different uniform, but also cute. She had dress rehearsal for their routine tonight.  Their competition debut is Saturday morning! Braska rocked her balance beam work tonight.  This girl has come a LONG way with cheer and tumbling since the end of April.  Especially great now that she doesn’t get PT.  It’ll be a month of pictures and a few words, but at least there will be posts!  That’s worth something, right?!?

Thing are very very busy. I’m sorry we’re so behind around here.  I’ll put a couple little videos from cheer this past Sunday below so you can have a little something neat to see. They're preparing for their first competition on 10/6. I’ve got LOTS of great pics and Braska’s doing GREAT in gen ed kindergarten at the new private school.  I’d love to be able to document all of it like I used to, but life has other ideas.  I will make a point to catch up very soon I hope.  I’m trying to finish making about 30 cheer bows for the girls’ cheer squads right now, as a way to make a few bucks toward their costs. (Peek at what I got done yesterday.) Oh, and Milford, Indiana… I’d love to talk to you if you have questions about anything.  Thanks for visiting and catching up on so many old posts! Email me at braskasmom atgmail com if you wanna chat. Here's cheer videos... In the first, Braska's in the middle, in the dark pink tank top. And in this one, Braska's...