Two Jacob Stories

Our main computer is on the fritz, so I can't post any more Thunder Bay photos just yet. So here are a couple of stories about the irrepressible one.

1. This was a harrowing tale, so I'll start with the news that there was no lasting damage (except perhaps to the psyches of two parents and a grandmother). So, we were walking along the boardwalk beside the very cold Kam river in Thunder Bay. I had Zoë in the backpack and suddenly I heard a splash and Jacob was gone. Within a split second, Kate jumped into the river, brought Jacob to the surface but struggled to keep him and herself afloat as it was freezing, he was panicking, there was nothing to hold onto, and her clothes and boots quickly became waterlogged and heavy. It was too far from the boardwalk to the water for me to reach down and pull either of them up. There was a ladder about 20m away, but Kate couldn't make it that far. Finally she was able to grab something underneath the boardwalk and that allowed her to catch her breath and boost Jacob up enough for me to grab him. I pulled him up and put my sweater on him. Kate swam to the ladder and I helped get her out (while Molly held onto a shivering Jacob very affectionately). Lois arrived back with the car at the same time as the fire department showed up. They gave Jacob and Kate some blankets and gave Jacob and Molly each a teddy bear. Great PR move as Jacob refers to the incident as "remember when mama and I fell in the river and the firemen came and saved us". Besides a few nightmares for the adults and some trepidation at walking on the boardwalk beside the lake back home for the boy everyone seems okay. But that was the worst 5 minutes of my life.

2. On a lighter note. We have a storytelling game for kids where each card has three pictures, showing a sequential story, which the child then has to tell. Such as a mom gets food out of the fridge, cooks it on the stove and then serves it to the family. Kate went through a bunch of them with the twins demonstrating how it works. Then she showed a card to Jacob with pictures of a girl in 3 stages of getting dressed. What's the story here Jacob? His eyes light up and he says:

"These three girls climbed up a tree and got stuck. So they use a rope to get out. Then they jump in the river but get eaten by a shark." How does their mother feel Jacob? "Oh, she feels sad". What about the shark Jacob? "He feels saaaaad too".