Vegetables

I made roasted vegetables and mashed potatoes to go with some left over beef with wine sauce Anna had made. And G actually cleaned her plate.

"Grandma, can I get you more of anything?"

"I sure don't want any more of those vegetables."  She said the word vegetables as if there was a rotten egg in her mouth.

Ten minutes later, I was clearing her plate and I asked if she was sure she didn't want anything else.

"Well, you could get me one more of those carrots.  Those were delicious."

Peas Porridge Hot

When I came home, G was pretty depressed about how fast she is losing her memory, so I started telling her my favorite stories about coming to Grandma's as a kid.

I told her about how she and Grandpa Hal would take us fishing in this little pond and Grandpa Hal would put the worms on and take the fish off the hooks because that was a gross job we didn't want to do.

I told her about the time I caught a huge catfish and she let me keep it as a pet.  I named it King Kong and we put it in an empty garbage can with water and it survived less than an hour after we brought it home, so we had a funeral for it and buried it in the back yard.

We talked about how much Grandpa Hal would love Abby and Allie if he were still here and how he would chant with them the same game he chanted with us when we were that age:

Peas porridge hot
Peas porridge cold
Peas porridge in the pot nine days old

Some like it hot
Some like it cold
Some like it in the pot nine days old

I never understood what that meant, but Grandpa Hal would say it in his very crackly voice with his huge goofy grin and laugh every time he got to the end of it.  As I started chanting it, G started chanting with me.

"Oh Esther, thanks for putting some good memories back in me."

Wednesday Night: Part III--Bedtime

G is having worse anxiety and she keeps talking about the coverage and now she thinks the phone by her chair is not plugged in to the rest of the phone system in the house.  She kept going over it for about 20 minutes and we finally had to tell her, "It's time to go to bed. "

"I don't want to go to bed."

Anna grabbed the wheelchair and said, "Grandma, we need to go to bed, we have to get up early.  It's time."

"No!  Please don't make me go!"

OMG.  She is so cute.

Wednesday Night: Part II--Happy Birthday!

Anna and I were out of town on Sunday, so as a family, we decided to celebrate Father's Day on our family Wednesday Night dinner.  Anna made some amazing gnocchi, steak, and grilled vegetables.  My birthday is in a few weeks and I won't be in town as I am going to be stuck in a math prep conference in Vacaville.

Three quarters of the way through dinner, G says, "Esther, why don't we make this your birthday dinner?"

We were all laughing and Anna says, "Grandma, why don't we make this your birthday dinner?"  And G gave Anna a severe scowl.

Wednesday Night: Part I--Bananas

Tonight was full of amazing OK, Grandma moments, so I am breaking them up into three parts.  Enjoy.


G has certain things she is obsessed about and having enough bananas in the house is one of them.  She often calls her friends and tells them to bring her bananas or tells multiple people in the house to bring some home. This is the result of having no bananas when she woke up this morning.

The reason for the rest of the food on the counter is to help her feel like we have food in the house for her.

How to Die

Friday is when the good magazines arrive in the mail.  I asked G if she wanted to read Prevention Magazine and she said, "No, it's too late for me for that."

Then I picked up Time and the cover was a better punchline than I could have come up with.

Eat Your Peas

G and Anna were going back and forth last night and I was dying.

"Can I have some cake now?  I'm done with my dinner."

"You haven't eaten your peas, you need to finish them."

"I can't eat these.  There is no way I can eat anymore of them."

"Well then I guess you can't eat cake either."

"Yes, I can eat cake, I want some cake."

"Then finish your peas."

"I want cake, it tastes better.  These make me want to vomit."

Dessert First

I went to pick up dinner last night, so my mom babysat G while I went out.

I brought home a beautiful meal for G, but when I got home, I saw that Mom had fed her a giant piece of Rum Cake.  She obviously doesn't know the rule of dinner before dessert.  G didn't touch her dinner and I told her she didn't eat any of her dinner because she spoiled her appetite with dessert first.

"Yes, the cake was delicious."

Grandma: 1
Dinner: 0

Anna's a genius

A recurring theme on OK Grandma is how G thinks my older sister Anna, is perfect and nothing I do will ever measure up.  In the spirit of this theme...

My boss came over to the house on Saturday because we were carpooling to a wedding.  When I was in my room, my boss was very nice and said some really sweet things about me to G.

G was telling Anna and another sister, Lori, about what Chrissie was saying and somehow twisted it around and told the story that my boss thinks Anna is a genius, so G told Anna how proud she was of her.

Ok, Grandma.

Hostage Crisis

Class nights are a bit rushed as I have to rush home, cook dinner for G, move her to where she wants to be before dinner and set up my laptop for class.  Thursdays are particularly tenuous as Thursday is artichoke day, which take an hour to cook--it's just about the only green vegetable I can get G to eat without fighting (but I don't know if it still counts as a vegetable when she dips it in mayo).

Last night I was trying to get her wheeled to the living room for dinner before class and she wouldn't sit down in her wheelchair.  She kept fiddling with her mail and asking me questions about appointments, her memory, her body parts and life in general.  I was trying so hard to be patient.  She would not sit down.  I was her captive audience and she was not going to let me go.

Long story short, I was fifteen minutes late to class.

Shipwrecked

I am sitting on the couch studying for my math CSET and G is in her chair reading her book.  I had to turn on some music to drown out the noises coming from her stomach--it sounds like someone is shipwrecked in there.

Cute pouty G

Mom came over yesterday afternoon to watch G so Anna and I could run a few errands.  When we came home Mom had to go home and take care of her own stuff.  G obviously didn't want Mom to leave, "No! You can't go!  I need you to..." and she couldn't think of anything.

"Grandma, you have to let Mom go home."

"I know.  But I just hate to let her go."  And she bowed her head in that pouty pathetic way she does everything these days.  She is so dang cute.

Sleeping to the Rhythm

I'm sitting in the living room working on my paper and babysitting G today.  She is sitting in her chair with a feather blanket (it's 85 degrees outside), sleeping with her mouth wide open, snoring, and farting in a rhythmic pattern.

Strangest babysitting job I've ever had.