Words and Images of Brooke James

Although Estaline has difficulty walking and her language skills are somewhat delayed, it is apparent that she is learning and processing her environment and she can speak aloud or whisper a few words. She enjoys commanding others to do anything she chooses. As Navy, a nanny at the girls' home, chased Renise around the girls home with a ruler, pretending to spank her, Estaline called out "Ba li!" over and over again, meaning "give her!" Navy would often check and make sure that Estaline wanted that and Estaline would call out even louder "Ba li!" Then the command was followed by Estaline busting up in laughter. When it became Estaline's turn to receive the spanking though, she began to whimper.

I've tried to find a way for Daphne to help me do PT with Estaline, since she doesn't have school right now but all the other kids do. Often Estaline just gets ticked off at Daphne for being involved, but we did have one successful session last week. I put Estaline on my fitness ball to get her used to the move bvment and to work her abs. She hates it. Erta walked by and suggested we put Daphne on it with her. Below are the results of that experiment.

Today at church I sat with Cendy, Daphne, and Katrina, who are always very chatty, especially when its not the appropriate time. Daphne asked for water and Katrina (8 years old) leaned over, shaking her head at Daphne and said: "She is like a camel!" The fact that Daphne was so chatty today was made more humorous by the fact that yesterday, while she was doing my hair, she told me to "turn your head. You talk too much!" She, in fact, was the one blabbering on to Cendy! I pulled Cendy and Daphne out of church because people around us were starting to give us looks. When we got outside, I separated them and told them to be quiet. Cendy began to sing to the tune of the worship song, " Blessed Be Your Name," which was being played inside the church, "I am not Brooke's friend, I am not her friend." Her ever-present copycat, Daphne, quickly joined in the singing.

Update to my last post: I believe I was locked in the medical room at the boys’ home every single day last week. When I took the lock and key inside the room with me, some smart ones found a bar of some sort to place in the latch to keep me inside. Love you boys! I'm sure Cendy and Daphne would have loved to get in on these pranks with you.