Mom on a Regular Day

" who's mitten is this?"
Yours from your childhood, you lost the other one.
"I think I picked it up somewhere, I can't find the other one
Do you know who's mitten this is?"
"What are we doing today?"
We are going to ___'s house, I am taking you so lets get your blue coat on.
You don't need your purse.
"I wish I knew where that mitten came from"
I get a piece of paper & write on it 'this is a mitten from your childhood
the other one is lost' telling her as I write it.
"So, what are we doing today?"
Getting her coat & hat out. All her gloves are missing. I go to find the container of gloves
as she asks for the third time about wearing boots.
Your keys are around your neck.
You don't need your purse.
Finally coat,hat gloves on she almost goes into bedroom again-nooooo!
"Do you think that mitten is ___'s?"
"where's my keys?"
Your keys are around your neck.
We are outside and she realizes she has forgotten long underwear and wants to go back up.
This is only the span of 25 minutes.....

Getting Better ?

Soon it will be a year since finding my dad at death's door and the crazy days of moving him through the hospital/rehab to assisted living. At the same time emptying his mess of an apartment.
Then came his own insistence of prep for death & wanting to give away what little he had left- I did what he wanted and was fine with it, but..
I was not prepared for what is happening now.
He is starting to think more clearly, and to gain weight.
Just this month he has started to write his own checks again.
He is going outside and today was looking for his binoculars to watch birds.
I was prepared for him to die
I am not prepared for him to live.

Mom On a Good Day

Today I brought my mother to the library.
I asked for help in finding a book.
The librarian would not help me find it
so I was stuck with a little paper with the numbers
on it. I couldn't find it & gave up.
My mother took the paper and wandered into the
stacks.

And found it..... !

Sometimes this is all so confusing to me.

Book Suggestion

I am reading a very good guide for people
with aging parents. Especially ones who are
displaying signs of confusion or memory loss.
"The 36-hour Day " by Mace and Rabins
It contains fantastic usable information.

Cook ?

It occured to me that people wouldn't realise that my mother
has lost her ability to cook like she used to.
When I put the word 'cook' it mean't put a frozen lean quisine
in the toaster oven. Which actually she will not be able to do much longer.
Thank you for the suggestion of using kids Go Fish cards.
I am also wishing I could find kids arithmetic work books-
really easy ones. She likes Word Search once she gets started
and I help when she gets discouraged.
She seems to have forgotten that you can wash your hair
& body at the same time in the shower...or something...
I will have to check into this more.
Last week was hearing aid & ear cleaning for both of them.
Thank goodness I made an appointment for dad to see a
podietrist and get his toenails clipped -
I almost lost it when I did them :P

Winter of 2011

Record amounts of snow.

As difficult as past year has been for me juggling my parents,
This past year I would have been without my father
and my mother would have suffered greatly because I would not
have been able to get to her and she would have been snowed in alone.
Thankfully, my father is in assisted living and my mom is down the hall.

Awww

My mother can watch the lobby where we live.
Today after a very long trying day
she was at my door when I came home. (yipes!)
She wanted to "cook" me dinner.
Aww, what a sweet offer....
Really meant a lot.
Too bad I couldn't eat after my dental visit-
Amazing how well she does if I keep up on her
meds & vitamins, at least that's what I think it was.