Happy Birthday to You!

Mom had a great 76th birthday. It started out with her sister, Lorraine, coming to visit. She brought a fun musical card, and Mom danced in her bed as it played! Then it was off to therapy - no rest for the birthday girl! Therapy went OK, but Mom was too tired to stand or do much during the last session. After a rest, the nurse gave Mom a shower and shampoo, and dressed her in a new outfit. She looked beautiful for her party!

It is a birthday tradition for Mom to have homemade angel food cake drizzled with lemon glaze, and this year was no exception. When we were serving it, Alan playfully announced that in order to qualify for a piece of angel food cake, you had to either be an angel or know one. Mom immediately raised her left arm straight up over her head and piped up, "I claim to be an angel!" How right you are, Mom! Cheryl also made peach sorbet with peaches from her tree, and it was so refreshing! Randy bought a carrot cake from Costco, and invited the entire floor to come to the dining room for a piece. Some of the nurses sang Happy Birthday to Mom, and everyone was so kind. She had lots of visitors, as well as several phone calls. Scott called from Indiana, and Mom carried on a pretty coherent conversation with him. They share the same birthday, so it was pretty exciting. Thank you everyone for making it a special day!

Mom ate pretty well today, but somehow came up short of her 1800 calories, despite having cake and ice cream! She ate all of her meals today, so we just assumed she had gotten enough calories or we would have pushed a bit more. Oh well. I never realized just how many bites it takes to get to 1800 calories! (Unfortunately it's never hard for me!)

We are excited about the progress Mom is making. We've come a long way since last week. Keep on keeping on, birthday girl, and we'll get there yet!