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.

Braska reporting: Me and Kinlee have swim lessons on Wednesdays with Coach  Danielle.  She’s really good at teaching us.  We’re both able to swim the WHOLE way down the pool by ourselves, but we still get pretty tired. I am just now getting good at jumping, so tonight I wanted to do it a lot.  And Mommy took some movies and helped me put them together for you.

Because sometimes you just have to take a minute and remember where we started… and how far we’ve come. Make a video - it's fun, easy and free! www.onetruemedia.com (Thanks to Grandma C for bringing this video back to mind. Just had to share after I watched it for the first time in years.) Since B will be 7 in about 6 more weeks… here’s to the next amazing 7 years!

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 ...

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

On Friday, I had Mrs. S in my class at school because Mrs. E had to go be with her family for the day.  I like Mrs. S. It was memory verse day, which is when we have to say our verse to our teacher so we can show we know it.  I like to memorize things, because I can usually remember really well.  But I didn’t show Mrs. S that I could do the verse, even though I know it.  Sometimes I just don’t feel like it, and sometimes my memory seems to get a little tired. So Mrs. E says she will give me another chance to tell her the verse, since she knows I like to tell her my verses best of all.  But Mommy thought that—just in case I get in a little grouchy mood tomorrow—she would get a little movie of me practicing so Mrs. E could see that I really did know it. So here you go…  I thought you might want to see it, too. I can’t believe school only has 3 weeks left! Kindergarten has been GREAT!

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’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.

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...

First, just watch.  Really. If you even know an inkling about Braska do NOT miss this. I won’t say much, as I don’t have time to share the whole story.  But here’s the highlights. Last Friday, new eyes on B for a behavioral feeding consult. New protocol given. For the last 7 days, we’ve rearranged pretty much everything to abide by the new protocol (including 45 mins 3 x day for focused work).  I admit I’ve missed a couple I just couldn’t figure out how to avoid. Today at lunch she did really well eating her little tiny squares of graham cracker. So I thought it wouldn’t be to far a jump to cheerios. She was watching Sesame Street this evening, and I handed her a cup of milk and a little cup of cheerios and told her to practice her crunchies. It took some prompting, but she took one each time, chewed it, and kept it in. Read that one again right up there….  that is BIG in our world!  HUGE!!!!! So I had her sit up where I could get v...

We have been practicing our skills for school.  Today we did some cutting with scissors. Here’s a movie of me doing my practice. It’s especially for Miss Jenny, because she’s the one who has helped me learn to do so good!  (Mommy note: For those of you who ask for video of Braska talking, there’s a bit in here… psst, Hi Ellen! )   Here’s a quick one for KiKi too.  She’s pretty fast!

I’m learning lots of things at cheer each week.  One of the big ones is jumping!  I couldn’t jump all by myself with no hands when we first started.  And now I can… so that’s worth cheering about! Yay!!!  Here’s  a super quick jumping movie…

I have been wanting to read everything lately!  Mommy and I do reading practice every day, and I like to read a lot by myself.  I know lots of words, but when I don’t know, I ask KiKi or I just pretend it’s a different word. Here’s a movie Mommy took of me reading today. (Mommy note: She is not a speed reader, but she is doing SO well and is so very into the reading thing.  She’s spending a lot of time each day practicing. My favorite parts are the “I mean…” she says each time she messes up and realizes it. Go refresh your drink and come back for storytime…) Later, I took a ride on my rocking horse.  I can use it all by myself. Well, except for the getting up and down part.  Here’s my first picture on that rocking horse from back in the day … (March 17, 2007)

We’re catching up on our daily stories, (and there’s some more movies down there to see, so if you haven’t read the other days, you should go back and see some of them!) but I wanted to tell you about this today! This morning, Mommy was writing sentences for us on the Magna Doodle, and then we would take turns reading them. She did a few little short ones that I read to her, and she was happy. Then she did a couple that were a bit harder. And I did them fine too!  She was surprised! So she wrote another one, and gave it to me to read.  She didn’t point at the words or show me where to look, and she took a movie of it….  Mommy was REALLY excited that I did so well! It is usually very hard for me to know where to look when I’m reading.  It’s not easy for me to keep my eyes in the right place, so even though I know lots of words, it’s hard to read in sentences.  But I’m getting better! I’m gonna be SO ready for kindergarten next month!!

Before we left for the day, Mommy wanted pictures of us in our cute little outfits. KiKi was making a goofy smile. I tried to show her how to do it right. But she didn’t listen. She just made her whole body goofy.  She likes to pose funny. And if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.  (Mommy says that’s not always a good idea, by the way.) We went down to Grandma C’s church to check on a few things for Daddy’s big party on Friday night.  Mommy was working on testing the microphone, so we helped by singing a little.  Here’s a movie of each of us…   After that, we went to meet Uncle Ryan for lunch at his work office, which is sometimes Daddy’s work office too.   Daddy was there today but really busy so he couldn’t come with us.  KiKi and Uncle Ryan went faster than me and Mommy. For dinner, KiKi wanted pancakes.  We don’t have those very often, but Mommy said ok.  So they both put ...

I had my first cheer practice tonight.  Here’s a little peek… More pictures coming soon!

(Mommy note: If you missed the first couple tidbits about the pageant, click here and here . ) Here's a few little movie bits for you to watch me at my pageant last Saturday. I was a little nervous, so I had a very nice big boy help me some at first... ( Mommy note: There were some issues with a girl who wasn’t able to participate on stage at the last minute, so the names are not quite right for the last two.  Braska is not invisible. Just didn’t want to walk at first…and really, if you had a nice guy to carry you, why would ya ?) Then I got a little better when it was time to get my trophy and my crown… Mommy thinks I’m cutest in this one… It was a lot of fun, and I liked getting to watch the bigger girls do dances and sing and all kinds of things.  Someday I’ll get to do that, too.

(Seriously? This is day 100 of this year?  Unreal.) Mondays are when I have swim class.  Me and Miss S go swimming together, and she helps me learn how to do it better.  I took a break for a while when it was cold, but now I’m working hard again.  I’ve been using this when I swim, but last week, Miss S said I was doing better and could just use the regular swim belt that they have.  Mommy hasn’t seen me swim for a while because she’s been working or busy when I had swim class. I was excited she got to take me tonight! SO… tonight she was surprised to see me doing this…. (yep, it’s movie time…here it is…) And one more little peek at my out and in. It was FUN to go up and down the pool all those times.  I did 10 laps!  In case you can’t see my silly face in that one…  here’s another one… I was so excited that I got to swim all by myself.  I was laughing while I was swimming! It is going to be a REALLY ...

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.)

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...