Matthews Family Herald

(I am working on getting the videos uploaded of Jacob smiling and laughing.  Check back periodically!)

We are so thrilled that Jacob smiled and laughed tonight!  It all started when Nathan and I went into his room in order to play cards.  We all try to do everything that we can in his room instead of elsewhere in the house so that he can be with us and we with him.  It's good for his recovery and good for us too.

So we were in his room and before we got started, we decided to go say hello to him.  I opened his eyes and Nathan decided to make ridiculous noises and silly faces to Jacob; something that none of us had done before.  He broke into a large smile!  Whoah!  Nathan did it some more and Jacob laughed.  Oh my gosh.  We were stunned and amazed!  I started calling out to Heather and the kids to come quick!  I didn't know how long this window would last.  As it turned out, the window went from 5 p.m. until his bedtime at 10 p.m. and never really ended.  We just moved on to getting him ready for bed, doing physical therapy, and then family devotion.

We had him laughing to funny videos he had done in the past both alone and with the other kids, funny videos Micah did, and even to Tim Hawkins videos.  Now with the Tim Hawkins videos he laughed when he could only hear the audio, and he laughed when Heather opened his eyes to see Tim Hawkins.  Jacob laughs at the right parts and at the right times.  His absolute favorite videos are the ones where he is aggravating his younger brother, Nathan.  Hannah says he laughs hard now at the very same parts that he once laughed hard at and enjoyed the most before the accident.  He laughs before any of us do, most times, and especially on the first time that we showed them to him.  Another thing, he smiled really big whenever I sat in front of him and started talking to him.  He did the same thing when Gabriel was put in front of him and he did the same thing when Hannah sat down in front of him.  We had the most fun tonight!  We laughed, we cried, and we did both at the same time.  We needed this.  We really, really needed this.  We needed to connect with him and are so glad to know he is still a stinker!  He still has his great sense of humor and still gets pleasure out of frustrating his brother.  More importantly, he remembers making the videos, he anticipates his favorite parts as they come up, and he comprehends English and can process what he is seeing and hearing and can show it emotionally.  It's amazing!  We knew it!  We knew it!  We are so grateful to God and look forward to his continued progress!  Now for the videos.  The following videos are only of few of the moments within the hours of fun we had amusing Jacob and relishing his reactions. Enjoy!

This video shows Jacob briefly smiling at something Hannah shares with him: