Races, Ambulances and ACLs

Jacob ran his first race yesterday. The school district here had a fun run for the kids. Jacob's was 1k. All kids ran the same course around the school but they had each grade stagger their start. Jacob went around in his walker. His behavioral therapist, Maricruz, helped push him along. Along the way they had to stop at different stations to do push-ups, sit-ups, etc. Jacob didn't like the push-ups but Greg and Maricruz helped him get them done. Holly snapped photos of everything.

When Jacob got tired he just lifted his legs and sat on the walker while Maricruz pushed. He worked hard though. He was exhausted by the end.

Brigham ran for a bit also and the said, "Daddy, I'm tired."

Afterwards they had a gymnastics show and Brigham was enthralled.

We had a couple of other adventures this week. Thursday, Holly got a sharp cram in her leg and then almost passed out. We called my dad and he said we needed to be worried about a blood clot. So we called 911. A fire truck, ambulance and one of those red trucks that aren't quite a fire truck or an ambulance showed up. They took a bunch of readings and said that she needed to go to the hospital to get checked out. They were going to have me take her but her heart rate dropped when she stood up. So she got a ride in the ambulance.

Luckily Kiersten had been leaving for work when she saw the rescue squad. She had a feeling they were going to our house (she is either inspired or paranoid) and followed them. Sure enough they stopped at our place. So while there were six big guys running around with a stretcher all of the sudden a short blonde girl in maroon scrubs appeared. She watched the kids while I went over to the hospital with Holly.

It turned out to be nothing major. In fact, I don't think we even know what it was. We have figured out that this seems to happen to Holly every 11 years. It happened once when she was almost 12, again at 23 right after we got married and now. We have marked year 45 on our calendar so that we will be ready.

I found out that I tore my right ACL this week. That means surgery again (not the same knee as last time). This will be worse because I won't be able to drive for 6 weeks since it is my right knee. I would say that life is never boring around here but that is pretty much what life is when you have to keep your leg elevated for 6 weeks.

Steve Jobs Commencement Speach

Here is a link to a page that will let you into the Stanford section of iTunes. On the page is a link that when clicked will launch iTunes on your computer and go to the Stanford seciton. On the right is section of new stuff and one of them is Steve Jobs' commencement speach at Standford. It is really quite excellent. The link only works if you have iTunes. The video is a free download.

Sunday 11/22/06

Brigham has decided that he wants to be baptized. I don't know what they talked about in Nursery today but Brigham woke up from his nap saying that he wanted to be baptized. Tonight he went to bed with all the pictures he could find of baptism from the Gospel art kit. As I put him to bed he said, "I want to be baptized now." I am thinking that he will want to wait a little longer before he becomes accountable for his actions.

Today in Primary they were learning about Lorenzo Snow in sharing time. The counselor held up a picture of Lorenzo Snow and asked Jacob who it was. Jacob, who wasn't looking at the time, casually looked over his shoulder and said "Lorenzo Snow" and then turned back around to what he was doing. Jacob can be pretty handy if you ever need to know a prophet's name.

Tonight when I was putting Brigham to bed I asked him if he wanted to say his prayers. He was sitting in his bed and said "No! Like Mommy". He then proceeded to come and kneel down next to me. "Like Mommy" meant he wanted t kneel to pray like Mommy. It was very sweet.

Holly had her first basketball game yesterday morning. Brigham and Jacob had to drag her out of bed to go. Brigham was yanking on her arms and Jacob was pushing on her back. Holly contributed 3 points to a 44 to 26 point loss. They are going to have practice on Tuesday night. She is going to have to take over basketball duties for the family as I have hurt my other knee. I go to the doctor tomorrow to see what I have done.

Yesterday afternoon we got to see Chris Hales and kids. We met them at Griffith Park where the kids had a blast on the trains and at Shane's Universe (a huge playground designed especially for handicapped children). We didn't get much chance to talk as we all spent most of the time chasing our kids around.

Brigham's day

Brigham had quite the day today. While I was getting ready for Church he came in with lipstick all over his face. I went out in the hallway and saw that he had torn out all of Holly's makeup and managed to make our carpet look 10 years younger.

While Holly was cleaning all of this up he took off his clothes and his diaper. He then got a plastic cup a proceeded to walk around the kitchen with the cup over his genitals. When he removed the cup we were able to see that he had peed in it. At least it wasn't on the floor. I guess that it was his version of a port-a-potty.

During nursery Brigham had a major diaper blowout. Holly was conducting the Primary music so one of the counselors changed him. There was poop all over his clothes so when Holly finished the counselor handed her a plastic bag with Brigham's shirt and pants inside. So when Holly went to pick him up from Nursery he was in his Sunday shoes, black socks and a diaper and nothing else. So he got to walk all the way around the Church and out the front door that way. The best was that he had shark tattoo on his stomach. You can see a photo of him here.

Holly's Birthday

Holly decided that to celebrate her birthday she wanted to go bowling. We didn't think that too many people would be excited about it but boy were we wrong. Everyone had a great time - especially the little boys. Jacob had the time of his life. He had never been but he was thrilled from the moment we arrived. They had a little ramp that he could use to push the ball down. He still constantly asks to go bowling again.

Brigham and Luc were everywhere. They were grabbing balls left and right and chucking them down the lanes. It really was an incredible hit.

Jacob's Eye Surgery

Jacob had his strabismus surgery yesterday. It is to help him use his eyes together. Usually, when he looks off to the side his eyes go a little crazy.

The hospital told us to get there at 7am for 9am surgery. We showed up right on time but they had lost Jacob's chart. So they had to fill the entire thing out again. We got bumped so Jacob didn't go in until 11am. They great part is that no one bothered to tell us. We were just left in this room all by ourselves. When no one showed up by 9:30 I went to see what was happening. The nurse said, "Well, not all of his stuff was here so we had to put someone ahead of him." I said, "His stuff isn't here because you lost it." She was not helpful at all. I felt like I was at the DMV.

Poor Jacob hadn't been able to eat anything. He kept yelling for water and couldn't understand why his parents wouldn't give him any.

The surgery itself went well. He took a long time to wake up and devoured 4 popsicles before he got out of the hospital. We didn't leave until about 3:30. As soon as we got in the car he fell asleep again and slept until about 6:30pm.

After that he was wide awake. He didn't seem to be affected at all. His eye looks pretty nasty. All the parts that are supposed to be white are completely red.

The Time Has Come

Well this week the writing was on the wall that Brigham was ready to be potty trained. While he was supposed to be down for a nap he instead scooped poop out of his diaper and spread it all over his wall.

Today was the first day with "big boy" pants and he has done pretty well. He has come running a few times saying "Potty! Potty! Potty!" and there have been some minor accidents. But every time anything comes while he is on the toilet he yells, "I'm so proud of you!"

Brigham finds the sprinkler

Holly was in the house the other day and heard Brigham screaming outside. She ran out there to discover that Brigham had pulled the head off of a sprinkler and was getting shot in the face.

Vancouver

This week I was able to go up to Vancouver for a medical conference. What a beautiful place. The conference was at the Westin which was right on the bay with incredible views. The weather was perfect all week. Some of the trees had already begun to turn colors. I didn't get to go out and tour around much but I think that Holly and I are going to have to take a trip up there some time and do a bit of exploring.

One of the nights there was a dinner at the Vancouver acquarium. They had a beluga show which was amazing. What interesting animals. They look like swimming marshmallows.

The trip went very well. There are many ultrasound companies that are showing interest in our company. Hopefully we will have some new announcements soon.

Glasses for Greg

For my 33rd birthday I had to get reading glasses. Talk about a crummy present. I just picked them up yesterday. The prescription is very mild but it does help with reading quite a bit. Pretty soon I am going to have to start wearing my pants really high.

New DeVore photos

There are some new DeVore photos from the last 6 months here. Hope you enjoy.

Jacob shows his lack of teeth

Here is a video of Jacob showing off his lack of teeth. His face is looking much better. All the scabs are gone.

Brigham Video

Here is a video of Brigham doing some entertaining.

Brigham Video.

Disneyland and Spiderman

Yesterday we took the day off and went to Disneyland. What a perfect day. Temperature was about 75 degrees and there was no one in the park. The kids got to do pretty much everything they wanted to and we were only there from 2 to 8.

Brigham and Jacob were very excited to see Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl. Elastigirl could see that Jacob was a little banged up so she spent some extra time with him.

Jacob went on Space Mountain for this first time. This was my first time since they have redone it. I thought it was incredible - definitely one of the best rides I have ever been on. Jacob wasn't so sure. He is more of a Thunder Mountain Railroad fan.

Brigham and Luc went on Matterhorn for the first time. We weren't sure what they would think but they both seemed to like it.

We followed up the day with some Double Chocolate Bread Pudding from Ray Brennan's Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney. That has to be the best desert I have ever had.

Brigham has recently found a Spiderman outfit. It is much too big for him but he wears it all over the place.

He stayed Sunday night at my parents' place. The next morning he had two large suitcases. He grabbed one and made my mom get the other, took her to the front door and said, "Airport!" It looks like he is ready for another trip.

Jacob wants his two front teeth

Jacob lost his two front teeth. Holly said that he did really well at the dentist. He has scabs all over his face and his lip is still pretty swollen but he seems to be doing all right.

Jacob get's a nose job

Jacob took a spill today. He was going out to the car in his walker. I was putting Brigham into the car and Jacob "coasted" in his walker out into the street. A van was coming so firmly instructed him (yelled) at him to get back on the sidewalk. He turned around and his wheels caught on the edge of the driveway. We want face down without even a hand out to break his fall.

His front two teeth look like they might have to come out. We are going to the dentist tomorrow. His nose is swollen and may be a little crooked.

It happened about 4.5 hours ago and he seems to be feeling better. He looks like a platypus but he is already up watching DVDs and turning the volume up too loud on the TV.

Brigham giveth and he taketh away

Brigham is a very complex child. There is a little devil and a little angel constantly at war inside of him. The real problem is that you never know at any moment who is going to win.

Tonight was a perfect example. Brigham discovered dome lollipops. He got two of them and gave one to Jacob all on his own. The angel had one.

Well Brigham finished his lollipop a little faster than Jacob (Brigham is a chomper will Jacob is sucker). So, Brigham came over and took Jacob's lollipop. I said, "Brigham! Give that back to Jacob." So he gave Jacob the stick to the lollipop Brigham had just finished and took off with Jacob's lollipop. The devil had regained control.

Yesterday was another funny experience. I took Jacob and Brigham to Jacob's swim lessons. Brigham was very distressed that he couldn't get in the pool. He was walking along the side of the pool until he saw that there was a hot tub. The hot tub was level with the ground and had one of those blue plastic pool covers on it. He went walking for it and I realized that he thought he was going to be able to walk right on the pool cover. I grabbed him just as he was about to step on it.

I had him press down with his hand to show him that the cover was soft and that water would come through if you pressed on it. He thought that was pretty funny so he did it for awhile. I thought that he had figured out that this was not solid ground. I was wrong. Several minutes later he tried to walk on the pool cover again and went right in. This time I didn't catch him until half his body was submerged.

Labor Day 2005

We had a pretty good Labor Day. This morning we went to our ward's breakfast. Jacob played with waterballoons and got to hit a ball off of a tee. The bases were all little kiddy pools. He had a good time jumping into first base.

Brigham loved the water balloons. He went through about 5 of them and was always a little disappointed when they popped.

We then spent the afternoon swimming with Grandpa DeVore and Uncle Nathan. Granny Dot kept the kids well fed.

Tonight Granny Dot came to pick-up Brigham so that he could sleep at here house. She took both boys to get some french fries. Right when she drove up to the house Brigham vomited everywhere. It was quite the mess to clean up. After a bath he wasn't so sure he wanted to make another trip. He grabbed his doggie and climbed into bed. But before Granny Dot could leave he changed his mind. He hopped out of bed, grabbed his suitcase and went marching out to the car. His "suitcase" is a Spiderman backpack with wheels. He loves it and looks so serious when he is dragging it behind him. Whenever he bumps into anything he says "Sorry, sorry."

Brigham's Birthday

Brigham had quite the Birthday. I don't know if he understood what it was all about when the day started, but by the end of the day he was definitely a birthday believer.

Holly bought him a Winnie the Pooh birthday balloon. He carried it around all day telling anyone that would listen, "My Birday!"

The whole DeVore clan came over for cake and ice cream. We all sang to him and he loved that. He couldn't quite blow the candles out but he tried really hard.

Then the presents started. He didn't know what it was all about but he caught on quickly. His eyes would get big with each gift that came out. Some highlights were:

• A Poohbah musical toy that Brigham loved and which caused major emotional trauma to Jacob (it is now hidden)
• A raw piece of steak (from Trevor and Heather of course - they also gave him gourmet popcorn)
• Several airplanes (airplanes are his latest kick)
• A Spiderman backpack, a wagon full of Duplos and a broom (that may sound weird but he was absolutely thrilled)
• And an airport and train play sets

There were other things too but I can't remember them right now. The best was that we put the two play sets in the family office to get them out of the way. They were still in their boxes. We were trying to get Brigham down to bed when he opened the office door and started carrying the play sets out to the living room. It was hilarious. The play set boxes were about as big as he is. He was staggering under the weight and tipping this way and that but he got them both out there.

The next morning he woke up and the first thing he said was, "My birday!" Sorry bub. You only get that once a year.

Jacob is standing up on his own!

Jacob is now standing up on his own. Jacob has been able to stand unsupported for sometime now if someone helped him to get in the proper position or if he was able to pull himself up on something. But yesterday he started from the floor and got into a standing position by himself without pulling up on anything. This shows a lot of improvement in his leg strength and coordination.

He was very excited and is now standing up all of the time.