Mommy's Grandpa

On Monday night my Grandpa Max Madsen or as he's known in my family, Mommy's Grandpa, died at the age of 96. I'd mentioned before in this blog how he had fallen in May and had broken his hip. After two surgeries, he went to live with my parents because he had started to become more and more confused and it was obvious that he could no longer live alone.

At first the confusion would come and go, but he would remember the times when he was confused and it would seem like a dream to him. He would ask me how to fix it. I was like his personal nurse and I liked that. I love that my training and knowledge can help my family. He'd call me over to him and say "I have an embarrassing question for you." It always started like that even if it was a simple question like how much Tylenol - oh, excuse me, acetaminophen, could he take in a day. The answer to that is four grams by the way, although, he'd never take more than two grams even if he needed it.

As his nurse, I got to help him try to understand what was happening to him as his health began to fail over the last couple months. He felt so betrayed that his body and mind were both giving out on him. He could not understand why we insisted that he not drive, never mind the fact that he couldn't get out to the car on his own or react quickly enough or even really see very well. I could get away with saying to him "As you personal nurse, Grandpa, I don't think you're fit enough to operate a vehicle." That would lay that argument to rest for a few minutes at least. With my training and experience I could also help my mom and dad understand that his confusion was because there were physical holes in his brain and the connections were no longer there and it was affecting thing like his memory and personality and would only get worse. I also got to watch as his heart began to fail and his legs and arms began to swell more and more as the fluid in his body backed up and knew that this great man in my life would not be around for much longer.

I had the great honor of being with him as he passed from this life to the next. I have been with other people as they died - it was often a part of working in the ICU - but never someone that I loved. As I had experienced with others before, when he died, the feeling in the room is similar to how you feel in the Celestial Room in the temple. You can feel how very thin the veil is and that there are more people in the room than those you can see. I know that my Grandmother Elaine was there with us waiting to hold him again. You could feel the love in the room and it was eternal and pure. I am so glad that I was there. I learned many things from my grandpa during my life and perhaps the greatest, most important lesson of all was etched into my heart and memory that night: families are forever. I love you Grandpa.

Gardner Village

This week Jonathan's on Fall Break. I have today and tomorrow off from work so we decided to take advantage of our rare chance to send a day together and we took the girls to Gardner Village to see the witches. We splurged and had lunch at the restaurant there. Gwen wanted soup in a bread bowl and also ate a big part of my roast beef sandwich and french fries. Emily was so tired at lunch that she fell asleep in the high chair with her forehead on the front part. It was so cute, but I didn't even think to get a picture of it.

After lunch we went to explore the village and all the witches they have there. The witches are all doing silly things and they're fun to see. They're mannequins or made of paper mache or something, I'm not sure. This picture is of Gwen playing on this stage they have for something witchy. I guess on the weekends it's more fun and they have actors and such.

This is Emily after she woke up from her lunch nap. That castle thing in the back is the stage that Gwen was playing on.

They have an animal petting area with a bunch of different animals for the kids to harass. Here's Gwen checking out the llamas.

Making friends with a pot bellied pig. Gwen of course informed us that it was Babe.

Checking out a goat.

They had a donkey but it was in a fenced off area and although we tried to get it to come over and say hi to us it wasn't interested.

They have chickens, but you can't really pet them very well. I guess that's okay. Gwen is actually very fascinated by chickens and this is probably the closest she's ever gotten to some.

Her new best piggy friend, Babe.

When Gwen was making her rounds to check out all the animals it was so cute how she gets right in there face on their level. It's a good thing they were all very calm and docile because I know I wouldn't want someone that close to my face.

Some of the goats even had big horns like this one.

Gwen's checking out the goats long floppy ears. See what I mean about being docile?

They even had a baby cow. When I asked Gwen what she was looking at she told me it was a "Moos".

There was a small area with baby pot bellied pigs. The big one was so nice it made me almost understand why people would want a pig as a pet. Yeah, I know they're supposed to be smarter than dogs, and cleaner, etc, but have you ever petted a pig? It's like petting a brillo pad. Not soft and snuggly like my Boot.

This picture belongs at the top of this post, but I'm not moving it. This is Gwen eating her bread soup and Emily still awake at this point. It was yummy food. I'm glad I have this chance to celebrate fall with my husband and kids. I do love this time of year . . . even if it means that winter's right around the corner.

Here's my super crawler. She started crawling at 6 months but would only army crawl. Then she saw a one-year-old crawling at church and she's been up on all fours since. Today I took my kids to work out with one of my gym friends. Her kids are exactly the same age as Gwen and Emily. In fact her little girl in only one week older than Emily. It's so fun to watch them together. Her little girl has like five teeth already and is such a chunk. That's how Gwen was. Emily is long and lean and toothless so far. Well, be surprised by this bonus post. Thanks to my hubby who's watching the small ones so that I can write this. Only, now it's bed time and Emily's not loving it so I better go help.

October Already?

Well September must have been a bit busy since I couldn't make a blog post all month. I'm finding some time this morning after going running with the girls and the dog. Now, Gwen's naked and eating her pancakes and Emily is crawling around the floor finding all the microscopic bits of papers and treats that end up on the floor when you have a 3 year-old and a dog. They're watching Mary Poppins for probably the thousandth time (not today . . . yet). I'm going to try to remember all the highlights of a few of the fun September things we did.

At the beginning of the month we drove all the way out to Heber and went with Heidi, Sam, and Jami as well as my Mom and Dad and Grandpa to watch the national sheep dog trials. We own a border collie and I've always been interested in going to see what real border collies can do. Our Boot could never be a real sheep dog because she's scared of sheep. It was really neat to watch the dogs run all the way up the mountain to get the sheep and then carefully bring them back down the mountain to the person who was directing them. It was like it was on the movie Babe but they really run like half-way up the mountain and only have 13 minutes to bring the sheep down then back up then down again and go through some gates and get them in the pen. The dogs would run right by where we were sitting and Gwen would shout "There goes Boot."

The little ones were good at holding the hoops and then running around with them.

We didn't actually get any pictures of the sheep dogs or the sheep. They had some fun activities for the little kids to do. We got to find the missing sheep they had hidden and each of the kids won a little stuffed bear. Gwen gave hers a piggy-back ride when we had to walk up the big hill to watch the dogs jump in a big pool and make a big splash. We had to leave after only being there a couple hours because I had to work. It would have been more worth it if we had made an entire day of it. The drive was beautiful though.

Emily made a new friend at the gym and the little 2 year-old bit her on the cheek. I was so frustrated by it because the mom of the biter didn't really do anything about it. Neither did the gym day care. At least it was just a bruise, no permanent damage or scaring or anything. Plus, it's not going to stop me from going there. I'm just a little more anxious when I go and I keep reminding them to keep the little biter away from Emily. Gwen actually took this picture of me with my anniversary flowers. Not bad considering I really had to convince her to hold the camera the right way. Usually she just takes pictures of her own nose because she always holds the camera backwards.

Jonathan and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on the 10th. He and Gwen went and picked out 4 beautiful red roses for me as a surprise. We went out to lunch at Red Robin and then we all went to the fair together that evening. It was so much fun being at the fair together that Jonathan took the girls back again the next evening while I was at work. They even took the train and the bus so that they didn't have to pay for parking. That meant they could spend more money trying fair delicacies like deep fried peanut butter sandwiches and a deep fried Snickers candy bar. I think it's funny that he knew that I would never allow my kids to consume anything like that so he did it when I wasn't there.

Gwen's favorite parts of the fair are the animals and the butter sculpture - this year's was a pair of dancing cows.

Emily demonstrates how she's so big now that she can even use a sippy cup. My pediatrician told me to start her on a real cup, but since Gwen can't even use one without making a huge mess I didn't think that was too smart. She is really good at the sippy cup though.

Okay, I did something I regret a little bit earlier this month. I was so sick and tired of fighting Gwen about her hair that I chopped it all off one afternoon after a particularly nasty fight with her about brushing it. It's pretty cute and it fits her little personality but I miss all her curls in the back. It is a lot easier to brush and take care of now though. So, I'm torn about it. I just wish she wouldn't have such a fit about brushing it.

I've mentioned before about my incredible working mom guilt that makes me have to go out and make each day fun for my little ones. It's been extra nice outside lately - well before it turned into winter yesterday. We've been spending more time up at Liberty Park. We hadn't been there since the beginning of the summer and it was fun to see what Gwen had remembered from a few months before. Last week we went and had a picnic lunch at the Tracy Aviary. It was warm and quiet since all the kids are back in school these days. Gwen found a peacock to follow around all day. I guess he thought that he was invited to our lunch because he showed up and stole Gwen's peanut butter and jelly sandwich, even though it was still sealed in it's baggy. That made Gwen upset so I chased him down and got it back and shooed him away. Gwen still asks if we can go to the park so she can share her lunch with the peacock again. I guess she's forgotten how scared she was when he jumped up on the table right by her.

At Liberty Park they also have this area with all these small rivers showing all the canyons in the Salt Lake Valley and how they all dump into the Great Salt Lake. It hadn't been working when we were there at the start of summer but it's up and running now. We went two days in a row so Gwen could get her fill of playing in the water. Luckily, Emily can sleep just about anywhere and she ended up taking a nap for over an hour while Gwen played.Also, for her birthday, Gwen's grandma gave her dancing lessons. Gwen is so excited each week to go to dancing class. Last week she had a really hard time focusing on the dancing because she was trying hard to play with all her new friends. She even made the shyest girl in class cry because she was giving her a big bear hug and pulled her hair. Yesterday's class was much better and although her attention span puttered out at about 45 minutes into the lesson, she didn't make anyone cry this time. Emily spends the entire class practicing her crawling. She's fairly quick at the army crawl but likes to be up on all fours in the traditional crawl because it's easier to go from crawling to sitting that way.