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.

Girls' Night Out (G.N.O.)

The other night, Sabrina wanted to go to the library for some new books. Brian and the other girls were staying home, so I gave Dee Dee the option of whether or not to come with us. She was eager to go. When we got there, Sabrina disappeared over to the kid section, and to pass the time, I directed Dee Dee over to the large print section.

We scanned the shelves for any titles that looked familiar to her, but to no avail. Eventually she picked up a Nora Robertson novel off the shelf, and I asked her if she was able to read it. She opened it up and started reading aloud.

A couple of details you should know:

1) Dee Dee speaks in one volume. This volume applies equally at home, at a noisy restaurant, in church, or in the library.

2) Dee Dee is capable of reading, but her eyesight has deteriorated to the point where even large print books are difficult for her.

So she read aloud (and when I say aloud I mean loud). She read about half of the words correctly, and the rest she substituted for words with similar letters. Or sometimes she would latch on to one word in a sentence, and create a new sentence apparently out of thin air using that word.

This could seem like a sad thing, but actually it was hilarious. Sabrina had rejoined us by this point, and she and I were practically splitting our sides laughing. But we weren't laughing at Dee Dee; she knew she was being funny. The sentences she was spouting made absolutely no sense, but she read and read, almost a page in all.

At one point, I heard a throat clear in the aisle behind us. I'm not sure if it was directed at us or not. Likely so, but Dee Dee was too endearing for me to mind much if we were a bit disruptive.

We finished the outing off with ice cream from Dairy Queen, where the mood remained festive. All in all, a great girls' night out.

Sleeping and eating...and sleeping...and eating...and sleeping again

Dee Dee got off to a good start this morning. She woke up around 9 am, got herself dressed without any prompting from me, and then proceeded to the kitchen and fixed herself frozen waffles for breakfast. This was a first - I didn't help her at all!

However, for the rest of the day she has done nothing but sleep. Ace came over today at 12:30 to take Dee Dee out to lunch and do a little shopping with her. Ace finally had to wake her up at 2 pm, at which point they went out to Steak-n-Shake. By shortly after 4:00 she was asleep in her room again, and I had to wake her up for dinner. And immediately after dinner, she disappeared once again to her bedroom, where she is currently sleeping soundly. She didn't even stay long enough to keep me company while I cleared the table, which as I've mentioned before, she usually enjoys.

When awake she seems to feel fine and have a healthy appetite, but she has not really interacted with us at all today outside of mealtimes. I am hoping that everything is okay.

(7:40 pm Dee Dee woke up to use the restroom. When she returned to her room, I went to check on her and ask her if she was okay. Clearly thinking it was morning, she told me that she went out but didn't see anyone else awake, so thought it was too early to get up. When I mentioned that she had been sleeping a lot and asked her if she was feeling okay, she explained that she was just tired because she had been up so late dying Easter eggs. When Audrey heard this reply, she sat processing for a few seconds, then said to me privately, "I think she's confused again.")

Michele's First Post

Today marks the two-week anniversary of Dee Dee moving in with us. It sure has been an interesting two weeks, filled with laughter at Dee Dee's ever present sense of humor, to dismay at the things I am realizing she cannot do, to joy at just being with her and seeing her happy.

She loves to be helpful and not to be a burden. All of you who know Dee Dee know how true this is. We are striving to find ways to let her be helpful in ways that are appropriate to her abilities. So far, I let her fold all my laundry. She LOVES to do this, and it occupies hours of her time. I alternately keep her company, and keep the laundry advancing, and it has been so fun just hanging out with her. When we chat over everyday things, that is when she seems the most like her old self that I remember growing up with.

When I am handwashing dishes, she likes to dry them for me. I bring them to where she is seated at the kitchen table. Today, I realized afterward, she opened up paper napkins and set them underneath each dried dish on the table, to keep the table dry just in case the dishes were not completely dry. When I took the dishes and put them away, she spent five minutes refolding the napkins and carefully aligning them with the rest of the napkins in the holder.

Another thing she tries to do in order to not cause me extra work is to carefully wipe off her plate at the end of a meal with a napkin, declaring it perfectly clean, and telling me it should go back in the cabinet; it doesn't even need to be washed. I thank her and take the plate from her, but she does not notice that it ends up in the sink rather than the cabinet as she had requested. Hopefully she never gets around to putting her dishes away herself! (Today she put her iced tea mug in the freezer by mistake and the bottom broke off of the mug when the tea froze - the girls were fascinated and delighted with this and Louisa spent twenty minutes licking the iced tea popsicle.)

Dee Dee likes to keep me company whenever I am in the kitchen, but apart from that, unless otherwise invited, she spends all of her time dozing in her recliner or on the family room sofa (or using the bathroom). I am trying to find ways to engage and include her and stimulate her throughout the day. Today I got out a deck of cards and retaught her Solitaire. I needed to remind her of the rules, but much of it came back to her and she seemed to really enjoy it. At the end of the game, reorganizing cards from descending stacks of alternating color into ascending stacks by suit was a skill that was just about perfectly suited to her current level. She concentrated carefully and managed to figure out (for the most part) what she should be doing. She won the game with only a little bit of inadvertent cheating and seemed quite pleased.

So it has been interesting learning how to live together with Dee Dee. In many ways things have not changed at all. She has adapted beautifully into our daily routine, or lack of one, and is just so happy to be here. She is so sweet and we are happy to be able to help make her happy.

I Heart Handicap Parking Tag

I tell you, this handicap parking tag is AWESOME! Today, we took Dee Dee out to White Castle* and then to Twin Oaks Park. Driving around with that tag makes me feel like a VIP. At the park, for example, there are parking spots up a hill and about 500 feet from the playground. But with the tag, you get to go in the drive that says "NO DRIVING! (except handicapped and emergency vehicles)". Sweet!

* Her suggestions are always, in this order: Pasta House, Steak 'n' Shake, and then White Castle. Pasta House, of course, is super expensive. Last time I went with her, she ordered toasted ravioli and then chicken Marsala. It came to about $25 just for her. She ate the TR's and then didn't touch the chicken. So I try to steer her towards the cheaper options when I can.



This picture reminded me of Star Wars, whenever you see R2-D2 walking along and he encounters a step.


We really wanted to take advantage of today's exceptional temperatures. When we left the house, it was 71° and overcast. You couldn't ask for more perfect Dee Dee weather than that. We parked at the park, walked to the playground, then Dee Dee said it was too cold, then we walked back. :) So much for the perfect weather. She had a sweater with her as well, but to no avail.



Louisa by the waterfall

Twin Oaks is a tiny town of about 300 people right next to Manchester. But because they have so many businesses within their city limits, they have tons of money. This park looks more like the Botanical Gardens than a typical municipal park.

Now we're back and Dee Dee pretty much went straight to her room to take a nap. A well deserved one, I might add.