I am writing this post while we are at Panera and am going to relate an incident that just occurred before going on with the topic of the day. A few minutes ago, I was talking to a couple we see her almost every day. They were leaving, and when we said our goodbyes, I turned around and bumped the table at which Kate and I are sitting. As I have noted before, one of Kate’s symptoms is reacting strongly to noises, bumps when we are driving, and other surprises. When I bumped the table, she gave me a dirty look and said, “You always do that.” I always take this humorously since she says this occasionally, but it never relates to a specific thing that I do on a repeated basis. One reason I am able to relate to it humorously is that the dirty look she gives me is not a mean-spirited one. It seems to be more of her effort to respond in a kind way to something that has startled her.
Pardon that diversion, it was just an event that occurred as I was starting this post about the sitter situation. As the heading suggests, things continue to go well. We continue to have just two sitters, one who comes on Monday (Mary) and another who comes on Wednesday and Friday (Anita). Kate likes both of them. I still cannot detect any hesitation or reservation about their being here. In fact, one of the things she likes is their being able to take her to Panera while I am gone. That is a relief for me as I had been concerned about Kate’s having a 4-hour block of time that was all at home with someone who is still a bit of a stranger.
Kate conveys her comfort with the sitter in several different ways. First of all, she is very welcoming to the sitter when she arrives. She always has a bright smile on her face indicating that she is glad to see her. Second, she sometimes says things when I am present with the her and the sitter before leaving. For example, this past Friday as I was driving out of the driveway, I waved to her and Mary and said that I was headed to the Y. Kate waved back and said, “I’m in good hands.” Yesterday before leaving, I handed Anita the Panera card and said they might want to go to Panera. Kate responded quickly. She put her hand on Anita’s shoulder and said enthusiastically, “We want to go to Panera, don’t we.”
Yesterday, I returned home just a few minutes before the end of the 4-hour period the sitter is here. I found that Kate and Anita were not home. I figured they were at Panera. They didn’t get back until almost fifteen minutes later which would have been after Anita’s shift was over. I am impressed with Anita. One of the first things she said to me was that she had clocked out at 4:00. She was reassuring me that I wasn’t going to be billed for her going beyond the time. After Anita left, Kate mentioned how sharp she is, something that she says about most people she meets. It’s an indication of her liking the person and also a sign that understanding things going on around is such a challenge that she is impressed when she sees other handling things with ease. As you can imagine, I am quite satisfied with how things are going with the sitter.
