My grandmother died yesterday morning. She was 93...it was expected. I'm actually surprised she held on this long. Unfortunately, my last memory of her was not great.
I went to see her at the hospital with my dad. She didn't look good at all. She was sitting in a chair next to the hospital bed with a tray full of uneaten food in front of her. She had completely stopped eating and it was obvious. We knew her memory was not good and that she had a habit of asking the same questions over and over again. We humored her anyway. But when she started talking about the wedding, that's when the discomfort set in for me and I knew she was getting worse.
It was a rainy Saturday evening. She asked about how the weather had been. Dad said it had been nice earlier. She said how nice it would be for the wedding. Both my dad and me were a little unsure of what she was talking about, but we kept on. Then she began asking about how we were getting to the wedding and where we were staying. She even went on to say that she didn't have anything to wear to the wedding and she couldn't believe she even came for the wedding. She also pointed out how excited she was to see my kids at the wedding. At this point, I knew she had lost it.
What wedding was she talking about, you ask? Well, we're not really sure. We do know that she wasn't talking about any recent wedding, that's for sure. My dad's guess was that she was probably remembering some other wedding that we all had to travel for. My cousin was married like 6 years ago and we all had to travel. Maybe that's what she was remembering.
She was a different woman back then. It's hard to believe that 6 years can age a person that much. But, I guess at that age, 6 years is like a lifetime. No one could believe that she was as old as she was. She got around great; no walker, sound mind, no health problems. Not your normal 80-something senior citizen. I remember always thinking how I wanted to be like that when I was old and gray.
But the woman I saw 2 weeks ago was not the lively woman still making tons of Christmas cookies each year, humming while she baked and cleaned. She's the one who first showed me the Golden Girls. Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE the Golden Girls. I still remember sitting in "grandpa's" chair, eating Snyder's cheese pretzels, while grandma sat on the couch. We watched the Golden Girls together every time I stayed overnight there. Grandpa couldn't hang that long like the girls. So we stayed up "late" and did our girl thing. I thought it was so neat that she actually wanted to stay up with me to watch TV. That's something Kathie never would have done....even if I had begged her (but I knew better than to do that).
No, the woman I saw 2 weeks ago was frail and had trouble swallowing water. It was very hard for me to see her like that and I almost wish I hadn't. I wish I could hang on to only those happy memories. But now, I have that 1 not so great memory barging in whenever I think happy grandma thoughts. I'm sure it made her feel better to see me before she took her final nap, though, so that makes it all worth it.
I miss you grandma. I hope you find true happiness where you are now. You will always be my Golden Girl.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
What a weekend
My Saturday morning began like many other Saturday mornings. Charlie woke us up at 7am telling us how incredibly hungry he is. (We have tried, on numerous occasions, to tell him that if he would simply eat dinner, he would not be so hungry in the morning. He does not like to listen to us, so he very rarely eats dinner.) So far, normal Saturday. I always fall for that alarm he sounds because, well, I'm a mom. The kid wants to eat. It's my responsibility to feed him. So I get up and get him some breakfast. Doug finally rolls out of bed like an hour and half later. I was extremely jealous (I know, I know...love is not supposed to be jealous, but come on! He gets to sleep in until 8:30? That is so not fair!), but I just let it go. So around 9, we decide to go wake up sleepy head (i.e. Elizabeth). She normally does sleep later than the rest of us, but that day, it was much later.
We went in and were having trouble getting her to get out of bed. She was limp and wasn't moving a whole lot. We managed to get her dressed, but she definitely wasn't herself. We called the doctor's office and they said to take her in (thank goodness for the after hours pediatric center). Doug took her in and I stayed with Charlie. He said at the dr. she turned blue in the face and they were about to take her to Hershey Med. Instead, they called Hershey and said it was her blood sugar. Her blood sugar was at 30. For those who are like me and didn't know the significance of that number, when it gets as low as 60, an ER trip is warranted. So hers was very low. After eating some food and drinking some milk, they got it back up to 130. Much better. Talk about scary!
They diagnosed her with ketotonic hypoglycemia. Apparently this is something small children can get where their blood sugar drops super low after not eating for a while. So now we have to monitor her blood sugar weekly to make sure it's within normal range. We haven't gotten full instructions yet, but I assume this will mean she will have to have more scheduled eating habits. The good news is that they grow out of it. I'm so glad this will not be something she has to deal with as a teenager or an adult. It doesn't sound like it's too big of a deal, thank goodness.
We went in and were having trouble getting her to get out of bed. She was limp and wasn't moving a whole lot. We managed to get her dressed, but she definitely wasn't herself. We called the doctor's office and they said to take her in (thank goodness for the after hours pediatric center). Doug took her in and I stayed with Charlie. He said at the dr. she turned blue in the face and they were about to take her to Hershey Med. Instead, they called Hershey and said it was her blood sugar. Her blood sugar was at 30. For those who are like me and didn't know the significance of that number, when it gets as low as 60, an ER trip is warranted. So hers was very low. After eating some food and drinking some milk, they got it back up to 130. Much better. Talk about scary!
They diagnosed her with ketotonic hypoglycemia. Apparently this is something small children can get where their blood sugar drops super low after not eating for a while. So now we have to monitor her blood sugar weekly to make sure it's within normal range. We haven't gotten full instructions yet, but I assume this will mean she will have to have more scheduled eating habits. The good news is that they grow out of it. I'm so glad this will not be something she has to deal with as a teenager or an adult. It doesn't sound like it's too big of a deal, thank goodness.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
MIR Sure Deodorant
Click here for a printable MIR form for Sure with Natural Extracts or Sure MAX Clinical Power deodorant.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Ride the Potty Train
So we're unsuccessfully trying to potty train our 2 year old. This was so not my idea. After the pain and suffering that ensued while training my son, I wanted to wait until after she turned 3. But she had other plans.
She thinks it's fun to tell us she has to go, make us drop what we're doing to get her to the potty on time, just to have already gone in her pull-up. She also thinks it's fun to tell us she wants to wear "big girl underpants", but then go in them anyway (about which she really does not care). The bribery of M&Ms every time she goes #1 and a trip to Dairy Queen for a whole day of staying dry have lost their luster.
She will also only go on the potty if I can take her. This causes a few problems because Doug is our resident Stay At Home Dad. So for 40+ hours per week, she absolutely refuses to use the potty. The weekends are when she decides to cooperate because I'm there.
I am so ready to be done with potty training. I've even gone so far as to make up songs to make it fun for her. One of my favorites is "Ride the Potty Train" sung to the tune of "Come On Ride That Train". She now thinks that there is an actual train involved somehow.
And to get her to go #2 in the potty (which hasn't happened yet), I made up a song I call "There's a Party in the Potty", sung to the tune of Yo Gabba Gabba's "There's a Party in my Tummy". Thinking about it now, this could also be interchangeable with "There's a Poopy in the Potty". Same idea. Hasn't worked yet.
Am I doing something wrong? I decided this time to heed the warnings in all the books and articles, and let her decide when she's ready. She expressed to me she wanted to do this. This was her idea to begin going down this road. Granted, she was under 2 and probably didn't realize what she was really in for, but it's been like 9 months now and we have had almost no progression. We've even taken a couple weeks off. If she wanted to go, we let her, but otherwise, we were not pushing the issue. This has not helped.
A friend of mine (who does not yet have kids) took a class with a professor who wrote a book on how to potty train in 1 day. It involves feeding them salty snacks to make them drink a bunch and basically hanging out in the bathroom all day (I have not read it, but this is how it was described to me). I have to say, this is my second attempt at potty training and I really have my doubts about this method or any method that touts training is possible in 1 day. My son took a full year to train. My daughter is on month 9 with no end in sight. I'm just plain tired of this.
Has anyone tried this potty training in a day thing? Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong here? Anyone? Beuller? Beuller?
She thinks it's fun to tell us she has to go, make us drop what we're doing to get her to the potty on time, just to have already gone in her pull-up. She also thinks it's fun to tell us she wants to wear "big girl underpants", but then go in them anyway (about which she really does not care). The bribery of M&Ms every time she goes #1 and a trip to Dairy Queen for a whole day of staying dry have lost their luster.
She will also only go on the potty if I can take her. This causes a few problems because Doug is our resident Stay At Home Dad. So for 40+ hours per week, she absolutely refuses to use the potty. The weekends are when she decides to cooperate because I'm there.
I am so ready to be done with potty training. I've even gone so far as to make up songs to make it fun for her. One of my favorites is "Ride the Potty Train" sung to the tune of "Come On Ride That Train". She now thinks that there is an actual train involved somehow.
And to get her to go #2 in the potty (which hasn't happened yet), I made up a song I call "There's a Party in the Potty", sung to the tune of Yo Gabba Gabba's "There's a Party in my Tummy". Thinking about it now, this could also be interchangeable with "There's a Poopy in the Potty". Same idea. Hasn't worked yet.
Am I doing something wrong? I decided this time to heed the warnings in all the books and articles, and let her decide when she's ready. She expressed to me she wanted to do this. This was her idea to begin going down this road. Granted, she was under 2 and probably didn't realize what she was really in for, but it's been like 9 months now and we have had almost no progression. We've even taken a couple weeks off. If she wanted to go, we let her, but otherwise, we were not pushing the issue. This has not helped.
A friend of mine (who does not yet have kids) took a class with a professor who wrote a book on how to potty train in 1 day. It involves feeding them salty snacks to make them drink a bunch and basically hanging out in the bathroom all day (I have not read it, but this is how it was described to me). I have to say, this is my second attempt at potty training and I really have my doubts about this method or any method that touts training is possible in 1 day. My son took a full year to train. My daughter is on month 9 with no end in sight. I'm just plain tired of this.
Has anyone tried this potty training in a day thing? Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong here? Anyone? Beuller? Beuller?
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