Jacob is definitely feeling better

Yesterday Jacob tried to stand up and asked, "Where are my crutches?" we had to quickly remind him that he still isn't allowed to stand up yet. But the fact that he thought he could is a good sign that he is healing well. We may even venture an outing to our church Halloween party.

Jacob Update

Well, it has been just over week and I have to say that things have gone much easier than expected. Jacob has hardly complained at all. He has a hospital bed on our main floor and he likes to move it up and down. He spends most of his time in his reclining wheelchair (like a lazy boy with wheels), listening to music and watching recoded episodes of America's Funniest Home Videos.

For the first couple of days he was pretty drugged up but now he is on very little medication and seems to be doing fine. We even ventured a trip to the McDonald's drive-thru for some french fries and he did great.

His brothers have been very kind and helpful. Brigham brought all of Jacob's stuffed animals down for him and Caleb likes to come talk to him. Mark has been the trouble maker, always trying to climb up on Jacob's wheelchair. We have had to build up barricades to protect him.

Ward members have been so helpful as well. We get wonderful dinners brought in every other night which is all our refrigerator can handle. That has been so helpful as Jacob still needs a lot of help doing things and it isn't so easy to just stop and make dinner. His primary class all made him nice cards and others have come by with little treats for Jacob as well.

We really are amazed at how well this is all going. I don't know what we envisioned but it was certainly something with a lot more tears, sadness and frustration. Since the first day or two we really haven't seen any of that. Jacob is in good spirits and anxious to get his casts off so he can take a bath. He loves talking to people on the phone and especially likes video chatting with family. He loves to sing to people who come to visit as well. 

Thanks for all of your prayers on Jacob's behalf. They are certainly being answered.

Jacob's Upcoming Surgery

Jacobs first few weeks of life were spent on a ventilator. Tubes were placed in his mouth that went down into his lungs to help him breathe. After he was a few weeks old the doctors tried removing the tubes to see if he could breathe on his own. Three times they tried and three times they had to re-intubate him. The problem was that his throat kept collapsing and closing his airway. They decided that they needed to perform a tracheostomy where they would cut a hole in this throat to let him breathe.

Obviously the thought of our little boy having to go through such an ordeal was very distressing. Literally people around the world began fasting and praying for him that he would somehow not need the surgery.

The day before the surgery we came to hospital and Jacob was breathing with no tubes! The nurse told us how during the night Jacob's little hands (he was probably still under 3 lbs.) had grabbed the tubes that were attached to his face with tape and literally pulled them out of his mouth and throat. The nurses were shocked but decided to wait and see what he would do. He just started breathing and never had to have the tracheostomy.

Years later when Jacob was eight and still not walking we were told by one of his physical therapists that he would probably never walk. Studies showed that if a child didn't walk by the time he was eight then he probably never would. After many prayers and much fasting by many people Jacob all of the sudden began to walk. He now walks everywhere, usually with the assistance of crutches, but around the house he just walks on his own.

That brings us to now. Even though Jacob is walking very well he still has a lot of tightness in his muscles due to his cerebral palsy. This tightness is causing problems as he grows and is walking more. His feet don't quite function correctly either which results with him basically walking almost completely on the insides of his feet, not the bottoms.

To fix this we have surgery scheduled for October 14th where his tendons will be lengthened and several bones will be rotated. Sound painful? From all accounts it is. It will involve a very lengthy and painful recovery period as well. We know that barring some miracle this is what Jacob needs to have done. But we also know that Jacob has seen miracles before in his life, oftentimes at what seems to be the eleventh hour.

I am assuming that if you are reading this, you are a friend of Jacob. We would just ask you to keep him in your prayers and your fasting in the upcoming weeks. Please pray that, if possible, he can avoid having to have this surgery, and if not so that he will be calmed, comforted and strengthened in his recovery.

Thank you so much,
Greg & Holly

Rivers of Cafe Rio

I have to write this one down while the smell is still wafting through the air. I had just gone to sleep and was somewhere between that state of sort of asleep and really asleep. Holly was still awake feeding Mark. I remember sensing that there was another child in the room. There was a conversation going on but I couldn't make out what was being said until I heard, "Run to the toilet!"

This brought me a little closer to conciousness but not enough that I could open my eyes yet. Then I heard a sound of waves of liquid, like buckets of water, splashing against a tile floor. Over and over and over again. Then I heard, "Brigham, you missed the toilet."

I was now fully awake. I ran down the hall to where Holly was standing only to jump back in revulsion as the bathroom came into full view and smell. I have never seen anything like that. Shredded pork and black beans plastered every inch of the bathroom - except for the inside of the toilet. The floor, the outside of the toilet, the sink, the garbage can, the bath toys, the heating vent, the potty seat, the walls. But the inside of the toilet was completely clean.

After 4 boys you think you have seen it all. Then you learn you never have. I was fortunate enough to get assigned to "clean up the kid and wash the towels" duty while Holly soaked up towel after towel of vomit. After a quick shower and his first experience with mouth wash Brigham was feeling fine, rejoicing in the fact that he was now sick and would not have to go to school tomorrow. Yeah, right.

Greg DeVore
Sent from my iPhone

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This is one of my favorite memories of Jacob. Two years ago we were in the gym a...

This is one of my favorite memories of Jacob. Two years ago we were in the gym after pack meeting. Jacob was watching the other kids playing football and having a great time. He was laughing and laughing. All of the sudden he turned to me and said, "I want to play football."

Jacob can walk a little, but he certainly can't run. I wasn't sure what to do. We walked over to where the other boys were at the end of the gym and I asked them if Jacob could be quaterback for a single down. They all agreed and got ready to hike him the ball. They all knew that he couldn't run so as they handed him the ball they weren't exactly sure what to do.

As soon as the ball got into Jacob's hands I scooped him up and started sprinting down the sidelines. The boys, who had been expecting Jacob to be stumbling along were in momentary shock. But after a moment's pause they figured out what was going on and took off in hot pursuit. Jacob and I were running across the gym with a bunch 9 and 10 year olds yelling "Get 'em! Get 'em!" Jacob was laughing all the way. It was the best football game I ever played.

Greg DeVore
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Parenting Tip: Getting Your Kids To Work

If your six year old is being belligerent and refusing to empty anything but the bottom rack of the dishwasher do the following:

1. Agree to his terms
2. While he isn't looking, move almost everything from the top rack to the bottom rack.
3. Make sure he finishes ahead of you so that he wins "the race."

Everybody ends up happy.

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Super heroes

OH:
Luc: I don't think we are super heroes.

Brigham: But Luc, we are super strong and we're really good at beating people up.

Luc: I can beat up my sister.

Greg DeVore
Sent from my iPhone

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A couple of new videos

Here are couple of recent videos. First, the blizzard of '09:

http://gallery.mac.com/gdevore#100395

And then Christmas morning:

http://gallery.mac.com/gdevore#100388

The best part of this is towards the end when Jacob is singing Jingle Bells. It's a classic.

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The Show Must Go On!

Last night we had our ward Christmas party. It had been delayed a few days because of the massive amount of snow we received. All of the primary kids did a Christmas play and Jacob had a solo in the big finale. He sang "Away in a Manger" while he sat on his walker at the very edge of the stage. After he finished the 1st verse the rest of the case joined in and they sang some other songs. 

Well, Jacob got a little over excited and started clapping which moved his walker forward just enough that he went flying off the front of the stage. I rushed to grab him and quickly checked for any signs of injury. I sat him back on back on the stage and he looked like he was about to cry. But I knew he wanted to stay to the end because he LOVES it when people clap for him. As his lip began to quiver I asked him, "Jacob do you want to stay?" He just began to sing right along with all of the kids. Once everyone in the audience saw him begin to sing they were very relieved.

At the end everyone applauded and Jacob was thrilled. On the way home he yelled, "I sang and they clapped!" You can see a bit in the video below. Don't worry. Jacob is all right.

Download now or watch on posterous

Jacob Singing in Christmas Pageant.m4v (11172 KB)

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Brigham quote

Brigham: Nachooooo! Wait, to be Nacho I need to be in my underware.

Halloween 2009

Caleb (3) had his first real Halloween experience. We think he gives it the double thumbs up. At first he wasn't too keen on the whole custom thing. Unlike his older brother he tends to keep the same outfit on for more than 10 minutes at a time and the idea of wearing a cape was not the least bit appealing (he went as Batman).

We weren't sure that he was going to like trick or treating either. He had gone to our church halloween party and was a little scared by all the people who were dressed up and all of the general commotion.

So, it was with a little hesitation that we set out Saturday evening to knock the doors of McLean. It helped that Brigham was running on ahead since Caleb wants to do exactly everything his older brother does. For the first house he walked down the front walk to the door and waited to see what would happen. Our kind neighbor came to the door with a bowl of candy. Caleb looked at it for a second, then grabbed some and put in his bucket. He looked up to see if what he had done was all right. Sensing that it was he quickly grabbed some more until we put a stop to it at 4 candy bars.

He just have gotten 4 candy bars at every house he went to. This was much better than the church. He pretty much had the doorstep to himself. No one was dressed in scary costumes and all they did was tell him how cute he was and tell him to take more candy.

He did run into a bit of trouble though. As he got the idea of things he wanted to move faster in between houses so he started running across yards. About every third house he would trip and candy would go flying all over the lawn. He would quickly scramble to get it all put back in.

Once we finished our little circle he wanted to go out and do the whole loop again. I explained to him that it was pretty much a one shot deal, no repeat visits.

Brigham had a great time too. Jacob opted out this year except for one house where he was able to snatch pretty much all of their candy, so he had more than enough.

Mark Winder DeVore arrives

The short version of our story is as follows. On Aug 18th, Mark Winder DeVore was born weighing in at a hefty 3 lbs. 9 oz. He was born via emergency c-section at 28 weeks gestation. So why so early? Holly had placental abruption. After a bit of a rocky start, both Mom and Mark are on their way to recovery.



So, here is the long version.

As you may or may not remember our last episode of “Holly is pregnant, time to bring in the National Guard”, Holly has a certain difficulty when it comes to pregnancies. Though she is quite skilled in many areas, when it comes to cervixes she is completely incompetent. This means that with each pregnancy since Jacob she has had to be sewn up to keep the little guys in until it was actually time for them to show up. Having done this for both Brigham and Caleb we thought we pretty much had the process down. Granted it was a bit complicated but we pretty much knew what to expect.

Lesson learned: Whenever you think you have learned what to expect remember that you can never know what to expect.

Back in the spring we met with Holly’s doctor and laid out a basic plan for the pregnancy. But, as Eisenhower stated, “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” Holly’s cervix began to thin much more rapidly than it had in past pregnancies. Her cerclage that was supposed to happen at 14 weeks, ended up being done at 8 weeks.

Soon after, we joined my entire family on a trip to Williamsburg, Virginia. A few days into the trip Holly began to bleed. Fortunately we had a perinatologist on site and were able to borrow an ultrasound machine from a neighboring town. The baby was ok but Holly was going to be on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy. She was at 13 weeks.

So bed rest began. We had done bed rest before, but never for so long. Before the bleed the goal had been to stay off of bed rest. Now that that goal was shattered the new goal was to stay out of the hospital.

At 23 weeks that goal was decimated as well. Holly’s cervix was thinning too fast and her doctor felt she needed to be admitted immediately to the hospital. Now the goal was to keep the baby in there as long as possible.

When Holly was 26 weeks I took our boys out to California to spend some time with the grandparents. It was going to be a pretty good deal. I would take the kids out, stay for a few days and then return to Virginia to have about a week without any kids for about a week or so. After their stay was up my mother and sister-in-law would bring the kids back to Virginia.

I got some time to catch up on work as well as to spend some more time with Holly. Holly was actually doing great. Her spirits had remained up besides being stuck in a hospital bed for over a month and the baby seemed to be doing well. We thought we might even be able to make it all the way to the end of October.
Then plans changed a bit.

My kids were supposed to fly home on a redeye on Monday evening. On Saturday my Mother called to tell me that she had fallen and couldn’t get up. The reason she couldn’t get up was because he had broken her kneecap. She kept saying that she could still bring the kids back on the plane, making it sound like she had also hurt her head in the fall.

Monday morning I caught a flight to Los Angeles to pick up my kids and fly back to Virginia with my sister-in-law, Laura, who was in the process of moving to Virginia. By 10am I was in California, enjoyed a Southern California afternoon and evening and then caught the 9pm flight to Virginia.

It was great. The kids passed out. I wasn’t able to sleep but I didn’t have to deal anyone screaming or running around. As is my custom, as soon as we landed I opened my phone to see what occurred on the world while I had been momentarily offline. There was a text message waiting for me from Holly that simply said, “I am bleeding. Baby is fine but call me. I am a little nervous.”

Holly had started to bleed during the night and they were moving her down to labor and delivery since she was also contracting. My brother (Laura’s husband who had already arrived in Virginia) picked us up at the airport. I ran into the house to put all of the kids back to bed and then headed over to the hospital.

Things didn’t seem to be going well at the hospital. The contractions were becoming more intense and it looked like we were going to have a baby born at 28 weeks. The contractions got worse. And worse. And then really bad. In fact, it became one continuous contraction. I have never seen Holly in so much pain and there wasn’t really anything I could do.

Once it reached this point, the doctors realized that these weren’t normal contractions. One continuos contraction is a sign of placental abruption which is basically when your insides are ripping themselves apart.

I have never seen doctors move so fast. Everyone started rushing around and you could really get the sense that this was something serious. For the first time in my life I began to worry that my wife might not make it through the day.

Everyone performed exceptionally and “Male DeVore Baby” was born weighing in at 3 lbs. 9 oz. (very large for a 28 weeker). He was rushed to the NICU and Holly went to recovery. Things had been even more complicated then we initially thought. Not only did she have placental abruption (placenta ripping away from the uterus) but she also had placental accreta (placenta embedded in the uterine wall). Both cause increased bleeding and can be very dangerous to the health of the mother.



Holly was very weak after the delivery but the baby seemed to be all right. She had hoped to get down to the see him that evening but was just too weak. Later that evening it became apparent that she had lost a LOT of blood. The nurse described her as being as white as the bed sheet. They started a 3 unit blood transfusion (every medical person I tell that to says, “Wow, that’s a lot.”).

Meanwhile, Male DeVore Baby was doing fine. We hadn’t really come up with a name yet since he wasn’t supposed to show up until October. We began making a list of possible names and finally settled on Mark. Holly liked it but wanted to let it sink in for a bit before we finalized on it.

When I went to the NICU they asked me what his name was. I told them we were thinking about Mark. The nurse got this shocked look on her face and said, “We felt like we needed to call him something so this morning we started calling him Mark.” I was pretty sure that Holly wanted to see him in person before finalizing on the name so I reaffirmed to the nurse that we were still in trial mode. From that point on he became known as Maybe Mark.

Maybe Mark was doing great. He didn’t have to be intubated, no bleeding on the brain and no other complications.

Mom was still having a rough go of it though. She basically couldn’t sit up without becoming extremely dizzy. Her first trip to the bathroom resulted in 5 nurses rushing in to carry her back to her bed. This went on for several days. She had every test imaginable, chest x-ray, CT scan, ultrasound, EKG. She got to know every group in the hospital. Everything came back normal. Except for her stool test.

Holly had contracted a bacterial infection called c-difficil which is apparently a nasty bug that can wreak havoc on your bowels. She was just getting strong enough that she felt she could go see Maybe Mark and now she was on isolation. No visits from the kids and everyone that entered the room had to wear gowns and gloves. She was initially told that she would be that way for about 7-10 days. This was on Saturday. We decided that Maybe Mark couldn’t last without a name for another week (he was already 5 days old), dropped the Maybe prefix and added a Winder after to make him Mark Winder DeVore.

By Monday the news was better. They were going to release her from the hospital on Tuesday and she was finally allowed to go down and see Mark.

The recovery from home has still been tough for her. The combination of several months on bed rest along with some major surgery, significant blood loss and a bacterial infection has made it a bit difficult to bounce back as quickly as she would like. But she is well on her way. She even drove herself to Target the other day.

Mark is doing extremely well. He is just about 1 month old and almost 5 lbs. He will hopefully be coming home in the next 2-3 weeks.

It has definitely been a wild ride. We have seen many miracles along the way. I will point out just a few in case you may have missed them.

Holly was in the hospital because she had an incompetent cervix. This ended up having zero impact on her pre-term labor. The real culprit was the placental abruption. But the incompetent cervix mean that she had been on bed rest, allowing the baby to grow, she had received several shots that helped the baby grow faster, and when the abruption happened she was right in the hospital, allowing her to be treated immediately.

The day Mark showed up, Jonathan and Laura had literally just moved into our basement. They completely took over kids while I spent much of my time at the hospital.

Holly had a fever for several days after the delivery which didn’t permit her to go see Mark. This gave the doctor’s enough time to discover the c-diff infection. Had she passed that on to Mark it could have been very bad for him.

There are many more but those have been some of the most dramatic. We so appreciate all those who have helped out over these last few months. We will keep you posted on how Mark is doing.

Is Honesty Always Best?

Today we were trying to explain the story of Judas betraying Jesus for 30
pieces of silver to Brigham. I told him, "It would be like if someone
told you they would pay you $5 if you would hit Caleb. What would you
do?"

Brigham's response was a little too honest. "Well, I don't like Caleb
and I really like money."

Jacob is Walking!

We have had so many exciting things happen over the last few months that it is hard to explain them all. But it can all be summed with the statement - Jacob is walking. As many of you know, Jacob has cerebral palsy and has never been able to walk more than a few halting steps at a time. He is now eight. Some of his therapists have held out hope that he might one day walk, others had stated that if a child was not walking by the time they were eight then they probably would never walk.

At the beginning of this year Jacob really seemed no closer. We would practice with him occasionally but no real progress was being made. We had always been told that as long as he was progressing with his motor skills he would not need surgery on his legs, but if he began to plateau then surgery might be necessary. The surgery involves lengthening his tendons. It is a painful surgery with a long recovery that would involve his legs being placed in full casts for up to 3-4 weeks. Not something we were looking forward to.

I won't go into all of the details but after several months of prayers, fasting and priesthood blessings we have truly seen a miracle. Yesterday Jacob attended church without his walker for the 2nd time. Saturday night he went to the ward Halloween party without his walker. He is literally walking on his own. I still follow close behind him to catch him if he tips over but his strength and confidence in walking seem to grow each day. If you had seen him at the beginning of this year you would have thought what he is doing now would be unimaginable.

We are so grateful for all of those who have prayed and fasted for Jacob. You can know that you have been part of a miracle. Jacob's therapist was talking to Holly a few weeks ago and lamenting the fact that they hadn't been pushing him harder since he is making so much progress right now. She said, "I don't know if you realize this, but what we are seeing with Jacob is miraculous."

I think that Brigham's comment summed it up best. Saturday night we were packing up to go to the ward Halloween party. Brigham saw me putting Jacob's walker in the back of the van and said, "Dad, what are you doing. Jacob doesn't need that thing anymore." And he is right. We didn't use it at all that night. Jacob is still using his walker at school but we hope that soon he will be able to get rid of there as well. This is opening up a new an wonderful world for him. Words cannot express the gratitude we feel to our Heavenly Father for this miracle in our lives.

We'll keep you posted on his progress.

Father and Sons

This weekend I took all three boys (Jacob 8, Brigham 5, Caleb 2) on our first Father and Sons camp-out. Normally Caleb wouldn't have made the trip but Holly was going to Philadelphia for the weekend to attend "Timeout for Women" (that is where women go when they refuse to eat their vegetables).

First I would like to point out a few things that I learned that might be of use to someone attempting a similar feat in the future.

1. Campgrounds do not provide pillows. I really wish they did though since I forgot to bring them.


2. If you are going camping, arrive early enough to set your tent up in the daylight. Setting up in the dark is no fun.


3. Campgrounds are not exactly "handicap accessible" which we learned as we drug Jacob's wheelchair over the gravel roads.


4. Four man tents do not anticipate one of your "men" being in a port-a-crib.

Now for a recap of the experience. We got a bit of a late start on Friday afternoon. The campground is only about an hour away but since we didn't get on the road until 5 pm, with traffic we didn't end up getting there until about 6:30. Everyone was eating dinner so we went ahead and joined them. I don't really know anything about camping so I kept asking people where you were supposed to setup etc. All the kids loved dinner. Jacob had Fritos, Caleb downed a hotdog and stole Jacob's Fritos and Brigham went for the full on chili cheese dog (with no bun though since he is on the Atkin's diet).

After dinner we went hunting for a campsite. It was already dark which made things a little complicated. I brought Jacob and Caleb with me and my brother-in-law Josh agreed to come help me setup the tent and would bring Brigham and Sam (Josh's son along with him). We were able to drive the car pretty close to where we were going to camp but since I had to carry the tent, sleeping bags, etc. I couldn't really carry Jacob or Caleb. So they started walking behind me, Jacob in his walker and Caleb waddling along. I was looking for a place to drop our tent down, shining the flashlight around and got a little too far ahead of Jacob and Caleb. I turned around to see Jacob crying and Caleb with a very scared look on his face. I went back to gather the troops and try to move them along to our destination.

About the time I got found a spot Josh showed up and we started setting up the tent. The tent was actually pretty easy to setup except for the fact that Jacob was crying the entire time, begging to go home. By the time we were done with the tent we had two leftover poles. That was a little concerning but I still have no idea where they were supposed to go.

After setting up the ten it was off to the campfire. The stake had a little program and the kids go to roast marsh mellows. All of my kids really liked this. Some of the older kids did skits. Brigham couldn't figure out why the kids in one of the skits called toilet paper the "very important papers".

After the campfire it was off to bed. There was just one problem. We weren't allowed to park our car by the campsite overnight. So we had to take it out to the parking lot. We parked the car and started our walk back to the campground, Jacob in his wheelchair, me carrying a cooler, Brigham with his backpack on wheels and Caleb waddling along.

We were moving pretty well on the pavement but once we got to the gravel road things slowed down considerably. It was almost impossible to push Jacob's wheelchair on the gravel so I turned him around backwards, popped the chair onto its back wheels and stared towing him. At the same time a lot of cars were coming down the gravel road since they were going out the parking lot. This meant we had to keep pulling over to the side of the road and containing Caleb so that he would not "run to the light". Needless to say, our progress was very slow. We had to be quite the site though, me dragging Jacob's wheelchair behind me and Brigham walking along holding onto Caleb's arm, looking like he was taking him to a detention center, to make sure he didn't run away.

Eventually, we made our bathroom stop and finally arrived at the tent. As stated previous, we had a four-man tent and Caleb's port-a-crib took up some significant space. After quite a bit of wrestling I got all of the kids in pajamas and into their sleeping bags/cribs. Jacob passed out almost immediately, Brigham wanted to hear some stories and Caleb was just happy to be there. I told Brigham a few stories and he went on and on about how fun camping was and how we should do this every year and... then he was out cold. But Caleb was still happy to be there. He didn't seem tired yet but I thought I would just go to sleep and Caleb would eventually doze off.

I got into my sleeping bag. All of our sleeping bags were brand new since we had never been camping before as a family. Brigham and Jacob's bags were slightly different than mine. As I got into mine my feet went right out the bottom. What? I checked the zippers to make sure I wasn't in upside down. Nope. I check to see if there was a way to zip up the bottom. Nope. I thought, "What kind of moron makes a sleeping bag with no bottom?" But I was exhausted and decided to just go to sleep.

But Caleb was still excited to be there. He was jumping around the crib, laughing, cheering etc. I am not sure if I fell asleep for awhile or not but as the night wore on Caleb never calmed down. I was having a real tough time getting comfortable, especially since I had forgotten the pillows, was on no padding on bumpy ground with a sleeping bag that had no bottom. After several hours of tossing and turning I finally discovered another zipper on the bag. There was another layer! I could actually get "into" the sleeping bag. All of the sudden my sleeping bag became a lot more useful. And all this time Caleb was still excited to be there.

I closed my eyes for a bit and suddenly something heavy fell on me. I opened my eyes to see Jacob's face right over mine saying "I want a thousand years clapping" (that means he wants to listen to a live version of a Sting song). I told him that it was still night time and he had to go to sleep, which he did promptly. I couldn't quite see but apparently he had fallen asleep on top of Brigham. Brigham woke up a few moments later screaming "I can't move my legs". I rolled him out from underneath Jacob and back to the other side of the tent. And Caleb was still excited to be there.

This was getting crazy. I didn't have a watch on but it had to at least be 3 am and Caleb was still bouncing off of the walls. I hadn't brought a sleeping bag for him, just his blanket sleeper and his blanket. I started thinking that maybe he was too cold t calm down so I got him out his crib to lie down with me in my new and improved sleeping bag. Big mistake. He was even more excited now and started crawling all over everyone in the tent. Brigham awoke again yelling, "He grabbed me in the face! I hate it when Caleb grabs me in the face!"

Caleb was quickly put back in the crib and I tried putting my jacket over him. That didn't work, the Jacket became a very fun thing to throw around the crib. So finally I relented and gave Caleb my sleeping bag. He didn't calm down immediately but after about 45 minutes or so he finally fell asleep. It was almost 5 am at this point.

Everyone was asleep now but I had a problem. I had no pillow and now sleeping bag. I put on all the clothing I had but that still wasn't quite warm enough. So finally, I opened up Jacob's sleeping bag and got in with him. It wasn't big enough that I could close it again but we were both warm enough that I was able to get to sleep for at least 90 minutes or so.

Then Brigham and Jacob woke up and we were ready to start the day! We had some breakfast with everyone and Brigham had a blast playing with his friend John at all of the great play areas in the campe as Jacob and Caleb say by while I packed up the tent and sleeping bags. Caleb, who had been such a wild man the night before was amazingly sedate and seemed content to sit in the port-a-crib with his blankey while I cleaned things up.

By 10 am we were on the road home to get Brigham to a birthday party. Finally at 2 pm Caleb and I were able to lie down for a much needed nap. Hopefully we will be rested enough by the time Father and Sons comes around next year.

Worst Mom of the Year Award

Yesterday was one of those bad days!! It was raining out and so I
thought I would just let the kids hang out and watch TV so I could get
some much needed cleaning done. Mistake #1. They all really needed
my attention at the SAME TIME, of course, and I was going a little
stir crazy. My attempt to get Brigham focused on something else
failed miserably and ended with me gritting my teeth saying, if your
brothers can practice walking every day you can practice writing your
name!! Oh glory!! Needless to say, he proclaimed that my activity
was not cool and that he was NEVER going to write his name! Go Mom!
Next I decided we all had to get out of the house, so we headed off to
Krispy Kreme (a nice nutricious choice). It was about a half hour
away, but I didn't care. The gas would cost more than the
doughnuts..oh well. THis was my sanity we were talking about. So
with Jacob in tears that he wanted to go back to Grammy Dots house
(for the 3,658th time since his return on Tues.) Brigham telling me
that he hates handwriting, and Caleb ready for a nap, we headed out.
On the way there I called my sister-in-law Mary to see if they would
like to join us. It was nap time for them, so she opted out. We
continued the journey with more crying for Grammy Dot when good Ole
Mommy lost her patience and sternly said, "Stop it, Jacob" "We are
all done with crying." Of course that made him cry more (and I'm sure
made him want to go back to Grammy Dot's house even more, too). That
was when Brigham quipped in "Mom, it's your fault mom, he's crying
because you yelled at him!" Oh heavens....I really am horrible. Yet
in my mind I am thinking....have you not noticed that he has been
crying all day?
We finally arrived at Krispy Kreme and everyone seemed in good
spirits. As we ordered the doughnuts Jacob began doing the bathroom
dance. He said he needed to go and started heading towards the
bathroom. Since I could see it from the register, I let Brigham go
and help him with the door and when I was done paying etc. I went with
Caleb and doughnuts in tow, to the MENS room to help him. (I know,
you are now thinking...there goes her parenting award!!---WHAT was I
thinking!!) Jacob normally can get his pants up and down fine etc. Of
course when I arrived there was urine all over the floor and all over
his shorts and underpants. what to do!!! My van was parked right
outside the door, so I stood in the hallway, so I could see the
bathroom and the van and opened the van door with my remote so I
could see Brigham as he went to the van to get a diaper. That would
work. Poor Jacob hasn't worn diapers in two years! I get his diaper
on and run to the hallway again to double check on Brigham and who do
I see drive up in her mini-van...MARY. Oh thank you!! She kept an
eye on the other kids while I got Jacob cleaned up. Poor Jacob sat on
a chair in his t-shirt and diaper, but he didn't seem to care as he
wolfed down four doughnuts...I know, mommy award for me!!
Anyway, Mary and I enjoyed a nice chat and all seemed well. Suddenly
a man came into the dining area and held up some keys asking people if
they had lost them. I looked over and realized they were mine. (I
hadn't even noticed) I thanked him very much and then I asked, "Where
did you find them? His puzzled reponse..."In the Men's Room"........

The Carillon Bell Tower

Last night we took the kids and met Ja and Laura at the Carillon Bell
Tower next to the Iwo Jima Monument in Arlington. The Carillon Bell
Tower was a gift to the United States from the Netherlands after World
War II. On Saturday evenings in the summer they open it up and have a
bell concert. The view from the top of the tower is just about the
beat view of DC I have ever seen. You have a direct line of site of
the Lincoln, the Washington and the Capitol as well as Arlington
Cemetery on your right and Iwo Jima on your left.

The boys went tithe top and the bellist(?) let Brigham and Jacob each
play a note. The keyboard looks like an organ but with wood sticks
instaad of keys. Jacob was especially excited that he got to play the
bell.

As you hiked tithe top of the tower you could see the larger bells.
The largest one weighs 16 tons.

It was a great spot and definitely on of the hidden treasures of
Washington DC since there was hardly anyone there.

A Perfect Day And a Bad Parent

Yesterday was great. In the afternoon we took the kids down to
Fletcher Boat House which is about 2 miles north of Georgetown on the
Potomac. For $11 we were able to rent a rowboat for an hour.

As we approached the boat Calen started whimpering, Jacob started
exclaiming that he had to go potty while pointing at his groin (this
is what he commonly does when he is scared), and Brigham was wailing,
pleading with someone to stay behind on the docks with him. Despite
their protests we threw them all in the boat.

About 30 seconds into the trip they all changed their attitudes. Jacob
had a huge smile on his face and Brigham said, "This isn't as bad as I
thought it would be."

We rowed up towards Chain Bridge and got to see a guy catch a huge
fish. Brigham had just said, "Does anyone actually catch fish. I
always see people fishing but I don't see them catch any fish." After
we saw the guy catch the fish he said, "Well, I guess they do."

We came back around on the Virginia side and Jacob decided he wanted
to get in. So I put him over the side and he began to swim around. He
was in absolute heaven. Brigham was having a heart attack. Jacob
started swimming down the river and Brigham started yelling as tears
streamed down his face, "Make him get back in the boat. Dad, you knew
that Jacob likes to swim far away. Why did you let him get in?"

At this point Holly started getting worried as well. Both Jacob and I
thought everything was all right but the redheads were quite
concerned. We called out for Jacob to come back and he replied with a
definitive "No!"

I rowed over and picked him up. As we returned to the the boathouse
Brigham said to me, "Dad, you are a really bad parent. You shouldn't
have let Jacob get in the river."

Jacob just kept asking us to take his "seatbelt" (life jacket) off.

Despite Brigham's concerns everyone had a great time and it is
something we are going to do again soon.

Best Uncle Ever

Brigham: Ja, I love you. You are my best uncle ever.

Ja: Brigham, you probably say that to all of your uncles.

Brigham: Yeah, I do.

Play date

I am watching the kids today while Holly is out. Brigham said, "Dad,
you are the only one we can have fun with today. That means you can't
work. Woo-hop!"