White Castle's Been Around a Long Time

White Castle has always been a favorite of Dee Dee's. Michele didn't feel like heading out today, and I get cabin fever easily, so I took Dee Dee and the girls out and left Michele home. Dee Dee raised the average female age at the table from 7 to 27.

In our discussion there, she mentions that White Castle has been around a long time, and that she doesn't remember a time when there wasn't a White Castle.

The first White Castle opened in 1921. Dee Dee was born in 1920. So that makes sense. I don't want to give the impression that everything she says is off-the-wall; much of what she has to say is accurate and/or insightful. But I just had to look up White Castle on Wikipedia just to double-check her recollection.

During lunch, she also talked a lot about how our girls are growing up, and boys are going to start checking them out. "You'll be out at a dance or a show [in her mind, these are what kids do on weekends] and two guys will walk by your girls, then they'll turn around and say 'Man, there goes a looker!'" After pausing to reflect, she then added "And boys don't always stop doing that even after they're married!"

Anyway, it was fun, and it felt surprisingly normal. We all ran back to the car in the rain, which has got to be the first time in years that Dee Dee has had to run in the rain.

Michele took a trip to Grant's Farm yesterday with Dee Dee and some members of Michele's Aunt's family (Ace, Ashley, Henry). We'll try to get some picture up soon of that trip.

What's for dinner in the morning?

Things are settling into a rhythm now, 11 days after Dee Dee has moved in. Michele and I have gotten our crash course in what her grandma can and can't do, and Dee Dee has figured out where we keep the potato salad.

Michele and I have been talking about how to get Dee Dee to eat more healthily. She had lost some weight before she moved into Gardenview, but then she gained a bunch due to regular eating and (near constant) snacking. I think some of her clothes may be getting tight. So add "nutritionist" to the list of Michele's jobs.

This is another area where it's tempting to treat Dee Dee like one of our little girls. But you can't really tell her not to eat something, or she's had enough. If I get to be 80 years old, dadgummit, you can't tell me not to eat 63 chicken nuggets; I'm a grown man!

At Michele's suggestion, I had bought some deli potato salad for Dee Dee. None of us care for the stuff. But once Dee Dee figured out it was in the refrigerator, it was devoured in short order. That day, she had breakfast, then second breakfast potato salad, then elevensies of potato salad, then lunch.

It's become apparent that:

1. Dee Dee often doesn't know what time of day it is, so she eats breakfast for dinner and vice versa.
2. She doesn't remember when or what she last ate.
3. She eats either out of lumberjackian hunger or boredom - I haven't yet decided.
4. She'll finish whatever you put in front of her.
   
5. There is no cookie she doesn't love.
   

Typically, we get the food for her that she requests. But now that she's figured out where we keep certain items in the fridge, she's helping herself more. That's great on one level, but it makes it harder to help her eat right.

For now, our strategy is to keep more fruit on hand that she likes, and to not buy the cheese curls she ate all the time at Gardenview. But heaven help us once she figures out how to get food out of the pantry...