Bok Choy

I try to make sure G has dinner every night, since she pretty much has given up on feeding herself.  I came home before class and was rushing to get a plate put together for her.  I made her balsamic rosemary chicken, roasted garlic and lemon green beans, a baked sweet potato and some of my tomato basil soup.  She wheels into the kitchen and sees me plating her food and she says, "Oh, there is some bok choy in the fridge, you should make that.  I want to eat some bok choy."

"I'm not making you bok choy.  You can eat this if you like or throw it away and make yourself bok choy.  But, I have to get to class."

"Oh alright, I'll eat your food."

The next day I came home from work and she said, "I had the bok choy for lunch, and it was de-licious."

Friday Night Dinner

Grandma has been complaining that she can't swallow for the past several weeks.  Interestingly enough, though, if I buy her marshmallow eggs or creme brulee, she has no trouble with those.

6:30 pm: Anna and I ask G to come to dinner with us, but she complains that she can't swallow and that we may as well leave her at home, where she will try to get some water down.  As she protests for twenty minutes,  and makes groaning noises that she can't swallow, she moves closer to the door and has Anna put on her coat for her.  

7:20: We get to the restaurant and they must have been expecting us because they had a huge jar full of dum-dums.  I gave a butterscotch one to G and she popped it in her mouth and wouldn't take it out until her dinner arrived.  Even when she ordered her food, she had it in her mouth.

7:40:  She insisted she wouldn't be able to get any food down and ordered soup and started coughing after the first bite.  But, when I gave her a lot of my lobster ravioli, she ate every bite.  Plus she ate at least three pieces of bread with olive oil and balsamic dipping sauce.  But she wouldn't touch the soup after the first bite.

8:30:  Anna ordered dessert for Grandma and Grandma gave her the dirtiest look--one that she usually reserves for me.  But when dessert arrived, she ate the whole thing and part of mine as well.  After dessert, Grandma snagged five more dum-dums on the way out.

All in all, Grandma's "swallowing" problem mostly seemed to be a reason to be picky about her food.  And I got to enjoy an evening where she didn't like Anna and I could do nothing wrong.  It was fun.

Fake-Out

I have classes on Monday and Tuesday evenings from 6-8:30pm and Grandma and Anna know not to bug me when I'm in class (the classes are via web-conference) unless it's an emergency.  Anna came in on Tuesday and motioned for me to come out of the room.  I asked, "Are you sure?"  And she motioned again with some urgency.  About 500 dire possibilities came to mind--all of them having to do with Grandma and her health, or lack thereof.  I stood up and asked her what was wrong.

"Want to watch Game of Thrones with me?"

Really?

Nosebleed

The weather has been very dry here lately and G got a nosebleed the other night.  Anna gave her a tissue and once part of it had become soaked, G tried to rotate it, so as to use all the tissue.  Anna handed here a new tissue and said, "Here, treat yourself."

Flashback: Pride and Prejudice

Years ago G was watching the five hour A&E version of Pride and Prejudice with the family.  And it really is the only acceptable version.  You have to watch until the last or second to last video I think for a scene to come up where the character, Mr. Darcy, decides to go swimming.

Well, Mr. Darcy starts to take off his clothes and G was laying in her chair with her hands and feet waving in the air, "Take it off!!  Take it off!!"

So cute.

Wolf!

Grandma was yelling at the top of her lungs this morning (while I was at work), "Anna!  Anna!  Anna!"  She kept yelling and Anna got into G's room and asked her what was wrong.  She calmly showed Anna a sore on her foot and asked her if she thought it was getting worse.

Anna rubs G's feet every night and sees her feet every night.  I don't know the rush to have Anna see it since she had just seen it last night.  Plus, if Grandma starts yelling like that every time she wants attention, we aren't going to know when a real emergency is taking place.

Cream Brulee

My Grandmother's favorite dessert is creme brulee, but she pronounces it, "Cream Brulee."  I brought some home for her tonight because I know she loves it.  I had also bought all the ingredients to make one of her favorite soups--Tomato Basil.  I told her I was making the soup and offered to make her an artichoke and grilled cheese sandwich to go with it.  She wrinkled her nose and said, "I had soup for lunch."

Even though I had told her I brought her creme brulee when I got home, Anna carried it into her after dinner and said, "I brought you creme brulee, aren't I a good person?"

"Oh yes, you are a good person."