Report on Dad 10-3-10

Hi Everyone!

Tonight's report comes from information I got from my sister Lucy, her husband, Bob, and from my own conversation with Dad.

Lucy saw it was me calling and answered her phone even though she was at choir practice for Martha's Christmas Chorus. So she gave me a very brief report and told me to call Bob who visited Dad tonight. Lucy did tell me that Dad's been more talkative the last few times she's seen him, asking, "How's the family?" He's clearly known who she is, though he's asked her how many kids she has. Lucy says it's much nicer than when Dad just says, "Uh-huh" and doesn't really participate in the conversation at all.

Bob told me that tonight Dad was in the best spirits he's been in for the last three weeks. During visits during the last three weeks, Bob says Dad's been down, responding to questions about how he's doing by saying "Oh, don't ask me!"

Tonight Dad said to Bob several times, "Boy, you look good!" He didn't complain of any pain, but Bob says he has a sore on his hand that may have been from his fall a few weeks ago. Bob, who's trained as an EMT, noticed that it's red all around the sore and asked the nurse to check on it. When Bob told Dad that their daughter Britta is in town with her two girls and that Britta and the girls would be coming by to visit, Dad replied, "I'm looking forward to it!"

When I phoned Dad tonight, his voice sounded strong, and he told me how good it was to hear my voice--it's great to hear him say it even though I know it's his standard line to everyone who calls. I told him a couple of stories about my grandson, Jeffrey, who's now talking in complete sentences. The other night as he was going upstairs to bed, he said, "I'm climbing." (His mom, the linguist, was impressed that he was using the progressive form of the verb!--but I didn't try to explain that part to Dad.)

He chuckled at my story about Jeffrey and the potty: I recently taught Jeffrey "eeny, meeny, minie, mo" to help him make choices, and when he's done flushing the toilet, I ask him if he wants to use the hand sanitizer or the soap to wash his hands. He says, "Mee-mo," and gets both the hand sanitizer and the soap dispenser and puts them side-by-side on the floor, and we say "eeny, meeny, minie, mo." He always chooses the soap, but "eeny, meeny, minie, mo" is an essential part of the ritual. Tonight he put his hand on the soap first while I said "eeny," and that's as far as we got--he picked up the soap. Dad chuckled at the story. I'm so grateful he still has his great sense of humor.

Dad sent his love to all of us here, I told him I loved him, and that was the end of our conversation, and it's the end of my blog--except to say, as always, thanks to all of you for your interest and love!