What a Kid

I've decided that one of Spencer's spiritual gifts is a happy, optimistic personality. Overall, he has done so well with this cast. He has short-lived moments of frustration when he wants to get down and run, but is really happy most of the time. What a blessing to have such a good, little boy! He's handling it better than I would be.

We have survived a little over a week in the cast and I have to say that it hasn't been as bad as I imagined it would be at first. We got through the first few days because Spencer's pain medication made him really sleepy. He was taking 3-4 hour instead of 1-2 hour naps each day. That gave me time to do the essential things so I could just take care of him when he woke up. It was a little like having a newborn again. He was totally immobile and needed LOTS of attention. His medication also took away his appetite, so he was even back to exclusive bottle feeding.

Things get a little better each day though. He's eating almost normally again and he can roll from his tummy to back and do a little army crawling. It requires a lot of strength to pull all of that dead weight, so he can't crawl far.

Spencer was doing well at home until it got hot. The weather here has been in the low 100's all week, which is pretty unusual for Portland. Today is supposed to hit 107. That's the hottest Portland has ever been. Ever. Since Spencer has his own personal oven wrapped around his body, he doesn't handle the heat well at all. Thankfully, my in-laws have air conditioning and offered to let us stay with them. We "moved in" on Sunday and will be here until the temps get below 90 again. Thank you so much Darwin and Debbie! The last few days would have unbearable at our house.

Spencer LOVES playing with my mother-in-law's Little People and collection of Hot Wheels. He plays with them for hours every day. They have saved us.






Since we can't get the cast wet at all, swimming and bathing are out for the next 3 weeks. Letting Spencer play with toys in a bowl of warm, soapy water is the best way to get his hands really clean. I'm afraid he's going to be one stinky little boy by the end of this.




Spencer's Sander's cousins sent him these cute little books. Reading stories is one of the few things Spencer can still do normally, so he loves them. Thank you Hailey, Jeramiah, Erica, Camille and Carter (and Caralee!)!



Thank you again for all of your thoughts and prayers. This isn't easy, but there are so many people with MUCH more serious problems. I'm so grateful for the gospel and our Savior. We live such a charmed, lovely life.

Back to the ER

Since Alan and I have been relatively healthy during our married life, I guess I just took it for granted that Spencer would be too. Man, have I been wrong. Yesterday was the beginning of our worst adventure yet.

Spencer came toddling into the bathroom at about 9:00 yesterday morning while I was doing my make-up. He was carrying a dvd case; which has been a fairly normal occurrence the last few weeks. I saw him drop the case and I turned around to pick it up before he slipped on it, but I wasn't fast enough. Spencer slipped and his left leg bent backward at a funny angle. I could tell he was in extreme pain so I called his doctor (who is about 45 minutes away) and then took Spencer to the local ER.

To make a VERY long day short, we spent 3.5 hours at the ER where they gave Spencer some morphine and determined that he had fractured his femur. Yes, the biggest, strongest bone in his body. This hospital didn't have pediatric orthopedists, so they sent us to the children's hospital in Portland. At least I knew where I was going from our previous trips for Spencer's "bruise" thing.

We spent a lot more time waiting there, but Spencer eventually got put in a cast at about 5:30. They had to put him completely out because of the pain. Even with the morphine, Spencer would scream any time his leg moved at all. The cast goes from his chest all the way down to his left toes. It's very bulky and uncomfortable. Thankfully, Spencer only has to wear it for 4 weeks because babies' bones grow so quickly. This might just be the longest 4 weeks of my life however.

Right now, Spencer is still in a lot of pain. He wants to be held because of all the trauma he has been though, but it's impossible to cuddle him and hard to hold him comfortably at all. His pain meds make him really sleepy (that's why I have time to write this today!), but he still cries every time his leg jerks while he's sleeping. He can't sit up at all and has to either be reclined in his car seat or lying down on a soft surface.

And, just in case you're wondering about how we get a diaper on with the cast - we have to use two diapers. We put his regular size on first and have to tuck it into the cast. Then we put a diaper two sizes bigger than his normal size over the top to hold everything together. It's pretty tricky, especially right now when we can't lift him up at all.

I have no clue how I'm going to keep him entertained for the next month. He's never watched cartoons or movies, but we'll be trying that now. I'm also going to try to borrow lots of "new" toys from other moms in our ward. For a little guy who just learned how to walk and was LOVING making huge messes in our house, this is going to be torture. I'm actually missing the messes today.

Here are a couple of pictures of my poor, little guy. Doesn't that look so comfortable?!






It was heart-breaking to see him in so much pain all day yesterday and I feel so bad that he doesn't understand why he has to wear a cast and why his leg hurts so much. We did get a few smiles today and he was able to play with his toys a little. I guess things in my life were just going too well. Heavenly Father knew I needed more of a challenge. This certainly isn't what I would have picked, however. Thanks for all of your concern and prayers! Some of you have called and I haven't been able to answer the phone. Be patient and I'll call you back as soon as I can.

Rasmussen Reunion

This last week was Alan's family reunion. We spent a couple of days on the coast in Lincoln City and the rest at Alan's parent's house (only about 30 minutes from us) so we didn't have to travel very far. We had a wonderful time seeing all of Alan's family. Everyone was there and since we're a little spread out (Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah, Arizona, and Oregon) we don't get see some of them very often.

Here are a few highlights of the week:

Spencer sort-of had fun swimming in the clubhouse pool in Alan's Dad's development in Lincoln City. I managed to get him to smile for the picture, but he was actually much happier in the hot tub than the pool. He's not a fan of cool water. Alan had a great time playing with his brothers and some of the older grand kids in the pool though.



It was a little cool and breezy on the beach so Alan, Spencer and I hit up our favorite ice cream place instead of playing in the sand. I used to have really good intentions of not letting Spencer eat junk food for the first couple of years. All of my efforts were sabotaged by Alan and his brothers though, and I have relented a little. Spencer really loves ice cream and threw a fit when the bowl he was sharing with me was gone last night. :)



We got to do quite a bit of hiking during the week. Spencer spent most of the time in a backpack, but he was anxious to get down and try some for himself on this one. This was a short hike to a pretty lookout on the coast. He had a blast running away from Daddy.



There are 13 grand kids in Alan's family now, ranging from 11 years to 6 months old. This is all of them (except the very youngest, Kaitlyn) playing with their favorite uncle! They are all such cute, fun kids and we loved seeing all of them. I don't have a picture of the entire family yet, but I'll post it when I do.



Our very favorite activity during the reunion was hiking at Silver Falls. This was the third time I'd been there, but I'm still breath-taken every time. We hiked to 7 different waterfalls and got to go behind 2 of them. After a short hike to this waterfall, we had a yummy picnic lunch and then hiked to the other 6. Even though I don't love all of the rain and cloudy days, Oregon sure is a beautiful state. I do love spending time in nature with my family.


It was also really neat to go to the temple with all of the adults (except poor Chasten who was too sick to go. :( ). We hired 4 babysitters to watch all of the kids while we attended a session and went out to dinner.

We had such a good time catching up with everyone and it turned out to be a wonderful reunion. I couldn't have picked a better family to marry into. Thanks to Darwin and Debbie for providing most of the accommodations, food and entertainment! You've both earned a nice, quiet vacation!

Height of Summer

We had a great 4th of July. Sunshine, hot temps, family and yummy food - what could be better? We spent the day in Sherwood with Alan's family. Alan's parents always host a big blueberry pancake breakfast on the 4th so we started out with that. Later in the morning, Alan's sister Caralee helped me pick raspberries (thanks Caralee!) and then I made jam. (One of my favorite things about Oregon is the berries in the summer. You can pick just about any kind of berry you want for about a dollar a pound.) We just hung out the rest of the day then had a bbq complete with homemade ice cream in the evening. Alan and I might be wimps, but we decided that the fireworks weren't worth staying up late with a grouchy baby, so we came home and put Spencer to bed. Again, I LOVE summer!

Here's Spencer "playing" with his cousin Carter (almost 3) from Wyoming.


Playing in the shade during the bbq.


Spencer has his own little language now and he uses lots of gestures along with it. He actually said his first word on the 4th. It was "truck." Not "mama" or "dada", but "truck." Followed shortly by "car." Hmmm.