Mommy life: A peek at the future

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.

(video embedded below)

I couldn’t quit focusing on her speech and articulation… so good.

Now if only we could commute to that class once a week…

31 for 21: Well DUH mom!

Last night we were cleaning up the living room, and the panda pillow pet-type thing that lives in the corner was returning to his home.  Braska came over to me as I was reattaching his little strap to make the panda appear versus just the pillow. 

She said, “Panda bear.” 
I said, “That’s right.”

Then I waited a second and remembered something we’re supposed to be working on.

I asked, “Braska, is this a panda bear?”
She said, “Yes.”
I asked, “Is this a horse?”
She replied, “No.”
I asked again, “Is this a panda?”
And she said, “Yes. Panda bear.”

Simple as it may seem, this is a big deal.  We’ve been working hard on yes/no preferences for a long time.

You see, usually, if you ask Braska what she wants, she’ll answer with whatever was the last option in the list.  And if you ask a yes/no question, it will always be “Yes” or “Yeah.”   You can ask her if she wants pizza for dinner, and she’ll say, “Yeah!”  But try to offer her pizza and you’re out of luck.  She’ll push it away and say, “Nothankyou!” 

So her marvelous SLP has Miss L has been working on this with her, and I’ve been trying to encourage more opportunities like this, and here we see results! Woo!

For anyone who is working on this particularly, here’s the instructions I was given.  (Note: Braska’s big motivators are letters and numbers.)

I’m to show Braska a letter and ask her what it is.  She will tell me correctly.  Then I ask, “Braska, is this a dog?” (The key being to choose something that is as far wrong as possible….not just another letter, but something far out.)  She should answer, “No,” of course.  But usually, she will continually answer “Yes,” until we tell her to try again and repeat the question along with a cue sign for the correct answer.

The fact that she’s getting this is so neat.  She’s really starting to take all this crazy good, well-articulated, speech of hers and combine it into useful language.  And that’s fun.

Monday, when we picked her up from my parents’ place, I realized I hadn’t called the school first thing to tell them she wouldn’t be there.  So I said, “I forgot to tell your school that you weren’t going to be there today.” And I went to get the phone. She came with me and said, “Call Miss A___.”  Yep, that’s what we did.  She connected that telling the school anything would mean that we should call Miss A.  Nice.  Good stuff.

Mommy report: Skill surprises

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 of it and said, “Braska’s cubby.”  Nice!  We know that she can recognize her name, but it’s been reinforced a couple times lately and with others besides just me, which is fun.
• She also can do her washing-hands and nametag-finding procedures by herself, too.  I generally help her enough that I don’t realize what all she can do herself.  I stepped back one day, not intentionally, but she didn’t wait for me and continued her morning routine just fine!  She stepped up to the big sink (on her stool), turned on the water, reached for the soap (automatic motion sensor kind…waited appropriately), didn’t quite get it scrubbed all around before it got washed off, but oh well.  She rinsed and turned the water off.  Then she stepped down (with assistance, steps are still very hard) and walked to the paper towel dispenser, pulled the rope 3 times like they’re supposed to (counting loudly “one! two! three!”), tore off the towel, dried her hands and walked to the trash and said, “Throw away!”  She marched her tiny self over to the table and found the correct nametag and said, “Braska’s nametag” and handed it to me to put on her back.  I told Julie that morning that I clearly have been holding her back by helping so much each morning.  She doesn’t need so much!  Amazing!
• Her teacher also told me that she can identify her two friends’ names from her own and will say each of them correctly when shown the names.  (On her “small class” days, two days a week, the class is just two little boys and Braska.)  The teacher held up one name and Braska proclaimed clearly, “Dominic!”  Then they showed the next, and she said, “Braska!”  And then the third one she studied for just a sec and said, “Colter!”  Apparently this has happened more than once and in various name order. I had no idea… 
• We’re preparing for her IEP meeting at the end of October.  Not too much to prep for this time, though. Our team is good, she’s met many goals, and I think we’re in good shape for this next year.
• She’s now good with her letters—upper AND lower case--thanks to Preschool Prep.  She can do her numbers 1-10 on sight and in order.  She can count to 20 consistently.  And she’s got at least 8 shapes down as well.  She’s doing well matching items of the same color, but she still struggles with naming colors appropriately.  She always says *a* color, but it’s not always the *right* color.
• And NO SICKNESS YET!!!  (For Braska, that is. Kinlee’s had it, but Braska’s not caught anything! Woo Hoo!)
• Her feeding is picking up a little, though it’s very slow. She’s just starting to agree to chew on something once or twice, and only if it’s in a pouch (so that pieces aren’t coming out into her mouth, which bothers her greatly).  But with a Ritz cracker, she will bite a piece, sweep the large pieces out of her mouth with her tongue, but she is handling the little pieces and crumbs pretty well. This is a HUGE improvement.
• Still no drinking of any real quantity. No straw success yet.  But she can raise an open cup to her mouth and sometimes get a little.  We only put a tiny bit in or she ends up soaked!  But she’s becoming more cooperative with the work process.  Our feeding therapist/OT is GRRRRRRREAT!

That’s all for now… I’m exhausted from a night of both girls being up numerous times last night.  Not sure what was up, but they really ganged up on me last night.  Hoping for better sleep tonight!!

Sayin’ my animals [Down syndrome, speech]

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 responce 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

I like it when… [Down syndrome, speech]

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!

Mommy report: Feeding demo/eval

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 might not be a shocker to some of you, but the difference is that she pointed out things that we’ve not had anyone else mention before, or at least recently.  I had told her that we’d been led to believe that Braska’s issues were behavioral at this point, her refusal to eat being just that—refusing.  We haven’t worked on oral motor skills in over 18 months with any real intention, either in therapy or in general.  I always believed that since her speech is so good, and she can make all her sounds correctly, that her oral motor was not the biggest problem.  She is able to take food in and swallow it with no problem, so I just operated on the idea that she could eat if she wanted.  I know she can’t chew, she never has, so I figured we’d need specific work on that, but I wasn’t sure where to get it.

In less than 15 minutes of observing and working with Braska, she noted and explained numerous things that were “obvious” and pointed toward specific therapy needs.  I was relieved to know that there was something that could be done to help her, but I was amazed that we’ve not heard this from other therapists who worked with her quite a while.

We put Braska in her feeding chair, and Lori began to do the demonstration for 65 or so OTs and SLPs who were in attendance.  She tried a variety of things, like massage and vibration, to stimulate Braska’s mouth and face and prepare it for feeding.  Braska did pretty well overall, and she accepted this interaction better than I would have expected.  She didn’t like the alligator jiggler as much as she used to back in the day, but for the most part, she cooperated.  She did not want to bite things when asked, like the chewy tube, but that wasn’t really a surprise.

Lori tried to work on the inside of her mouth, on her tongue and cheeks, but Braska was not really having that.  Again, this isn’t new for her to avoid that type of thing.  I fed her some yogurt while the whole group watched and commented or asked questions.  Lori showed what things were indicating issues.  The position of her jaw, the way she led with her tongue instead of her lip, the way the top lip stayed up instead of coming down to meet the spoon properly.  She also noted things like how long it took Braska to swallow, I guess meaning that she had to work hard to get the food or liquid back there.  She also offered her some water in a honey bear, but Braska was not really interested in that so much.  She wouldn’t really open her mouth.

Braska is so finicky about who she will warm up to when it comes to working on feeding or around her mouth.  She is very quick to shut down around several therapists we’ve had, and it was amazing to me to see how well she did with Lori.  I really wish she didn’t live and practice in Connecticut!

We are proud of how Braska has done with her speech and language.  She does extremely well for a child her age with DS in the area of speech and language.  But Lori pointed out that, though she is speaking very well,  she could be even MORE clear and proper in her speech if we could work on these oral motor concerns.

Lori also felt that some of her feeding issues, at least currently, could be due to her ears and enlarged tonsils and adenoids(T&A).  I’ve heard from other parents who found that after their child had the T&A removed due to sleep apnea concerns their child also showed improvement in her feeding issues also.  Lori felt due to Braska’s noise respiration and apneic episodes that she’s having more frequently that she probably would show progress after the T&A were removed.  Braska is scheduled for a sleep study on 3/23 at which time the decision will be made about if they will take out her T&A at the same time that they put in her ear tubes.  The combination of these things will likely bring positive results to the feeding situation.  She also noted that it might be related to her tendency to sit with her head back, chin up, so frequently.  This could possibly be a position that allows for the most open airway.  We’ll see what the sleep study shows and go from there, but it’s encouraging to think that we might be on to something that could really make a difference.

As we left, I was happy that we’d found a direction to take to help Braska, and at the same time, I was really kind of mad that we’ve gone this long without this being stressed as important.  How have we had all these professionals in and out of our home and involved in her transition and evaluations and no one brought up that she needed focused oral motor therapy??  Now that we’re out of First Steps (EI), this will be all on us to take care of.  Insurance doesn’t cover it unless there is a medical diagnosis, and I don’t know that we’ll have a valid one right now.  So if we seek private therapy to correct the bad habits and learn the proper ones, it will all be out of pocket.  If that’s what we need to do, we will do it.  Money will not be the reason she doesn’t learn to eat properly.   I’m just frustrated that we’ve gone this long operating on flawed assumptions.

Where do we go from here?  Well, we start tomorrow by talking to the school and making some changes to ensure that the right people are working with her.  The good news is that there is someone who knows what to do and who Braska likes very well.  The bad news is that there is a policy in place that makes it hard for us to be able to have her work with Braska.  But I think we can work around it or run right through it.  If all else fails, we can see this person outside of school in her private practice, and that’s what we’ll do if we need to.  That’s where we’ll start…  it’s going to be a long road, but at least we now know where we’re headed.

Mommy report: ENT visit

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 likely her hearing issues are related to the fluid distorting what used to be clear to her.

We addressed her incessant teeth-grinding, letting him know that it happens when she has ear issues, and it lessens or stops when her ears are clear.

After the typical “kids just grind their teeth,” he did agree that it will likely help to have the fluid situation taken care of via the tube placement.

So that’s where we stand.  We’ll hopefully get the sleep study scheduled in the next few weeks, then after those results are in, we’ll set up the tubes procedure and whatever additional things need to be done at the same time under anesthesia… possibly even dental work that is soon due.

There. You’re up to date. Thanks for asking!

Sing along, Take 2

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!)

…to you!!!

Ohhhhhh…jingle bells!

I’ve got a bunch of pictures to show you from our really fun Christmas times, but Mommy’s busy cleaning up so she can’t help me do pictures right now.  So here’s a little song we did last night that you can listen to until the pictures are ready. 

We sing it every day at school, and it’s my favorite!  I ask Mommy to sing it sometimes in the car and sometimes before bed and sometimes when I’m eating and sometimes when I’m in the bath.  It’s a good song!  Oh, and Mommy said to tell you that I kinda get silly and loud, so get ready to cover your ears!  But sing along!!!

Braska: I love Signing Time and Miss Rachel!!

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 all that stuff??  Me and Mommy were SO excited!  I just kept telling Mommy “I want Baby Signing Time movie please!!” 

There are some cards that have words and pictures of the signs on them.


Here’s the movie that the guy took from us.  Miss Rachel even wrote me a note on it!


And she sent T-shirts for me AND for KiKi!  


This is a picture of Miss Rachel and a note to me.  We’re gonna put it in a nice frame so I can keep it forever!


And this is the movie that she sent so that the library could have theirs back too!!
  

There are also some fun things like stickers in there for me and KiKi to play with.  They go on our skin.  Mommy says it’s like a taa-too.  Oh, and there’s CDs too so we can listen to the songs and sing along when we can’t watch the movies!  I tell Mommy “I want mooosic, please!”

Isn’t that the nicest thing you ever saw?  Miss Rachel did such a fun thing for me because she sent me my favorite things ever.  Signing Time movies!!!

Thank you, Miss Rachel!  I am watching them lots and lots.  And I especially like to sign “wind” when I lay on the floor by the thing that blows cold air out at me.  I always tell Mommy “Cold! Brrrrr! Wind!!”

If you don’t have Baby Signing Time movies, you should go get some right now!

(Mommy note: The signing has just really taken off, another spurt, except that she can verbally say all the words too.  I hope to have some video of her latest stuff very soon.  The full-sentence requests are just plain amazing, I think!  And once again, many thanks, Rachel!!)

Braska: Grammy’s names

My name is Braska, and KiKi’s name is KiKi. But Grammy calls us different names. I’ve been saying them alot, so we made a little movie for Grammy.
(I’m a sweetie peach, and KiKi is a sugar plum.)

Braska: Bathtime Practice

KiKi took a bath with me yesterday for the first time, like for real. She didn’t have her own tub or a chair or anything! She took a bath just like me, just sitting in the tub.

While we were in there, I practiced a few things like letters and biting on my yellow letters (it’s supposed to help me eat, Mommy says).

So here’s a little movie to show you some fun stuff…

Kinlee did her own movie of her stuff on her page if you wanna see it, too.

Words, words, and more words

Braska has taken off with her speech in the last month. She's been mimicking, for the last few months, everything that's said, in person, on TV, in the store, etc. But now she's using the words, identifying what she wants, "labeling" as the ST calls it. We were all excited when she first looked at the TV when there was a cat food commercial and said, "Cat! Meow!" Then in the next 4 days there were another 6 words used, and we just kept looking at each other like, "Holy Cow?!?" We started keeping a list, so we wouldn't forget, and so we could reinforce them. It got to where we were adding new words, sometime 2 or 3, every day. I'm just plain blown away by this, let me tell you. She's cracking us up with the mimicking still, and we really have to watch what we say or what's on the TV, since she doesn't so much have an "appropriate" filter. She just says it if she hears it.

She's come a long way, also, in completing her words clearly. Nose is now nose, not just "no." Sheep has the SH and a clear P on the end. Bottle is plainly two syllables with the appropriate sounds in both. We're to the stage that when she will allow those outside our house to hear her, they can actually understand her. That's pretty fun, I must say.

Her teacher at school has said that she's just talking up a storm at school the last few weeks. She was all shy the first few, so I'm pleased that she's getting comfortable enough to chat with them. Some uses are more inconsistent than others, but all of these on the list have been shown properly more than a few times. Here's what she's got so far... unfortunately, we've not been successful getting much good video yet, as she's not so cooperative at performing, but she uses them as she needs them.

• Cat: Especially when she sees them on TV or a movie. And she yells this one!
• Drum: She requests her water drums when she gets in the bath, and she has an ice cream tub that she uses for a drum as well.
• Bubbles: This has recently been a request from the PT, as Braska found them in her bag and wanted some bubble action. She also identifies them when asked.
• Nose, Ear, Hair: She prefers to identify these on bodies not her own.
• Picture: This is what she calls the camera. She says it when she grabs the camera if it's been left within reach and when she looks up to see it pointed at her.
• Movie: This is said, generally with animation, as soon as she gets in her carseat in my car. There's a DVD screen that she uses on longer trips. She seems to think they are all long enough.
• Bottle: Every time Kinlee gets a bottle (when we're away from home for a feeding), Braska has to get in on the action, come grab the end of the bottle and identify what she has found. She has a tendency to want to take it out of Kinlee's mouth, but we're working on that part. One step at a time!
• Car: One of her puzzles has a car piece, so it gets identified when she plays with it. She will answer, "What is this?" for that piece too. And sometimes when she's looking outside at the front door she'll say car when one goes by. Oh, and of course, when we go to the garage to leave, she lets me know where we're supposed to go.
• Puppy: She doesn't seem to like the word "dog" so it's always "puppy" instead.
• Sweet: This is her word for a hug lately. She'll lean in and cuddle for a second and say "Ohhhhh, sweet." I think we must have said this and not realized it. She also does this to Kinlee in the morning when she comes to say hi.
• Nice: When she pets Kinlee's head, she says, "Niiiiiiice." We have told her repeatedly to "be nice" so I guess that's where she got it.
• Bless you: When someone sneezes, including herself, she greets with this. So funny to hear.
• Wash: This is used whenever she's done with eating, or if I wipe her hands when getting into/out of the shopping cart or something.
• Bouncy: She loves this one, and it's all for Daddy. They have a knee-bouncing good time in the evening, and she hardly lets him sit down after work before she starts insisting, over and over and over... "Bouncy!!!"
• Poop: This one shocked me, but when I get her out of bed in the morning, if she has messed her diaper, *most* of the time she will tell me "Poop." It's not 100%, but it's been pretty consistent.
• Bib, Tray: When it goes on before eating, and when it comes off...she labels them each both times.
• Door: Any door, she goes to it, knocks, and says, "Door."
• TV: This is what she says sometimes when she gets in the car, instead of "movie," and she hands me the remote in the morning after breakfast and says, "TV!" (sometimes TB) as she knows it is time for Sesame Street.
• Makeup: This is what we call her Aquaphor that we use on her face (also arms and legs, but then it's "lotion" which, I know...it's confusing). Anytime she sees the container come out, she yells "makeup!" and occasionally it sounds like "nakeup" for some reason.
• Bath: If we forget to close the bathroom door, she stands at the side of the tub, knocks on it, and says, "Bath" over and over until someone removes her or complies with her request.
• Diaper: Everytime we change her, we ask, and she answers. And if she gets into the diaper bag and empties it, she labels each one as well.
• Brush: A comb or brush gets called a brush. And she will take it and attempt to comb/brush whatever hair is near. She usually tries to do her own RIGHT after I've done pigtails or something nice and neat.
• Shoes/socks: These are favorites of hers. She taps on them and labels them as we put them on her or if they are left on the floor. And if we put them both in front of her and ask her to give us one or the other, she will get it right. I love that!
• Hat: This one almost always is both a sign and spoken at the same time. And it usually comes up when Daddy shows up with one on.
• Pat pat: This one is for Kinlee. She will lay her hand on K's belly and then lift just her fingers and pat, telling us what she's doing. I think it's quite interesting that she doesn't lift her whole hand.
• Glasses: She occasionally will just touch her glasses and label them. Or when she's around Grandma or others with glasses, she'll label them and grab, but she's better about not taking them off of the person. She also says "glasses on" when we put hers on in the morning.
• Mommy: She has taken to patting me on the arm and saying it, just the last few days. She doesn't use it to request my presence yet, like from her crib or anything.

A few other fun things that we do every day are her ABCs, when I say each and she repeats them all. She's now able to give the following letter on about 6 of them. We also work on numbers 1-10 (10 is her fave), and she will do 2 and 3 when given 1 to start with. And she now has a few animals that she knows sounds for: Cow, Sheep, Cat, Bear, and Horse. She can say the word and then answer, "What's a ____ say?" with the right sound. Bear is our favorite, because she says "raaooor" with a very bored and un-scary tone....a very mild bear, for sure.

We are very pleased that she's doing so well. As most of you know, every kid is different, including kids with DS. Every kids has strengths and areas that they struggle with more. Braska's strength is her speech/communication, whereas gross motor (walking, standing) is her area of great struggle. No matter how that changes or evolves, we'll still celebrate all the accomplishments and continue to work on areas that need more help.

I hope to have video to share of some of this soon!

Exciting night!

Pardon the interruption into your regular evening, but we have something to share!!

Daddy gets the credit for this one. He had her in the bed for cuddles and snuggles, and in a matter of 15 minutes, she's got it down pat!!! She's going around now saying, "Name! Braska! (Ba-ka)"

I'm always hesitant to "brag" on her too much, for fear of offending or something to those who struggle... as that's a real thing in the world of delays...but I am so proud of this girl! More speech news soon, but I just had to throw this up and cheer for my girl!

Braska: Pre-Preschool Month 3

Today was school again! It's my third month in school, and I am loving it! Last week, Miss A told Mommy that I was a "chatty cathy." I don't know what that means but Mommy says it's about my talking to the teacher and it is a good thing for me to be! Today, Miss A told Mommy how I was saying "popcorn" really loud when Miss A said it first. I really love to go to school! I wish I could go more, but Mommy says I have to wait til I turn 3 for that.

Jack and I were the last ones there today because our mommies went to get coffee while we were at school and then talked to Miss Jocelyn in the hall. She helps both Jack and me learn to talk and sign and stuff like that.

So we waited for them... and waited a few more minutes. But don't worry...they didn't forget us!! I love school!!!

Braska: Girly words

We are just being home these last few days. Grammy is here with me, and we are having all kinds of fun. Sometimes I sit with Daddy too and say hi to Kinlee.

I've also been working on saying new words and making my old words easier to hear. Checkout my newest one... it's what we put on my face everyday to keep it soft and pretty.

Braska: Funny words and more walking

Miss J came on Tuesday to see me. We worked on talking about things and asking for things. She brought bubbles again, and I really like bubbles! She asks me what I want, and I like to just tell her the last thing she says. She wants me to pick things, but I just like to say everything that she does! She says we'll keep working on it. But the bubbles! So much fun!



Mommy and Daddy think I'm funny because I've been saying, "Oh yeah!" about alot of things. Here's a little short movie to show you, and it also shows a couple other of my favorite things... cow and horse sounds!

Yesterday, my PT came to see me. We practiced my walking again, and I'm having alot of fun doing it! So last night Mommy and I showed Daddy how good I'm getting. I just wanted to do it over and over. I really like my walker!

(You might want to turn your sound down a little...Mommy gets kind of excited and goofy!)

Pretty soon I'm gonna be going all by myself!

Braska: Getting ready for Idol!

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!)