Grandma Highlights
Apr. 16th, 2007 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threadwalkerMostly boring observations and memories I don't want to forget...
On Grandma's health
Grandma is looking very frail. I am soooo glad I took the kids up there. She sleeps a lot. It's the heart, not the lungs, and one of her aeorta is slowly closing up. She's very alert and very angry that her body is going through this. Ugh - I'm so depressed about this. We sat there talking about death for a while on Saturday. I think she needed someone who wasn't going to have a freak-out on her or tell her to stop talking. That's me.. the stalwart one. I stood by while she threw up Saturday night. Uncle George and I tucked her in bed and then I kept her company for a bit over an hour, asking her about her first courtship and about being a teenager back in the 30's. This was my way of keeping an eye on her and making sure she really was better and not pulling our legs.
Ugh. I hate to see her health go down. She's alert, lucid and her project list is a mile long. And she isn't dumb. She is frustrated.
Small rant: Who's wacked-out idea was it to plan a family camping trip for her 91'st b-day this summer? She can barely walk to the mail box without wearing herself out for the day and the family wants to take her camping? crazy. I shared that particular opinion with MIL, who said we were camping 10 mi from Grandma's home... There was some sort of lame explanation that grandma could sleep in her home. Blah. I think they are being lame. I don't think grandma will be comfortable hanging out at a beach campground all day. humph.
Evie's name
Anyway, I love her like she's my own grandma. She's strong. She's been married 3 times to 2 different men. She raised 4 kids, having them 4 years apart. She has survived some hard times and maintains a positive and nurturing outlook. She's no fool, but she has a very generous heart. I identify very strongly with her. It was my idea to name Evie after her; Evalyn. Grandma has 14-ish grandkids and 10-ish great grandkids and Evie is the first to carry any part of her name. Well, 3/4 of those kids are boys, so go figure. She's continuously tickled that we named our daughter after her. She cried the day we told her and told us it was okay to change our minds. (as if!). Then she was concerned about what my mom would say given that all of Evie's names (Evalyn = kids' Great Grandma, Rose= the Great Great Grandma who nannied and lived with my hubby until he was 12) are from my husband's family. This is one of those instances where my mom, who is notorious for pushing me, makes her saving throw and says nothing. Because I wasn't going to be budged and I imagine I was the immovable object on that issue.
visiting and spoiling grandmas
Anywho, it was fun to cook for Grandma and fuss over her. She said she felt like she was being served hand and foot everytime I tossed a blanket over her legs and got her a glass of water. sheesh, that's hand and foot? man, she's easy! I made dinner Friday and Saturday nights, which is only appropriate in my book since I'm the only able-bodied adult in the house (Uncle George had a permanent back injury and is in constant pain). It was also my clever ploy to make sure we had something healthy for dinner. The chicken and veggies were a hit. The chocolate bread pudding I made was not healthy, but grandma enjoyed it. She ate pretty good, too, compared to Thursday night. Saturday night I fried up some clams to go with dinner since grandma likes them so much. Maybe the fried clams weren't healthy, but they were yummy and I'd never made them before and I saw Grandma have seconds. so there! I had my healthy portions and I saw her take seconds; it was a win-win. When I asked her about having dessert and being worried about diabetes, she said it was a little late to be getting too worried about that.
I wonder if that's why she's getting shots in her one eye? hmm.
Grandma got a kick out of the kids. And what do they call Grandma? hahaha! My kids call her (to her face), "Great Grandma in Oregon". so it goes something like,
"Great Grandma in Oregon, can I draw you a picture?" She laughed everytime they said that.
Kids and Grandma and Uncle George
Evie is so talkative compared to the last visit. Last time she would barely let Uncle George talk to her without breaking down and crying at him. This time, as soon as she realized he'd play with them, he couldn't shake her loose or shut her up. It was hysterical. He seemed really tickled. And Grandma got a hoot out of watching the kids follow Uncle George around and watching them play. Nicholas was just as enthralled with Uncle George, but that was just like last time, too. I had to break up a few shouting matches where the kids were arguing over who got to play with him next. hahaha!
One incident that had Grandma rolling went like this (it helps if you know who the Teen Titans are.) The kids have divied up action figures and the various land-air-sea vehicles that accessorize the action figures.
Evie, "Nicholas, can I be on your team?"
N, sitting 2 feet away, ignores little sister
Evie, louder, "Nicholas! Can I be on your team?"
N, ignores little sister.
Evie, crying, "Nicholas! I want to be on your team."
Me, "Nicholas, your sister is talking to you. Be respectful and respond to her."
N, "Robin doesn't need a team, he has a robot."
E, "Well, I'm Starfire and she needs to be on your team."
N, "Nope, Robin doesn't need a team."
Me, "You know, Nicholas, everytime Robin goes solo, he gets his butt kicked."
N turns and looks at me, "Robin's been training up. He doesn't need a team."
Me, "Remember when Starfire went forward in time? and Robin was all trained up and still got his butt kicked? Robin needs his team. Each team member has an important role and you need the whole team to win. You don't have to play with Evie, but you're going to get your butt kicked if you don't have a team."
N, "Alright. Robin needs a team. Evie, you want Starfire to be on my team?"
And they proceed to play very nicely together. Grandma hid her face behind a magazine the whole time to hide her laughter.
Evie had one screaming melt-down that took Grandma and Uncle George by surprise. She was completely hysterical. She shocked Uncle George into yelling at her. She was sent to her "bed" to finish out her drama. (The new rule, "Drama means time out in your bed," is making my life a lot more sane). When I checked on her she was hiccuping and ready to come out and apologize and behave nicely. heh. her face was all blotchy and pink. But she was all smiles and dimples after her half-hour cool-down.
What we did
Friday was the obligatory trip to Freddy Meyer to get window shades for the car (to prevent a screech monkey or two from burning up in the sunlight on the way home) and to stretch our legs. Other than that, we hung out at Grandmas. The kids played, chased the cat, and puttered around.
Friday night I sewed like a mad woman and made my sleeves. I think I scared the socks off Uncle George when he emerged from his room for a 2 am snack and I was going strong at the sewing machine. ahhaha!
Saturday I took the kids adventuring in Charleston, where I had fried clams for lunch at High Tide and where I picked up a pint of clams as well as wasabi coated macadamia nuts. I also found a small pottery studio. I managed to contain myself and got only a bowl and a mug. Beautiful stuff, though. The wasabi covered nuts are definitely zippy - grandma spit hers out and Uncle George choked down a soda. Then he asked for 2 more to take to his neighbor buddy... I suspect the neighbor was being zapped.
Saturday night, when I was keeping her company in her bed, the kids were supposed to be in time out. About 5 minutes into it I can hear kid-chatter. Then I hear the patter of feet. Then I hear Evie proclaim that she's the zoo-keeper and Nicholas, the kangaroo, has gotten out. So now she's chasing him around while he hops about, using his pillow case like a "potato sack". He didn't take the pillow out, either. They came crashing into Grandma's room and then raced out again. Grandma couldn't stop laughing.
Grandma slept a lot while we were there and kept apologizing for being a party pooper, but I'm glad we had some quality time. Provided the family shin-dig goes off, there will probably be 20+ people encamped in Charleston this summer and chances for quality time will be non-existent.
We hit the road at 8 am Sunday morning and got home at 6:15 pm. What a long day. The monkeys did pretty good; the new window shades I put up in the back-window helped a lot. We pulled over a few times to stretch our legs, eat and use bathrooms. Strangely, I did the speed limit the whole way home.. hmmm.. I wonder why that is?
We're heading up to Coos Bay again in July for the family camping adventure. Honestly, I may pitch a tent and then pitch to the hubby that we get a room nearby. I don't want to be sleeping in a sand-trampled tent. And beaches are cold at night. brrrr! Two small kids in the chill ...hmmm.... nah. That doesn't sound like fun. But the tent makes a great place for naps and stashing stuff. We'll see.
The kids were wired after being in the car all day. Farin is so clue-ful. He hugged me and said, You poor thing, I'll make dinner happen and put the kids to bed tonight. So he did. Not only that, he took the kids with him to go slay dinner so that I could have some alone time. I had my first 30-minute period of complete solitude since Wednesday. wuh... I flopped down on the sofa and just vegged out.
I did make it to the gym last night. fitness: Daddy was trying to convince 2 wired kids that it was bed time. I scooted off to the gym after giving good-night kisses and (drum roll) broke 350 calories on the stair-glider in my allotted 30 minutes. woot. I hadn't been in the gym in a week and was worried. So cardio was good. However, I seem to have really screwed up my left knee when I banged it 2 weeks ago. I did a full circuit and went easy on anything that felt like it was making my knee twinge.
Miss Evie was still awake when I got home. The binkie (a nighttime must-have) was AWOL and we (she and I) looked for it downstairs and outside in my car. No love. This was 10 pm-ish. This bodes badly, so I tried to out-maneuver her and I invited her to take a bath with me; bubbles and candles, etc. It was the bath I'd been mentally planning all day except for the part where a 3 yr old is sitting in the bubbles nattering at me. She was confused at first, but got into it. Well, sort of. She still wanted to have a water fight with me. gah. No squirting water at mommy's face. Go ahead and attack my feet!!!! So it wasn't exactly relaxing and she didn't get lulled into winding down and being ready to sleep. But we did get the pancake syrup out of her hair from breakfast at McD's. And she smelled really good when we were done. I gave up and she slept with us.. well, with me. She spent the night pressed up against me; snoring in my face, kicking me and stealing my pillow. good thing she's so cute. hahaha! but I wouldn't trade those moments. She'll out grow the need for mommy-snuggles soon enough.
On Grandma's health
Grandma is looking very frail. I am soooo glad I took the kids up there. She sleeps a lot. It's the heart, not the lungs, and one of her aeorta is slowly closing up. She's very alert and very angry that her body is going through this. Ugh - I'm so depressed about this. We sat there talking about death for a while on Saturday. I think she needed someone who wasn't going to have a freak-out on her or tell her to stop talking. That's me.. the stalwart one. I stood by while she threw up Saturday night. Uncle George and I tucked her in bed and then I kept her company for a bit over an hour, asking her about her first courtship and about being a teenager back in the 30's. This was my way of keeping an eye on her and making sure she really was better and not pulling our legs.
Ugh. I hate to see her health go down. She's alert, lucid and her project list is a mile long. And she isn't dumb. She is frustrated.
Small rant: Who's wacked-out idea was it to plan a family camping trip for her 91'st b-day this summer? She can barely walk to the mail box without wearing herself out for the day and the family wants to take her camping? crazy. I shared that particular opinion with MIL, who said we were camping 10 mi from Grandma's home... There was some sort of lame explanation that grandma could sleep in her home. Blah. I think they are being lame. I don't think grandma will be comfortable hanging out at a beach campground all day. humph.
Evie's name
Anyway, I love her like she's my own grandma. She's strong. She's been married 3 times to 2 different men. She raised 4 kids, having them 4 years apart. She has survived some hard times and maintains a positive and nurturing outlook. She's no fool, but she has a very generous heart. I identify very strongly with her. It was my idea to name Evie after her; Evalyn. Grandma has 14-ish grandkids and 10-ish great grandkids and Evie is the first to carry any part of her name. Well, 3/4 of those kids are boys, so go figure. She's continuously tickled that we named our daughter after her. She cried the day we told her and told us it was okay to change our minds. (as if!). Then she was concerned about what my mom would say given that all of Evie's names (Evalyn = kids' Great Grandma, Rose= the Great Great Grandma who nannied and lived with my hubby until he was 12) are from my husband's family. This is one of those instances where my mom, who is notorious for pushing me, makes her saving throw and says nothing. Because I wasn't going to be budged and I imagine I was the immovable object on that issue.
visiting and spoiling grandmas
Anywho, it was fun to cook for Grandma and fuss over her. She said she felt like she was being served hand and foot everytime I tossed a blanket over her legs and got her a glass of water. sheesh, that's hand and foot? man, she's easy! I made dinner Friday and Saturday nights, which is only appropriate in my book since I'm the only able-bodied adult in the house (Uncle George had a permanent back injury and is in constant pain). It was also my clever ploy to make sure we had something healthy for dinner. The chicken and veggies were a hit. The chocolate bread pudding I made was not healthy, but grandma enjoyed it. She ate pretty good, too, compared to Thursday night. Saturday night I fried up some clams to go with dinner since grandma likes them so much. Maybe the fried clams weren't healthy, but they were yummy and I'd never made them before and I saw Grandma have seconds. so there! I had my healthy portions and I saw her take seconds; it was a win-win. When I asked her about having dessert and being worried about diabetes, she said it was a little late to be getting too worried about that.
I wonder if that's why she's getting shots in her one eye? hmm.
Grandma got a kick out of the kids. And what do they call Grandma? hahaha! My kids call her (to her face), "Great Grandma in Oregon". so it goes something like,
"Great Grandma in Oregon, can I draw you a picture?" She laughed everytime they said that.
Kids and Grandma and Uncle George
Evie is so talkative compared to the last visit. Last time she would barely let Uncle George talk to her without breaking down and crying at him. This time, as soon as she realized he'd play with them, he couldn't shake her loose or shut her up. It was hysterical. He seemed really tickled. And Grandma got a hoot out of watching the kids follow Uncle George around and watching them play. Nicholas was just as enthralled with Uncle George, but that was just like last time, too. I had to break up a few shouting matches where the kids were arguing over who got to play with him next. hahaha!
One incident that had Grandma rolling went like this (it helps if you know who the Teen Titans are.) The kids have divied up action figures and the various land-air-sea vehicles that accessorize the action figures.
Evie, "Nicholas, can I be on your team?"
N, sitting 2 feet away, ignores little sister
Evie, louder, "Nicholas! Can I be on your team?"
N, ignores little sister.
Evie, crying, "Nicholas! I want to be on your team."
Me, "Nicholas, your sister is talking to you. Be respectful and respond to her."
N, "Robin doesn't need a team, he has a robot."
E, "Well, I'm Starfire and she needs to be on your team."
N, "Nope, Robin doesn't need a team."
Me, "You know, Nicholas, everytime Robin goes solo, he gets his butt kicked."
N turns and looks at me, "Robin's been training up. He doesn't need a team."
Me, "Remember when Starfire went forward in time? and Robin was all trained up and still got his butt kicked? Robin needs his team. Each team member has an important role and you need the whole team to win. You don't have to play with Evie, but you're going to get your butt kicked if you don't have a team."
N, "Alright. Robin needs a team. Evie, you want Starfire to be on my team?"
And they proceed to play very nicely together. Grandma hid her face behind a magazine the whole time to hide her laughter.
Evie had one screaming melt-down that took Grandma and Uncle George by surprise. She was completely hysterical. She shocked Uncle George into yelling at her. She was sent to her "bed" to finish out her drama. (The new rule, "Drama means time out in your bed," is making my life a lot more sane). When I checked on her she was hiccuping and ready to come out and apologize and behave nicely. heh. her face was all blotchy and pink. But she was all smiles and dimples after her half-hour cool-down.
What we did
Friday was the obligatory trip to Freddy Meyer to get window shades for the car (to prevent a screech monkey or two from burning up in the sunlight on the way home) and to stretch our legs. Other than that, we hung out at Grandmas. The kids played, chased the cat, and puttered around.
Friday night I sewed like a mad woman and made my sleeves. I think I scared the socks off Uncle George when he emerged from his room for a 2 am snack and I was going strong at the sewing machine. ahhaha!
Saturday I took the kids adventuring in Charleston, where I had fried clams for lunch at High Tide and where I picked up a pint of clams as well as wasabi coated macadamia nuts. I also found a small pottery studio. I managed to contain myself and got only a bowl and a mug. Beautiful stuff, though. The wasabi covered nuts are definitely zippy - grandma spit hers out and Uncle George choked down a soda. Then he asked for 2 more to take to his neighbor buddy... I suspect the neighbor was being zapped.
Saturday night, when I was keeping her company in her bed, the kids were supposed to be in time out. About 5 minutes into it I can hear kid-chatter. Then I hear the patter of feet. Then I hear Evie proclaim that she's the zoo-keeper and Nicholas, the kangaroo, has gotten out. So now she's chasing him around while he hops about, using his pillow case like a "potato sack". He didn't take the pillow out, either. They came crashing into Grandma's room and then raced out again. Grandma couldn't stop laughing.
Grandma slept a lot while we were there and kept apologizing for being a party pooper, but I'm glad we had some quality time. Provided the family shin-dig goes off, there will probably be 20+ people encamped in Charleston this summer and chances for quality time will be non-existent.
We hit the road at 8 am Sunday morning and got home at 6:15 pm. What a long day. The monkeys did pretty good; the new window shades I put up in the back-window helped a lot. We pulled over a few times to stretch our legs, eat and use bathrooms. Strangely, I did the speed limit the whole way home.. hmmm.. I wonder why that is?
We're heading up to Coos Bay again in July for the family camping adventure. Honestly, I may pitch a tent and then pitch to the hubby that we get a room nearby. I don't want to be sleeping in a sand-trampled tent. And beaches are cold at night. brrrr! Two small kids in the chill ...hmmm.... nah. That doesn't sound like fun. But the tent makes a great place for naps and stashing stuff. We'll see.
The kids were wired after being in the car all day. Farin is so clue-ful. He hugged me and said, You poor thing, I'll make dinner happen and put the kids to bed tonight. So he did. Not only that, he took the kids with him to go slay dinner so that I could have some alone time. I had my first 30-minute period of complete solitude since Wednesday. wuh... I flopped down on the sofa and just vegged out.
I did make it to the gym last night. fitness: Daddy was trying to convince 2 wired kids that it was bed time. I scooted off to the gym after giving good-night kisses and (drum roll) broke 350 calories on the stair-glider in my allotted 30 minutes. woot. I hadn't been in the gym in a week and was worried. So cardio was good. However, I seem to have really screwed up my left knee when I banged it 2 weeks ago. I did a full circuit and went easy on anything that felt like it was making my knee twinge.
Miss Evie was still awake when I got home. The binkie (a nighttime must-have) was AWOL and we (she and I) looked for it downstairs and outside in my car. No love. This was 10 pm-ish. This bodes badly, so I tried to out-maneuver her and I invited her to take a bath with me; bubbles and candles, etc. It was the bath I'd been mentally planning all day except for the part where a 3 yr old is sitting in the bubbles nattering at me. She was confused at first, but got into it. Well, sort of. She still wanted to have a water fight with me. gah. No squirting water at mommy's face. Go ahead and attack my feet!!!! So it wasn't exactly relaxing and she didn't get lulled into winding down and being ready to sleep. But we did get the pancake syrup out of her hair from breakfast at McD's. And she smelled really good when we were done. I gave up and she slept with us.. well, with me. She spent the night pressed up against me; snoring in my face, kicking me and stealing my pillow. good thing she's so cute. hahaha! but I wouldn't trade those moments. She'll out grow the need for mommy-snuggles soon enough.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 01:34 am (UTC)Don't bet on it. My soon-to-be-21-year-old, who has moved out of the house with her boyfriend, still liikes mommy snuggles, either when she comes to visit, or if we go out somewhere :)
(the 19 year old is a little more cagey about the desire for mommy snuggles, what with being all gtown-up and manly and a reformed wall-bouncer and all, but he still likes a hug from time to time :)
no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 01:58 am (UTC)