Sing, Sing a Song Saturday

I started last week doing what I call Sing, Sing a Song Saturday.  I'm going to post one song on Saturdays that the boys or I like. I'll see how long I can keep it up.

The song may be part of a movie, a kid's video or just a song we like. It may or may not include words. I'll try and include why we like it and/or the history of the song/singer.

This week I'm posting what a song can do for someone.

I love this story about music and what it can do for older people that have trouble communicating:




My Grandma (Great Grandma Kent to the boys) has Alzheimer's disease. I know what it's like to see someone that once had a lot of life, be quiet, confused and depressed. It would be great if everyone in a care facility would come out of their silent world and back into a world that's full of excitement.

All it took for this gentleman was an i-pod.

I love his taste in music!

I Finally Figured Out Why Mica is Scared to Go See Great Grandma Kent

I mentioned to Mica that Great Grandma Kent moved to a new home now. she was kicked out of the other home. She just needs more care. She has Alzheimer's disease. She was really nice and forgetful. She used to sit and watch the kids with a smile on her face. Our boy's LOVED her! Mica even walked up to her at age 2 and said, "WOW I really love all the bubbles in your hair!" The bubbles were perm curls. I imagine with white hair curls do look like bubbles.

Now she has a blank stare much of the time. She gets snappy when you try and prevent her from doing things like: Hand washing a whole stack of paper plates, leaving out an outside door and steeling chocolate eggs, which she managed to stuff a lot of eggs in her pockets.

Mica didn't want to get out of the car to go into her home shortly before Easter. I was totally not expecting him to act the way he did. It used to be that Mica was Great Grandma Kent's best friend, visa versa.

This weekend he finally told me why he doesn't like going to see her. He's afraid he's going to catch what he calls, "Elder's disease." I reassured him that he can not catch Alzheimer's disease. I also told him that older people just love when young people, like himself come to see them. We'll see how the next visit goes.

I found a site that talks about how to talk to your kids about Alzheimer's disease here. Warning! They have a short film on the site that depicts a 13 year old girl dealing with her mother's Alzheimer's, I just lost it {started crying}. I'll admit it, the older I get the more of a sap I've become. This video won best short film on YouTube in 2007, drawing the attention of millions.

Here's the video. Watch at your own risk. It might make you cry.

Right on the Walls Review

• Shortly after Christmas things started to fall apart. My Grandma Kent that has Alzheimer's disease ran away while my Grandpa Kent was in the shower.
• She was found three miles from their home on the ground. Her hand was broken, she was wearing my Grandpa's shoe on one foot, a slipper on the other foot and had no coat on.
• I tried thinking right away of things I could do to help her to not run away. A company called Right on the Walls really helped out!
• They custom made a faux shelf that was made to fit on their door to camouflage it.
• I was so happy that they were able to do this for my Grandma! I had looked for awhile to find one company that would put something like this together.
•  Right on the Walls made this for me in a very timely fashion! 
• A few other things happened with Grandma, and she had to move into a special home. It was getting to the point where we were worried about the safety of Grandma and Grandpa.
• I still wanted to give my Grandma the shelf that was made specially for her.

• I finally had a chance to visit my grandma this past weekend. I was sick for two weeks, and did not want to pass what I had to her!
• Her room is cute. Her door is wide open for her to roam free inside the place. Putting her faux shelf on her door has lost its meaning.
• Her bathroom was bare, so I decided that would be a great spot for her shelf from Right on the Walls.

Before

After

• I'm really glad my Dad joined me to help put the shelf up. It would have been hard to put the shelf up myself. The process was definitely a two person job.
• I love that Right on the Walls included a scraper to help work the bubbles out of the print when putting it up. We still ended up with some small bubbles. The adhesive was pretty sticky, so it was good to work fast.

• The shelf looks 3 dimensional, which is great for my original intent of camouflaging a door. 
• I love that it won't damage the wall surface. 
• Although my Grandma can not express what she likes the same way she used to, she nods and has a twinkle in her eye when she likes something. She seemed to like her shelf. 
• Thank you Right on the Walls.

Disclaimer: The opinions on this post are my personal take on the products. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I am not compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products themselves to test out. If you have questions about this post please contact me at: alissa4illustration@hotmail.com

Helping Great Grandma Kent Unwrap Presents

• Something different happened this year; Great Grandma Kent forgot how to unwrap presents. 
• Mica was called over to help her. 
• He began talking her through it. He said something like, "Ok Grandma, see this spot right here. Put your fingers in there and rip it". He was doing a great job explaining how to unwrap a package! Most five year old's would just rip it open for her.

• Then it happened; Isaak went over to Great Grandma Kent, and started ripping her package open.
• A two year old isn't quite as informative as a five year old.

Isaak Teaching Great Grandma Kent How to Play

• The boy's love all their grandparents! We're so lucky that they have both sets of grandparents and one set of great grandparents! Not everyone has that.
• Here Isaak is teaching Great Grandma Kent how to play with this toy. 
• Great Grandma Kent has Alzheimer's disease and has forgotten how to do a lot of things. 
• Isaak takes pride in teaching her how play all over again.
• She wanted to play, and could not figure out how to pop the Mickey Mouse characters up. When they did pop up it startled her. She kept trying to play anyhow. We just reassured her that it was ok.
• I do love how the boy's like to include her. They run up and hug her. They play ball with Great Grandpa too.
• Mica called Alzheimer's disease, "Elder's disease".