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Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2006. Mattie was in his preschool classroom, and I had the opportunity to visit that day! The classroom had a loft in it and Mattie absolutely LOVED that space. In fact, he used to love using all sorts of colorful tape along the wooden railings. I remember the director of the preschool telling me that within the first two months of school, Mattie used about a year's supply of tape that the school had on hand! Get the picture on Mattie's intensity and persistence!
Quote of the day: The purpose of life is not to win. The purpose of life is to grow and to share. When you come to look back on all that you have done in life, you will get more satisfaction from the pleasure you brought to other people’s lives that you will from the times that you outdid and defeated them. ~ Harold Kushner
I got up at 5:15am today! I had to get up at that hour in order to manage and care for Sunny and Indie, to get myself ready, make breakfast, pack a snack for my mom, drop my dad off at his memory care center, and then drive into the city to take my mom to her hair and nail appointments. I am NOT a morning person! However, since my parents moved in, sleeping in until 7am, would now be considered a luxury!
Before leaving the house today, I had my mom use the powder room and I ran upstairs to use the bathroom. I left my dad at the breakfast table, after confirming that he did not need to use the bathroom first. While I was upstairs, I could hear movement. When I got back down stairs, my dad was up and had wandered over to the powder room and was just standing outside the door. He knew my mom was in there but said nothing to her. She is in her own world and did not even realize my dad was up and outside the door.
When I confronted my dad, I asked him if he had to go to the bathroom! After all I was trying to understand what he was doing up and outside the bathroom door. His response was "no!" He got up because he was' looking for a tissue.' I keep a box of tissues by his kitchen chair. So I was perplexed as to why he was wandering around looking for a tissue, when the box was in front of him, where I left him. To me this behavior was noteworthy, and it was the first real sign of wandering that I have seen. Typically my dad is physically lazy and very sedentary. So I have never worried about him moving around, but this morning was a red flag.
On an aside, I learned this week that my long time hairstylist moved back to the region. She is now working at the salon I used to go to when I was a graduate student. Needless to say, I am going to see her next week, as I feel no one understands my hair like she does! Why should going to get my hair cut and returning to this salon be so exciting? For me it is always about the people, about the connections I share with others. To me this is symbolic of returning home, as the salon is a stone's step from where I used to live in the city. This reconnection will either go very well or very poorly, as I know they say you can never go home again.
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