Joshua and Jacob Rips

Bo began video taping the rest of their evening together. Shawn had JT laying in his lap. He said to JT, "The fire truck is coming, the fire truck is coming." Hope asked, "Do you hear the siren?" Then both of them made siren noises as Jason helped Jacob flip the firetruck over repeatedly. {4/26/02}

A montage of their evening began, each scene with JT playing something new. First Shawn and JT played the piano. Shawn held his hands and made him play a classical tune. He waved with Jacob's hands saying, "Daddy, look what I can do." Jacob looked straight into the video camera. {4/26/02}

Jacob didn't like Jason doing all of the playing. He wanted to do some on his own. He moved his arms in all directions until Jason realized he wanted them free. Jason just laughed. Jacob said, "Bo bo." Jason didn't know what he meant, but he repeated the words back to him. {4/26/02}

Jacob loved playing the piano on his own. He was very focused on it, first using his whole hand, then one finger on each hand and moving up and down the keyboard. {4/26/02}

Hope and JT were back to playing with the little red box. Hope was actually playing with it. JT was focused on something else on the table. Hope told JT to say "hi" to his daddy. {4/26/02}

Hope helped JT blow kisses to Bo. The first time she held his hand and did it with him. The second time, he did it on his own. {4/26/02}

Bo and Hope will most likely watch these videos in upcoming weeks and remember these last happy moments with their son. They seemed to enjoy every little thing. {4/26/02}

Next was a football game. Now Hope was behind the camera. Shawn and JT made a pass to Bo and he ran across the living room. He had a dog backpack on . {4/26/02}

Then Bo used the dog as a puppet. JT walked right over to it, pointing at it the whole time, then saying, "puppy." Then Shawn grabbed his hands and helped him hug the dog. {4/26/02}

JT seemed to have the most fun playing with bubbles. Bo and Hope were both blowing them and he was trying to catch them. Then Jacob took Kristian's wand and put it in the bubbles too. This made Peter and Kristian laugh, as they realized he was trying to take charge. Peter tried to get him to blow his own, but Jacob didn't know what to do. He did figure out how to put the wand in to get more soap on it. {4/26/02}

These scenes provided fans a rare chance to see JT having fun on his own. The scenes were shot from his point of view, focusing only on him and the things he wanted to do. {4/26/02}

After taking lots of video, it was time for some still photos. Everyone took turns holding the camera. Everyone wore their hats backwards for the pictures. {4/26/02}

This was a rare event in soap opera child acting. The child, Jacob Rips was allowed to be a true child. Because the show was trying to show how much JT was loved and wanted by the family that he was living with, they did two shows of nothing but family time with JT. Jacob laughed and played and enjoyed his time on the set. Jacob liked all the attention that was given to him during his time on the show.

One last family photo. This would be the last pic the family would take together. {4/26/02}

Just after the last pic was taken, Jacob got wiggly. He started leaning over, trying to get out of Jason's lap. He now had two cars in his hand. {4/26/02}

Jacob knew they were done with the pictures. He sat up and said, "all done." Everyone laughed that he was saying something that fit perfectly in the script. Hope said it was time to feed her "three hungry men." {4/26/02}

Jacob was trying to get down again. Jason went with the flow, allowing him to get down and distracting him. He put him in front of the stuffed animals and asked, "Which one is your favorite stuffed animal?" Jacob said, "da da." Jason then pointed to the dolphin and asked if he could say dolphin. Jacob repeated "Dolphin." {4/26/02}