All is not lost in the humorous moments with Marion! In the little over a month Mom has been living with us, she has developed some curious new patterns mixed with some old ones, as Mom makes her way in this new life.

It seems poor Timmy still has the bed time identity issue, where Mom cannot correctly recognize him as being a dog. Because he burrows under her bed covers at night to sleep, Mom can feel him but not see him lying next to her.  So at least three nights this month, Mom has quietly tiptoed into our room to ask us to come help her with the Baby Boy she has lying in her bed.

The first night she came in with a big smile on her face asking me to come help her with Baby Pat. Mom said “I am not used to sleeping with him next to me and I am afraid I will roll over and squish him!” My response was to go uncover the offending, and offended, dog and show Mom it was Timmy. She laughed and thanked me, a bit relieved she could relax back under her covers and everyone was back to sleep.

Baby Pat appeared a second night, with the same result, and again relief that it was her dog and not her child buried under the covers. Last night the Baby appeared again but this time without her identifying who she thought it might be.

Being Christmas night I could have made mischief with the coincidence of this child who appeared from nowhere on that very night, but of course that would most assuredly guaranteed me coal in my stocking next year! So I walked Mom back to her room to show her that it was her dog Timmy and not a baby boy under her covers.

But this time Mom was not buying my assurances even after I uncovered her dog to prove it was Timmy.  She looked at me and said “Well OK but he can’t stay under those covers like that he might die!” I laughed and assured her the dog liked being snuggled under the blankets because it kept him warm. I threw the covers back over top of Timmy to prove my point.

As he lay there motionless Mom looked at me suspiciously and said “Are you sure he is OK?” This time I took the dog out from the covers, put him at the top of the blanket and as if on cue, Timmy crawled back under the covers toward the bottom of the bed (Clearly he was tiring of this conversation more quickly than I was).

I pointed to the motionless lump at the bottom of the bed and exclaimed, “See, he likes it!” Mom looked  unconvinced but acquiesced and climbed back into bed with her dog warm at her feet. But I heard her say as I walked out the door “If he suffocates under there you are in big trouble tomorrow!” I laughed and told her Merry Christmas and said good night. And poor Baby Boy was finally allowed to sleep all snug in his bed!