Brinley Noel: Now Everybody Clap Your Hands

Greetings my faithful blog followers, however many of you are left! We wanted to share how great our little Brinley is doing these last couple weeks. It seems she likes to give us huge leaps all at once which can be very exciting around here. Brin has finally started clapping, which is something we’ve been working on for a looong time now. She’s always had a kind of aversion to using both her hands at the same time but she is finally getting over that little hump.

She’s not only clapping, but also learning signing as well. She now does the sign for “more”, “my turn” and “all done” as well as waving hello and goodbye. She even dismissed her speech therapist the other day by signing “all done” to her and waving goodbye. How sweet she is. This is all very good news for her cognitive development and it makes our hearts leap every time she does it. This all came on the heels of Brin being sick with a short-lived virus that was pretty much just a fever and general discomfort for a few days so it was extra awesome having her get healthy and learn some new skills at the same time.

Brinley’s arm strength is getting better too so she’s inching closer to being able to crawl. Her current phase is rolling around a LOT more. Sometimes she and I will roll across the floor together. This is great exercise for her to strengthen her core. Oh yeah, she has this gear toy that has about 12 different plastic gears in about 6 different colors and her favorite is the red one. She will always go for that one, no matter how far it is to reach it. She pulls it off the toy and plays with it or smashes it into the toy. It’s pretty funny.

Another neat development around here is Alessa finally being almost potty trained. She’s doing great and we’re hoping she’ll be totally out of diapers very soon!

Pray for sleep around here for Sarah and me as Brinley has been rather restless at night, waking up every couple hours and needing her pacifier put back in. I haven’t had a good night of sleep in a couple weeks and my body is having trouble fighting off sickness right now. Sarah has been fighting sickness too so I think we both just need some good rest.

Cailyn and Raina have started school, of course; Cailyn as a first grader and Raina as a brand new Kindergartener! They are both doing great and loving it and Alessa is getting some extra mommy time now that she and Brinley are the only 2 at home and Brinley also has a nurse caring for her.

A few other items of note:

I finally got to go see a Yankee game at the new stadium! Thanks Dad, Uncle Dave and Mark, I had a blast!
We took the girls to Thompson’s lake and Brin liked playing in the water.
We all went to a motocross race to support nurse C and her boys! It was a ton of fun. (see pictures below)
I finally got a new Android phone so I am rid of my iPhone at last! Freedom!!!
On a related note I have an iPhone 6 plus I’m trying to sell…
The number Pi (3.1415…) is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. This is basic math but so many people forget what Pi actually is!!! Pi = circumference / diameter for any size circle.
We’ve also been getting some house projects done. Our front porch is nearly done and is turning out great. We also painted the girls room and let them help!

Continue to pray for Brinley to be fully healed! We love her triumphs small and big but we never cease praying for complete healing! I will leave you with this, a taste of something that God has been stirring in my heart, with more to come soon: "Are you convinced or are you being convinced that God loves you and that won't change no matter what?" Let Him convince you! It's true, I promise.

Enjoy some pictures and until next time, may the odds be ever in your... just kidding, I'm really not a fan of the Hunger Games. Good night muggles.