Happy Birthday to Randy's Dad!

Randy's dad is 60 today. He came over from Yakima this evening and we all went out to dinner to celebrate. So Happy Birthday to him!

Every night, right as we are lying down to sleep, Randy asks me to wake him up as I am leaving. Every night, I remind him that every morning I try to do as he asks and I am unsuccessful. Every morning as I am getting ready to leave, I try to wake him up and he mumbles something about about needing just a little more sleep as he turns away from me.

So this morning, as I go in to wake him up, I was not surprised to here him tell me that he needed more sleep. However, I was very surprised when, less than 5 minutes later, he walked into the bathroom as I was getting ready to go. He actually got up early this morning. And what made it even more surprising was that he didn't even turn his light out until close to midnight. He got so into getting his planner organized that he couldn't go to bed until he had it all done.

Randy had all three of his therapies today. In speech, Vanessa went over internal memory strategies. She also reviewed his planner. Even though he had spent all of that time getting it organized, he hadn't actually completed some of the tasks that he was given to do for homework, and other tasks he did complete but didn't mark off. Randy asked the therapist how she saw him progressing. She said that he is making significant gains in all areas and, though he didn't complete those tasks and check off the others, in general, he is doing great at using his daily planner. Randy also asked her what she saw as his deficits. She said his responsivness time needs to improve. He needs to make use of compensatory strategies.

In physical therapy, Randy did his usual exercises. He started on the exercise bike to get warmed up and then moved to the exercises that build his strength and improve his balance. She advised Randy to add weights up to 3 lbs to his legs as he is doing his exercises at home to help build strength.

In occupational therapy, the therapist again talked of Randy playing games that require quick thinking and quick decision-making. The therapist, Randy and his mom all played Uno together, which is one of the games that the therapist recommended.

This evening, we all went to dinner. At dinner, Randy and I were joking together about his loss of memory as we do often. He and I had just finished having a converstaion about something. I thought it was all decided, but not even five minutes later he brings it back up and begins as though we had never discussed it. I laughed and reminded him that we had just had that conversation. I joked about "Ten-Second Tom" (from the movie "50 First Dates"). He laughed and said "Yeah but imagine how many times a day I can have the same great idea!"

I love his outlook on things.