Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2006. Mattie was four a half years old. I do not have many photos of the three of us together, which is why this is so special to me. Check out Mattie's expression, he was such a live wire and it was hard to get him to stop moving long enough to snap a photo!
Quote of the day: We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world. ~ Helen Keller
This morning, my dad had a follow up appointment with his doctor. The doctor literally sees him every two months. I had a typical morning routine, until I woke my dad up. I did get him up and into the shower. Before taking him to the shower, I always ask him if he has to go to the bathroom. He said no, so I helped him into the shower and onto his shower chair. My dad can actually wash himself, if I set everything up for him. That is the extent of his help in the morning, because once he comes out of the shower, I do all the rest!
However, while he was in the shower, I made my parent's bed. Within minutes, I smelled poop! I ran back to the shower and found the shower covered in poop and my dad moving it about the shower. I was besides myself and immediately got soaked while cleaning it up and moving it away from him. I wish I could say that is where the fun ended. It did not!
I got him out of the shower and then scrubbed it, as I did not want anything to sit for long on the tiles. After I toweled my dad off and went through the powder and lotion routine, I then dressed him. We do all of the morning routine while he sits in a chair. As soon as I finished shaving him and got him up to head downstairs, he pooped again in his pants. Which meant that I had to change him and start again.
When I finally got downstairs, we then had about 20 minutes to eat some sort of breakfast and get out the door. Meanwhile, when I got downstairs my mom was doing her walking routine around the house. NOT eating breakfast. I told her to stop and got her to the table and reminded her we had twenty minutes until leaving. This is problematic because she eats very slowly and doesn't like to be rushed. So instead of moving along and trying to meet the time schedule, she lashed out at me. She had all morning to eat breakfast and be ready, but she just can't. Which leads me to be angry.
Tonight having calmed down, I realize that my mom, like my dad, has NO sense of time. She thinks she fully functions, but she doesn't. Therefore, moving forward, I need to give her timed reminders throughout the morning, because even though I told her about the doctor appointment and even wrote it on my dad's white board calendar, it doesn't register with her.
So if you are following along, I dealt with two rounds of poop this morning. I thought my dad would be finished for the day. Forget it! Right in the middle of the doctor appointment, my dad lets loose and I had to take him immediately to the bathroom. It was a royal mess and though not fun, the doctor got to see first hand what I juggle with my dad. It makes for a very difficult and unpleasant quality of life.
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