ahhh, family

Usually, this is about my girls, but this week I have my sister, who is developmentally disabled, staying with us for xmas.

My brother brought her yesterday and she appeared relatively calm. However, I should have recognized the foreshadowing of what was to come when she immediately began asking to open xmas presents, with 5 days to go...

She has not been here yet 24 hours. Yesterday @ 4pm she wanted to take a shower and go to bed. I said she had to wait until 6:30 pm. Three times she got up and wanted to take a shower. All was fine, we had Chinese food for dinner at her request. Shower time was fine. Then, it was time for the massive amounts of meds she takes. Easily 12 pills for 6pm. (here is an aside: as I'm typing this, I looked over and she's biting at something on her sweater. She wouldn't tell me why. I made her stop.) Anyway, she passed out about 5 minutes after taking her meds. She was due to have Ambien (sleeping pill) and an anti-anxiety medication @ 10pm. I wondered to my husband at the wisdom of waking someone up from a medication induced stupor to give them more sleeping medicine. He (wisely, it turns out) said it was probably for a reason. So, in I go with the meds, and behold: she's fully dressed and just sitting up in bed, as if she's getting ready for her day. I thankfully give her the meds and in a little while she's snoring. Okay, good. I fell asleep on the couch, which was good as she tried to get up @1:30am and then @ 4am. At 4, I gave her more sleeping and anxiety medication, which lasted til 6am, at which time she thought that a Dum Dum would be a delicious breakfast for a diabetic.

Real breakfast went smoothly. The medications make her restless and wander around constantly. In the time I folded a load of towels and put them away, she managed to drink a whole pink of Silk Hazelnut Creamer. I explained that wasn't the best choice for her, and besides, we like to add it to our coffee. She said: oh, heh, heh.

Oooh, it's gonna be a long week.