Rasmania 102

We felt that Crista needed a little more post surgery help, so Roy and I spent two full days and two nights in Logan.  Crista's very capable, but Matt had a conference and was going to be out of town until Wednesday night and Crista only has two hands. I felt such a strong bond with Zack this trip.  I know he loved his grandpa, too.  When we were getting ready to leave, the whole family came out to the driveway.  Crista was holding Zack facing away from her.  Roy walked over, leaned in and said, "Goodbye, Zack."  Zack reached out with both arms to him.  Crista said that was the first time he'd done that.  Roy leaned toward him a little more and Zack put his hands on his face.  It was such a sweet moment. Grandpa always makes sure there are good things to eat when we come to stay.   I took three of the five children to the park to get them out of the house for a little bit.  Bridget (who has a new way of smiling for pictures) an...

Little Zack had his first palate surger on Monday (Sept. 16).  The doctor decided to fix only the soft palate, because sometimes when she fixes the hard palate in a baby this young, it will become misshapen before they can do the bone graft to give it more support.  If his gap had been closed a little bit more, the surgeon may have been able to go ahead with the hard palate.  We had thought it would mean one less surgery if they closed it up now, but since he has to have the bone graft regardless, it is the same amount of surgeries.  Zack has had 5 surgeries so far in his 9 months of life.  Luckily, he's a little trooper and seems to deal well with the discomfort.   Roy and I went to Logan to watch over the kids while Crista and Matt attended to Zack at Primary Children's.  Jana Vance was up there Sunday to Monday evening.  We headed up Monday, late afternoon, to take over for her.  Surprisingly, Crista and Matt were able to leave the ho...

When you play hard all summer you have to play catch up when you are home.  This week has included weeding, gardening, replacing the trampoline mat, quilting, studying for the gospel doctrine lesson, and so on.  Highlights: Having lunch with Nan and Christine to celebrate Nan's 72nd birthday; also, having Nick's kids over so Nick and Sara could attend the temple (especially since Camden, who generally acts shy around his grandparents, said, "Yay, yay, yay! when Nick told him he was going to be tended by us.  Roy and I also went to a movie for the first time in a long while.  We saw Twisters.  It was a good show without any agendas. I finished this quilt.  I quilted it myself with help from a friend who owns a long arm machine.  I  need to study so I can do the next one by myself.  She said I could use her machine but it's fairly complicated.  I won't point out my mistakes! We had to replace our trampoline mat.  Nick came o...

Dan and Jieun left Monday to return to Centerville, but Roy and I decided to stay until Tuesday.  We have friends (from Bountiful) that now live full time in a cabin just up the hill from ours.  We joined them for games and dessert Monday night.   Our little Zack had a pre-surgery, surgery on Wednesday morning.  The temporary palate had to be unscrewed from the top of his mouth in order for his mouth to heal, in preparation for the palate surgery.  The hope is that the surgeon will be able to fix both the soft and hard palates at the same time.  The temporary plate had to be removed early for that to happen.  After the plate was removed, the surgeon said it looked like a good possibility that they can do the two surgeries in one go. Zack has had 92 doctors appointments so far.  Matt is a numbers person and wants Crista to keep track.  We love him so much.  He's a little toe-head and has very blue eyes.  He's patient with all th...