Braska Bear

After much resistance and hesitation, like years worth, I’ve joined Faceb**k. And maybe I’ll learn how to tie all this together or something… for a tech-ish girl, somethings still escape me….but in the meantime, if there is anyone out there still reading the blogs, here’s a clip for you . A peek into Braska’s after-school demeanor. Sassy with a touch of bossy.  You’re welcome.

Mommy reporting:  Braska loves to visit the private school that she attended last year, where Kinlee still attends.  We love that place, and someday she’ll be back there, I know it for sure.  Things are in the works…  Whenever she goes with me for any reason, like visiting for lunch and recess with her friends, or stopping by to pick up Kinlee, she always says she’s going to go tell everyone hello.  She has great plans of what she’ll say and so on.  But when she gets there lately, she kind of clams up.  When she was a student there, she was quite verbal with her teacher and friends, though somewhat picky about who would receive the blessing of her greetings outside of the classroom…. little diva.  But she seems to be re-discovering again when we pop in for little visits.  (She’s fine on the playground, of course, not a problem there.) So recently she’s started acting like she’s seeing everyone when we talk about going.  Like she’s ...

Sometimes I like to pretend to be a dinosaur.  I’m a T-Rex, with little short arms.  See? ________________________________________ Mommy report: Speech/language Braska doesn’t really want her speech therapist to know she can talk.  And that’s unfortunate.  She’ll show just enough to get by, but nothing like what she’ll do with other therapists or in more comfortable environments.  The SLP is very very sweet, so it’s not like she is difficult for Braska to deal with.  I’m not sure what B’s reasoning is.  But she just will not do much spontaneous talk around Miss C.  It boggles my mind, because Braska is a chatterbox, no doubt. She talks almost constantly at home. But after talking with Miss C the other day, I decided to jot down the things Braska said for just a little snippet… then I emailed her the “findings.” *When climbing up in her chair, "all safe and sound!" *She picked up my phone sitting there in front of her and sa...

Braska has a couple funny little things she tosses out in conversations occasionally, and I’ve had trouble catching them in spontaneous situations.  So I thought I’d at least get it on video so that I don’t forget it down the road.  And while I’m doing that, I might as well share, right? If you’re around Braska in her regular settings,  you’ll know this isn’t her best example of clarity (at the end of a long day with no nap!), but it’s still cute. (Don’t miss the last bit. Priceless. Will be referred to when the teenage attitude shows up one day.) ***You may have noticed one phrase in the video… sparkling with asterisks.  This is something that showed up out of nowhere.  Anytime she is asked “why” something, she answers with that response.  And we’ve talked several times about what it means and how we don’t say that… but honestly we’re not 100% convinced she’s saying *that*.  And she seems to think it’s funny when we address it, so we’re opting t...

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 to talk and be silly. ] Mommy’s been talking to my teachers about what I say when I’m at home and at school.  I sometimes talk a lot more at home.  So here’s just some little things Mommy noted in one day… We were in the bathroom for bath time. There’s a door right by the tub. I knocked on the door three times and said, “Penny.” Knock, knock, knock. “Penny.”  (Anyone know what I was doing?  It’s from a show. Mommy and Daddy cracked up laughing.) Me: (I’ve been a little snotty lately.) Ooh yuck! I’m Snotty McGotty.  Hey Mommy, I need a Kleenex!  I spilled some milk on the table… Me: Uh oh, I made a mess. I’ll clean it up.  Please gimme a washcloth. Mommy: It’s time for bed. Lay down on your pillow. Me: I wanna sit up. Mommy: No, baby. It’s time to lay down. ...

Here’s some movie that Mommy did of us when we were trying on our dance costumes.  This is especially for the ones who like to hear me talk sometimes. (But I usually won’t do it when they want me to.)  There’s just a little chatting and some good wiggle dancing by KiKi!! (Mommy note: If you can’t see the video below, refresh the blog page or click here .  If you STILL can’t see it, please leave me a comment so I can figure out what’s up!) Make a video - it's fun, easy and free! www.onetruemedia.com

Here's a movie of what Mommy calls my silly chatterbox talking. I was excited on my way home from school on Wednesday, so she just recorded a bunch of my silliness... See if you can tell what I'm talking about! If you can't understand something, just ask and I'll tell you what I said. Make a video - it's fun, easy and free! www.onetruemedia.com

Today we went outside to play for a little while.  It was still in the morning time early when the sun isn’t too hot.  Me and KiKi are feeling a little bit better.  Mostly KiKi is feeling better.  I still don’t feel very good, but I thought it would be fun to go outside and play a little.  Mommy said the fresh air outside might be good for all of us.  I didn’t know that fresh outside air could be like medicine, but it sounds like better medicine than the other yucky stuff I have to take.  We did some swinging, and some sliding, and more swinging.  We LOVE to swing a lot.  Mommy pushed us for a long time, but then she got tired of pushing.  She keeps trying to teach us to do up and down with our legs and swing ourselves, but it’s way more fun having her push us up high!  She brought our jumper outside, too, and we played on that for a while.  KiKi is really getting good at jumping pretty high.  I like to hang on to th...

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…

Twelve days ago, I pulled out the flashcards that go with the Meet the Sight Words videos that the girls got for Christmas a couple weeks before. The girls have become slightly obsessed with their sight words flashcards over the past couple of weeks. They ask to “do flashcards” about 10 times a day, and we actually get them out and go through at least some of them 3 or 4 times a day, more if we’re home all day. The result, combined with the clear slant towards loving to learn that these girls have, is that they’ve got them all down. There are more than 45 words in the flashcard set , and the 3 coordinating videos go over the same words. (These words are from the Dolch list , in case you wonder how they chose these particular words.) And no, this is not a paid endorsement for Preschool Prep Company . But I’d be happy to do one! Yesterday, the girls wanted to do them again after lunch, but Kinlee quickly melted to mush as she was very ready for nap. So I thought it would be a good ...

We’re fans of Preschool Prep Company , thanks to Shelley turning me on to it last year.  Braska knew her letters and numbers and several shapes before we started the PPC Meet the Letters , Numbers, etc, videos last year, but within a few weeks, both Kinlee (at about 18 months) and Braska firmed up their letters—upper and lower case—as well as numbers 1-10, colors, and shapes.  So for Christmas a strong hint was placed to a certain willing Grandma about the next step in our learning plan.  The Meet the Sight Words Set of DVDs .  And the girls LOVE it!  They’re just on the first one at this point, and they’ve only been watching them about 2 weeks, and not that regularly, to be quite honest.  Mostly in the car on longer-than-10-minute trips. Last night I found the flash cards that we also go at Christmas, and I decided to put them out in sight so I’d remember to work with them on them more frequently.  I thought this would be the beginning of them l...

I’m a horrible blogger lately.  No excuses except life.  BUT-- There’s a couple things I just don’t want to forget that have happened lately relating to Braska’s development. We’re just beginning work on potty training.  I won’t go into great detail because that’s not really me in an area like this.  Suffice it to say that both girls are loving the process, and even though they’ve been totally fine to go for quite some time now, especially Braska, they’re picking up pretty quickly on the routine.  We’re not in “full training mode” or anything, but the preliminary work is going well. When I drop Braska off at school in the morning, she is to take her backpack to her cubby and then we go wash her hands and find her nametag.  The other morning she took her backpack (which is actually too big for her to wear…causes balance issues even though it’s a mini-backpack) and carried it right to her cubby.  Leaned over and patted her name on the bottom...

Lately, Braska has been showing signs of some changes. Not only is she growing physically—which she IS doing, though SO slowly—but she is really exhibiting changes in her personality.  Some are fun, and some are quite frustrating.   She’s 3. Someone must have told her that 3-year-olds are famous for being difficult.  Now, in fairness, and because I know there are some who will defend Miss B, she is nowhere near a “difficult child.”  But she has found her independent streak a little bit, and she has decided that she knows best in many cases.  These are good things, great milestones, really.  But it sure has made life more interesting and challenging around the house.   One nice thing is that when she disagrees with an instruction or does not want to cooperate in some way, she says, “No-fank-you” very quickly, like one word, but at least it’s polite.  It’s a hit with people who offer her a bite of food or something like that, generally peopl...

Here’s my last movie for you to watch. Here’s the first and the second if you missed them. At least until I make some more!  This was when I was working on my letters and numbers… you can say them along with me if you want to practice, too. Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Here’s another movie from last night.  There’s still one more movie for me to show you later when I work on my letters and numbers.  If you didn’t see the first one, it’s over here . This one was when me and Mommy were looking at pictures on the computer of animals and stuff.  (Mommy note: I have been told more than once that I need to show Braska’s mistakes along with her victories in order to show a balanced—more “real”—version of her skills and abilities.  I won’t digress too much about my response to that thought, but I will just say that this video has both correct and incorrect answers.  Hope that helps her seem “real.”) Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We got a really fun book at the library a few weeks ago, and it is my favorite!  I know all the pages and I can even sit and read it by myself when Mommy is busy.  She saw me reading today and thought we could make a movie.  Usually she doesn’t talk to me when I’m reading, but she said this worked a little better to keep me going.  I can take a long time to read a book! So here’s a little movie… Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com (Mommy note:  She had just refused a nap, thanks to a 5-minute snooze in the van.  She is a little sloppier than usual, but I think you’ll get the idea…) There’s two more movies from today, but I’ll show them to you tomorrow. Make sure and come back to see them!

One of my new favorite words is butterfly.  I see them on shirts and in books and they have them at my hospital where I go a lot to see doctors.  I’m practicing saying it just right, so Mommy took some movie to show you.  And KiKi was right in the way, so we did some signs that I’ve been teaching her, too. (Mommy note: Don’t mind the marker all over Braska’s hands and her neck.  Markers at school. Always fun for clean up.)

You may have seen over here that we were recently scheduled to do a demo for a feeding therapy seminar that was held nearby.  Well that was today, and it was quite an experience.  A good experience, and yet one that leads to frustration…  let me explain. Lori Overland, MS, CCC-SLP was the speaker, and the seminar was promoted by Leaps and Bounds , which is a therapy facility here.  We were to fill in where there was a need for a child with problems moving food around and maintaining liquids in the mouth.  What a good fit!  I was anxious that Braska might not cooperate in a group setting, but we went ahead and said we’d do it.  We arrived a few minutes early, Braska got to meet Lori and play with her a bit while Lori did some visual eval and observed for a few specific things.  She tried a couple skills with her and shared some initial thoughts.  Immediately, she noted problems with Braska’s oral motor skill and strength.  This migh...

What’s new, you ask?? You might have seen on the Twitter gadget on my blog that we had several things to talk to the ENT about yesterday when Braska saw him.  I took my handy dandy fancy clipboard with my questions ready.  We addressed her sleep issues, waking frequently, and apneic episodes that have been getting worse lately.  We’re now waiting for the sleep center to call and schedule her appointment. Depending on what is found, she may be having tonsils and adenoids removed. We addressed her hearing issues, the fact that she’s been getting lazy with her speech, and seems to show that she’s not hearing as well as she has in the past.  After the oh-so-fun microscopic exam of her ears, she has fluid again, 4th time in 3 months, and we’ll be scheduling surgery to insert tubes after the results of the sleep study are in.  If we need to do the tonsillectomy, we’ll combine the procedure with her tube placement to avoid anesthesia twice.  Most likel...

Some of you could see my videos from Saturday, but some couldn't get them to work. So I'll try a different way to show you. Can you see it now?? (Movie clip below for Reader readers...) Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com (Mommy note: It's not so much "singing" as toddler rapping of sorts, but the fact that she can string several words together on command, and often without any prompting at all...that's exciting for us. And to be fair to Braska, this was late in the evening, and her enunciation always gets a little lazy as she gets tired... but it's still neat to hear!)