Not much new to report.  Everyone is doing about the same.  Dad was very alert tonight, and talking a lot.  I love to hear my Dad talk...Often, it is complete nonsense, but he does it in perfect grammar.  Perfectly spoken, proper sentences that mean absolutely nothing.  Well, it may mean something to him, but not to anyone else.  And many times, if you question him, he gets kinda mad.  Or if he knows he is speaking nonsense, he will close his eyes as if to pretend he is sleeping.  It is pretty cute.  His edema in his legs appears to be getting worse.  I talked to the hospice LVN tonight, and she was going to question what else we can do.  We will see what comes of that.  I am a little bummed...One of my favorite nurses there at Magnolia is on vacation for the next month.  She is really on top of things and knows her patients inside and out.  I will miss her while she is gone.

Mom is pretty good.  She was really sleepy tonight.  She said that she had not slept at all the past 2 nights.  If that was the case, maybe she is just really tired.  She was happy because someone came by today and put some makeup on her.  She looked really cute, even with her bald head.  I think she was a little upset that these ladies were also doing hair...LOL.  I am sure I will go to hell for giggling at Mom's decision to shave her head, but you have to admit, it is a little funny.

She tells me she is getting better at walking with the platform walker.  She really is getting stronger physically.  The platform walker is very much like a regular walker, but it has extra apparatus on top.  They allow you to rest your arms straight out on flat, perpendicular platforms, and then hold hand grips.  This allows Mom to learn how to balance, and to get move her legs and build her muscles.  Eventually, the goal is to get her to a cane that has a tri-pod on the bottom...Well, it has 4 feet, not 3...(quad-pod???), but it provides more stability.

It is pretty funny, now that I am going less to visit, whenever I get there, invariably, one of the staff there says something like "have you seen your Mom?  Boy is she mad at you..."  And luckily, by the time I get in to see Mom, she has either forgotten, or is too busy ordering me around to be mad...Not that it has stopped her before.  I will take whatever I can get.

I am going to attempt to take Mom to breakfast on Saturday.  It will be her first trip off property since she got there in January.  I am a little nervous that if it goes well, she will want to do it all the time and will get obsessed with it, but I still have to try.  We are just going to go to Coco's, and she how she does out in public.  I am concerned that she will get tired quickly, or she will get so preoccupied with something (pain, her looks, not able to eat like she used to, self-conscience), and she will get so upset we will have to leave.  That is why we are going early, in hopes that she will be well-rested, and we are going to someplace close, and familiar to her.  I hope it is something we can enjoy together once or twice a month, and that it doesn't cause more problems than opportunities, but these are going to be the first steps to seeing how well she will get along in the future.

I will probably not seeing the folks until I take Mom out on Saturday.  So, I don't know if I will have any updates until then.  

Until then...Much love!