Hilarity!

Teale is cracking up, Mark is giving directions and my 83 year old Mother in law is "just doing it." Doing what you ask, why shooting baskets of course! She's trying underhand, but it is going basically straight, forward! Her youngest son, Mark & I took her in this past October. We try to keep her engaged and we have encountered some pretty funny things in the last seven months. She has played board games with us, my personal favorite being "Pop the Pig." If you haven't played it, you should, but with my mother in law (MIL, for short) and Teale it makes the game especially fun! The 3D pig sits on the table and you feed him these little hamburgers that have different numbers on them. Depending on the number on your hamburger you push the pigs head down that many times. When you push his head, it clicks and air builds up in his tummy, bigger and bigger with every push. You take turns not knowing when the pig will finally pop! His arms go up, his belt pops open & in my house both my MIL & Teale SCREAM! It is really ridiculous to watch and honestly I'm not sure who is funnier, my MIL or Teale? There are times the two of them are the most similar people in the house. Teale has severe brain damage, often repeats herself & perseverates on certain subjects. Sometimes she laughs uncontrollably, when it's not that funny. Sometimes Teale is obsessive, compulsive and sometimes she is oppositional defiant. Well, my MIL shows signs of all these things too. She will laugh hardily when most adults would just giggle, argue over simple things like staying hydrated and worry way too much about missing the news or being late to something. Sometimes it feels like the beginning of life and the end of life are similar. Teale is developmentally delayed and needs much care even though she is twelve and a half. My MIL has Parkinson's and her memory is going. Some days Teale says the same thing over and over again and on those same days, my MIL may get stuck on a thought also. Sometimes it just feels surreal, like this can't be my life! I worry about Mark having the same issues as an old man and I'll probably still have Teale in my care too. We joke that I will be taking care of the two of them, both of them repeating stories. Oh well, you never know, maybe I will get lucky and Mark will have to care for me!