Return of the Terrible Two's

I won't say that it was bound to happen, because I thought we had done everything possible to make sure it didn't, but it did. Dad returned to the terrible two's last week. He came home from day care and in a real 2 year old fit announced, "I am not going back to that place!!!!" Why, my bride and I asked. "Because!!!!" Because why? "I don't have to tell you, huh!" What happened? "I am not going back to that place and you can't make me!!!" What happened? "I don't have to tell you!" This could go on for a while. After our first "battle royal" in several months, he went back.

It almost made me regret not going on a real vacation. The result was nearly the same. He had been out of routine, Labor Day holiday had come and he hadn't understood why he had a day off, and whammo! The big plus is that this year he is back to five days a week right away and not the long drama of a year ago where it took 9 months to get him to go back. By Thursday of last week it was over and forgotten. Yippee!! I do fear that if we had gone for a whole week and he had been out of routine for that time, we would be stuck with a much worse situation than just one day of a tantrum.

Good news and bad news are hard to differentiate with Alzheimer's. He is declining and is now pretty fully in stage 6. (There are 7 stages.) When he came to us two years ago he was a 4 to 5. That is decline. The good news is that he is more mellow, usually. This is one of the rare diseases where bad news is good news for both him and us. He is less frustrated because he can think much less clearly. In turn he frustrates us much less. At a time when there are some major other changes happening in our lives, this is a nice bonus. How potential changes will affect us or him is yet to be seen. Again, in a strange way, that is a bonus. At least we can truly say that in our lives every day is an adventure.