I’m 7 now.

Today’s my birthday.  I’m 7.  But I’ve been telling people I’m 67 all day.  I think it’s silly.

Mommy made me a sparkly bling shirt and I did my picture by the door like all the other birthdays.

Mommy came to school and brought cupcakes and goodies for my friends.  Mr. H gave me a cool birthday hat when I went to his class.  When my friends sang to me in Mrs. F’s class, I put it on again.


This is when they were singing to me.  It made me laugh.  And my picture is on the big board behind me too.  Mrs. F made that for me. 

Saturday is my big party.  Lots of my friends are coming, so it’ll be so much fun!  I’ll show more pictures after that.

But being 7 is kind of tiring, plus I had extra therapy tonight and I stayed up a little past bedtime to finish my Christmas show I was watching, so it’s time for sleep.  Mommy and me took a quick picture before bed… we’ve been together for 7 years!

7 years already

At the end of a long day, neither of us looking our best, we pause for a quick smile to set as a remembrance of the day.

Braska is 7.  It seems unreal.

I wish I had time to type through some of the ponderings and thoughts that have been swimming around in my head during the busyness of the last week.  How much has changed in 7 years for both of us…

But I don’t have the luxury of that time.  Maybe by next year.

Now to figure out what to do with the 20 kids (and their parents) who are coming to B’s party on Saturday at the cheer gym. It’ll be a blast.  Do I go last-minute cookies? Cupcakes? Little D*bbie something or other?  To say I don’t have 10 minutes to devote to getting ready is an understatement. 

But what else is new, right? 

The girl will have fun, so all shall be right.

Happy Birthday, Beauty. Onward and upward.

31 for 21: Floor is done!

Braska reporting: Ta-da! Soon the rest of the little parts will be done too. But for now, I love to slide and sit on this new floor!

31 for 21: Mommy’s good day

Braska reporting: We had a fun dinner with Mommy for her birthday last night. And to finish the night, we did pictures just like the one from last year… with a little extra silliness…

This is from last year…

Today’s a big day, too.  Me and Mommy and Coach Katie (one of our cheer coaches) are going on a trip to talk to a whole BUNCH of kids about Down syndrome.  Me and Mommy went last year.  I’m sure it will be fun again.

31 for 21: Happy looking back

Mommy reporting: So…. today I’m 40. And I’m good with it. I’m actually excited about what feels like the beginning of the next big life stage, but there’s always a slight tinge of sadness for me when it comes to birthdays and anniversaries of different things.  I’ll not go on about that here, but I did want to show you some things that made me smile as I looked back. Miss B in some of her earlier cute glory.  (If you need more, go to the archives in the left margin and go back to 2007 and 2008… lots more where these came from…)

From October 2007

From October 2008

31 for 21: Two-Party Friday

Kinlee reporting: Friday was 50s day at my school. Mommy made me a skirt really fast for me to wear.


Braska’s school was on a vacation day so she came with Mommy to my party.  She has lots of friends at my school since she went there last year, so everyone is always glad to see her.


This is all of the kids from the kindergarten classes at my school with all 3 teachers. We had a fun 50s day! 

We even had a sock hop…it’s a dance!


In the afternoon, Auntie Rach came to pick us up and took us on a secret mission. We went to get ready for a surprise party for Mommy’s birthday.  It was a super fun time! There was a lot of music and friends to see.

It was a great day of parties!

Mommy has more pictures of her party on her page too…

Surprise. Karaoke. 40

Tonight I was blessed with a surprise (I knew there was an event, but I didn’t know anything further than that) birthday party, thrown by my sister, Rachel and my husband. It was a fun time. I’ll write more soon and show more pics. But thanks a bunch to Rach for organizing and executing a smooth plan. And thanks to all who came. And those of you who couldn’t, we missed you. 

Official birthday countdown 5 days, 10 minutes.

(Lil sis Rach and me)

Happy Birthday Papa!

Today it’s Papa Beagle’s birthday…  So we made him a movie.

Hope you had a really great birthday Papa!

A busy bee day

I gotta go to bed, but here’s a quick peek at what we did today.

First I got dressed for school.  I put on different stuff than usual so I could put my bumblebee dress on at school easier than changing all my clothes.  Everyone at school liked my outfit AND my bumblebee dress, too!

(This is the look I give Mommy most of the time when she takes pictures.  She just wants me to look and smile. But I get her every time. It’s what the cool kids do.)


Then I got down on the floor before we left for school and looked at my book by the mirror.  It makes TWO books when you do it that way!


Then we went to school. Mommy came back to school early today, and we put on my bumblebee dress and hat for my teachers and friends to see.  But I only got to stay a few minutes because I had to go see Miss Sue.  Mommy calls it “feeding therapy” but I just think it’s like a snack that I have to work really hard for.


After school, we went to a place with a playground so we could have a little party for Jack’s birthday.  It was fun with me and KiKi and Jack.  We climbed and ran around.  Jack could do a magic trick where he stuck his foot WAY up and then got up on top of us.  I don’t know how he did it!  He is SO strong!  See his foot way up there??


When we were done playing, we had some ice cream.  (I really like ice cream!  It’s one of my new favorite things!)  Then we took a couple of pictures before we went home. 

Jack: Braska, you’re silly.  You never look when your Mommy says to say, “Cheese!”  You’re supposed to smile like this…


Braska: I give up.  Someone just take the picture so we can go.  Hip Hip Hooray.

After we slept on the way home (and after KiKi got sick all over her car seat and her clothes), we felt better and played for the rest of the day.

Happy Birthday, Jackson! See ya tomorrow for your Day After Party!

9 months

These photo sessions are getting a bit more difficult. Before I could get the first shot, she had a letter in hand. (Don’t mind the diaper that’s a little too big… ran out of our normal kind.)


Then Mommy took it away in an attempt to get a pretty shot. Yeah, that worked well.


So I gave up and let her go at them.


Highlights this month: She’s finally cruising.  It seems she took a little break in her speedy development between pulling to stand and cruising.  That’s ok with me, but now she’s on the move again.  Several people are betting she’ll walk in the next 6 weeks… I’m not sure, but it wouldn’t surprise me.  She loves to walk with two hands held, but she’s hesitant with just one.

She’s enjoying feeding herself, prefers it BY FAR to being fed with a spoon.  She likes all kinds of veggies, bananas and apples, multigrain fruit bars, all kinds of crackers, breads, puffs and cereals.  But as for *real* food, we’re struggling because we’re real-food challenged around here.  We need to fix food she can eat, but that’s going to be a big change.  It’s a process to eat less processed foods.

She’s working on teeth 5 and 6 right now, on either side of her lower front two.  Here’s a peek at 5 of them. 

The uppers are through, one more than the other, and the 6th tooth is just finishing cutting through.  How painful must teething be?!?

In the last couple days she’s decided she wants to clap, so that’s fun.  At first I thought she was trying to sign more, but it’s evolved into a flat-handed clap, so we just chime in with “YAY!” whenever she starts a’clappin’. Here’s a few seconds of her showing her new skill, though a little dark.

8 Months

Once again, we're here to mark another month. This will be quick since I'm borrowing M's computer again, and I don't have the same little gadgets I usually do. (Blogger is hard sometimes! Relatively, of course.)

Before baths this morning, we snapped a few pics. These little shoots are getting tougher as we go. Lie still?? Yeah right.


And Braska wanted in on the action, so in she went. Hugs and kisses are always first on the docket for her.


Then KiKi returned the favor, as she usually does, by pulling hair. Hard.


Then they were both up in about 10 seconds, ready to go. So to the bath we went.


Highlights this month: I can't even keep up. I really need to document better. She's eating pretty well again, after her little phase. She much prefers to feed herself, and gets frustrated when she can't do it all herself. But really, pureed foods, at this stage and self-feeding?? I don't think so. We're doing alot of little "meltables" and such, and she's quite good at it.

Today, she did her first cruising down the side of the couch. She loves to pull up on anything at all, and she really likes the walking toy also, and spends alot of time going around with it. Crazy girl, I just can't get used to this kind of skill with motor. It's so amazing to me. She is mimicking a little with sounds, mostly da da da when we are changing her diaper. She loves to babble with Braska. They seem to have some inside jokes, and they get tickled by something and just sit there and giggle. Too cute.

Here we come, month 9. Ready for what's next. Maybe.

1 Month

Is it true? Can it be? One month old!


That's worth doin' a jig!


Miss KiKi spent some time resting in the big chair with her little protector today.


Highlights this month: Birth! And finding a workable schedule, feeding "alternatives" (see post below), lots of introductions, and her first smiles just in the last few days (pics soon)...fun!

We made it to one month in good shape, and it kinda went quick! Here's to many more...