Braska Bear

Me and mommy are watching LOTS OF PEOPLE come in to this place called Family Arena to watch Tobymac. I keep telling Mommy and Daddy, "I am SO excited!!!"   KiKi and Daddy are walking around looking at stuff. Mommy and me are taking cheese pictures before it get really really loud in here!!

Daddy’s working on our new music player.  But for right now, we have to sing and make our own music in the car.  Sometimes we just watch what’s outside and have quiet time.  It’s kind of nice, we think.  But we will be happy to have our music back soon!

KiKi and I wanted to make handprints on the window.  Mommy says there are MORE than enough already there, but we thought it would be fun anyway.  I told KiKi, “Push hard!” So we were making funny noises and pushing on the door hard as we could. We made prints, but they weren’t very good.  KiKi said we need to get rid of the old ones and start again.  Mommy said she would maybe clean it, but it seemed silly to do it only so we could make more handprints. KiKi likes to listen to music but she wants to be able to see the words for the songs, so when she hears a good one on Joy FM , Mommy looks it up for her on YouTube and she can learn the words.  She always knows them right away after the first time and then she can sing along. (Mommy note: And that is why I’m so glad that I made the decision to do only Christian/family-friendly radio in the car or at home with the girls.  If she wants to be knowing the words--and she does insist—then tha...

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 while KiKi was napping, I got the iPod to myself. Mommy put on my therapy music, clipped it on my shorts, and said I could go look in the mirror. What? I can walk around with my music? That’s GREAT!! Mommy thought I was pretty funny. I did all kinds of silly things, like tapping on my nose in the mirror and talking with my chin on there. It felt funny and made me giggle. Mommy said it was good clean sensory fun. I listened to lots of music for a long time. I went and asked Mommy to put on some more songs over and over. Someday I’ll figure out how to work that thing myself. (If you wanna know how I'm doing with my drinking (no tube still!), Mommy's gonna write about it on her page .)

This is a good way to start a day. While Mommy’s getting breakfast ready, we listen to our “morning music.”  We like to hear songs that we know and we can sing with.  And we each get to have the music in our ears at the same time.  We like to use our iPod.  (Mommy says it was given to her, but we kind of sneaked it away to be ours.) Mommy likes that when we sit like this with music in our ears, we don’t move at all except to sing along a little and flip pages in our books.  She says it’s nice quiet time for her.  And we don’t mind since we get to keep our fun music all to ourselves!  Mommy also likes that I don’t grind my teeth as much when I have music in my ears… and sometime she says she really needs a break from that. KiKi and I can sing along with each other, and we can still hear Mommy when she talks to us.  It’s a good deal for all of us! (Sometimes they listen to Peach Jamz , which is modulated for Therapeutic Listening , but ...

Me and Mommy sing a lot. A LOT. KiKi sings too, but she was napping today when me and Mommy decided to try something new. Grammy asked for me to sing something for her to hear a while back, so this is how it went today... Me and KiKi LOVE it when Mommy sings Let it Snow before bed. Even though there's no snow outside today. It's still a good song. And Mommy heard me playing by myself and I was singing it over and over. So she asked if I wanted to do it again with her so we could share it with Grammy and all of you. So here it is . Hope you like it! ( Mommy notes: The mic was closer to her than me on purpose. So you might have to turn up your volume, but it'll come through as she warms up. Oh, and in the beginning, she was asking for "my bib," in case you're wondering and couldn't understand. It's not a bib, it's an eyeglass cleaning cloth. But that's too much work to say, so apparently bib works better. And don't miss my fave part...

When it’s time to go to the car, Mommy tells us to go to the kitchen door.  Me and KiKi go and stand by the door that goes out to the car.  While we are waiting for Mommy to get the bags and stuff, we sing some songs.  We do “ We Are The Dinosaurs ” and “The ABC Song” and “I think you’re silly!” (That’s one we just made up with Mommy!) and lots more.  The other day we were doing “ Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes ” and Mommy took a picture.  Can you tell which part we were on?? What songs do you like to sing when you’re waiting for someone??

We’re watching Sesame Street this morning and I just love this song!  It’s about school, and Mommy just thinks it funny.

Last month, some guy broke Daddy’s window on his car when he was at work and that guy took some stuff from our car.  He took my movie player!  Can you believe that??  (You can read more about the story here and here and here .) One of the movies I got at the library was in the movie player, and the guy threw it away.  Why wouldn’t he want to watch it?  That’s what I wanna know!  Anyway, since he threw it away, we had to pay the library for the movie, and Mommy talked about it on her page. Miss Rachel, the one who I watch every day on Signing Time and Baby Signing Time , saw Mommy’s story about it, and she left her a note.  They talked a little and Miss Rachel said she would send me a new movie since that guy took the other one I borrowed from the library!  Isn’t that super nice!?! So the other day we got a box from Miss Rachel and this is what it had in it… (Remember, you can click on pictures to see them bigger.) Can you believe...

Here at our house we always watch American Idol from the beginning to the end. I like all the music, and Mommy and Daddy like to make guesses on who will win. I love to sing and listen to songs and Mommy has been singing songs to me since I was a tiny baby, so we do songs every day. We're getting ready for Idol to start soon, so we've been singing extra! Last night, I thought I would do my first movie of singing time. I was in a pretty silly mood and didn't want to be still, but Mommy thought I should let you see anyway. This is the song I know the best, Jesus Loves Me, but it's not my best showing of it, that's for sure. And this is my favorite song from my FAVORITE show... Blue's Clues!!! Usually I can say Blue's Clues really nice and show the hands like Steve does, but I didn't feel like it when Mommy got the camera out. But the Mail song is always fun! (Mommy even got a word wrong but I knew my part!)