Bejeweled

It is difficult to think of appropriate gifts for Maggie. She gets a lot of clothes which is great but many styles won't work for Maggie or won't work with her wheelchair. Button down shirts are lovely, but Maggie simply unbottons them so they won't really work for her. She's also very small and it's often hard to find clothes that are not designed for little girls. She did get some more sophisticated clothing for her birthday as well as itunes cards for her favorite music.

This year I tried something new. I saw these bracelets and knew I wanted Maggie to have one. I had to ask the sales lady how to secure it. (Just pull the string) Maggie can wear it without breaking it. She can't get it off and that is just fine with her. She is thrilled to have some jewelry and shows it off proudly.

I think the message is perfect for her. It simply says "TOUGH" and we all know Maggie is as tough as they come.  In fact, I can think of a few other peers of Maggie  who should wear one too. I'm especially thinking of Sophie who has a birthday today. Happy Birthday Sophie!

You won't meet a tougher bunch of kids anywhere.

Hopefully I can get a discount if I buy in bulk.

Now THAT'S a Glamour DON'T

Many years ago I worked with my friend Anna at a law firm. If someone made a fashion faux pas Anna would say under her breath, "Now THAT"S a Glamour Don't!" I would laugh every time. I hadn't thought about that term for a very long time. This may be difficult for some of you to believe, but I am not a regular reader of Glamour Magazine. I don't know if they still have the "Glamour Dont's" section, but boy oh boy, I know one when I see it.

Generally I am a morning person. I get right up and hit the day head on. This does not apply on the morning after daylight savings time starts. As soon as I woke up this morning I joined people all over America (except Arizona) in group denial about the time and grumbled about how dark it was. I thought I had accidentally set the clocks back two hours. Nope. It was really time to get up.

I stumbled downstairs trying to wake up all the way. As soon as I greeted Maggie the sleepiness disappeared. I have seen some strange clothing choices on Maggie and I almost always keep my mouth shut. Not today.

Maggie was already in her chair almost ready to go down to meet the bus. The nurse we have on Sunday night does 90% of the morning madness for me, which is great. Today I had to redo a lot of it.  Maggie was sitting in her chair in THIS jacket and pants combo. Yes, wild geometric black and white print pants with a leopard print jacket and a flag print bandana!


Here's a close up of the bandana in case you can't see it.

I quickly had to assess the rest of the outfit. Maybe I should just not say anything. I wondered what could possibly be under the jacket. I unzipped it a bit and saw a bright floral print shirt. 

Four articles of clothing, four completely and wildly different prints in every conceivable color. I could not ignore or let Maggie go out of the house like this. She looked ridiculous No. this was not going to happen. I don't care HOW dark it is.

When I am dressing Maggie I generally give her a couple of items from which to choose so that she has some control over what she wears. Of course I first make certain that all of the choices work together because people are already staring at Maggie and she doesn't need any additional fodder for the staring. 

I told the nurse this was not OK and that Maggie needs to look at least somewhat "put together" when she leaves. She offered to change her but I said I would do it. As soon as she left I asked Maggie if she wanted to wear things that matched and she pulled her shirt up as if to say, Get this off of me!

We switched the shirt for a solid gray and put on her gray jacket and she was ready to go. I failed to get a picture of the bandana du jour but we went with a lovely green number to offset the look.

It took so much time to change, though. that I didn't have time to dress myself. I met the bus in my bathrobe and clogs. That too is a "glamour don't," but fortunately for me, Maggie can't work the camera on my phone. 

 



   

Wild Wild West

Getting Maggie dressed can be a chore. There is a lot of lifting and straining to get her shirt and pants on. Maggie helps some. She can help pull her arms through the shirt, for example. She can also be a hindrance, though. Maggie find is hilarious to try to rip off her diaper as one tries to get her legs through the pant legs. Preventing that is difficult. I find myself in the most unusual physical positions getting her dressed. I use my elbow and forearm to cover the front of the diaper while leaning my body back toward her upper body to prevent her from falling. All of this while I'm feverishly working to get her legs into the pants. Maggie finds this game to be hilarious. I find it exhausting.

Generally on school days the nurse has her all dressed when I come downstairs at 6:30. I don't argue with that. It makes my life easier and Maggie is half asleep while she's getting dressed, so there are fewer games. That means the nurse chooses what Maggie wears to school. That's also fine with me. If she needs to wear something specifi for some reason, I lay things out the night before. There have been a few "misses" but generally Maggie looks great.

 Etoy, the night nurse here on school nights has good taste and a good sense of style. She also bought many of Maggie's clothes, so she knows what she' wants to put on her. Every time Etoy goes home to Houston she comes back laden down with gifts of clothing for Maggie.   This summer she brought Maggie this pink and red shirt with a large horse head on the front. Etoy calls it Maggie's "Texas" shirt.  Maggie loves this shirt, but I have to say it is a very unusual shirt. .

Yesterday Maggie wore that shirt to school. The teachers were asking Maggie about it and she was proudly pointing to the horse on her shirt. They commented that it is not the type of shirt you seen in San Francisco's Mission District. Mr. David, a very cool guy and one of the aides (paraprofessionals) in the classroom said, "well, wait a minute. I am wearing a horse shirt today too". His shirt was underneath a couple of layers, but when he took those off the tow of them were in matching shirts. Ok, his wasn't pink and red, but it was the very same shirt. Maggie was thrilled.

Of course I didn't know anything about this until I received this picture on my phone.

Maggie looks very pleased, doesn't she. 

Apparently this is QUITE this shirt for San Francisco's hip and happening Mission District and mom i hopelessly out of touch again.  Who knew?

You are not going out like that, young lady

Brrr. It is a cold one here today. I know 38 is not cold for most of you, but for San Francisco that is cold. We just are not set up for it here. For example, the elevator we have for Maggie is outside open to the elements. We would not do that if we lived in an unfriendly climate. This morning I had to skate across the ice on the deck in order to get to the elevator. I wondered how the motor would work in the cold, but that was no problem.

The cold weather also presents some challenges for Maggie’s attire. Maggie is a snappy dresser but keeping her warm is not easy. Because of the trach, she cannot wear a turtleneck, or cover her neck in anyway, but we still need to keep her warm. She does have a cotton scarf (kerchief type) over the trach but it doesn’t really work for warmth. The only thing to do is dress her in layers. Her neck is cold, but she is not outside long.

Recently she received a jacket from her cousin Nina. It has a nice furry hood. That helps but even hoods are short lived. As soon as Maggie turns her head, she is staring at the lining of the jacket. The hood generally does not turn with her because it is held in place by the straps of the chair and the design of the headrest. Hats end up on the ground because Maggie loves to throw them. Gloves? Forget about that. With her cerebral palsy, it is difficult to get them on her fingers because she cannot move her body the way we can. Besides, her CP is just one part of the equation. She finds it hilarious to sit patiently while I work and work to get gloves or mittens on her and then immediately yank them off and throw them.

This morning I came downstairs and the night nurse had her all ready to go. She was in the jacket, all zipped up, and the nurse told me she put two shirts on Maggie. Ok, that is as good a job as we can do for her. I focused solely on warmth of her head and never considered anything else.

I took her down to the bus and the nurse went home. As I tied the scarf around her neck, I unzipped her jacket a bit. Yikes! She did have two shirts on as the nurse said. However, they were two shirts that should not have even been in the drawer at the same time, let alone on Maggie’s body at the same time. The black and gray sophisticated striped sweater/shirt combo was underneath a blue and turquoise summery shirt. She looked ridiculous. There was no time to change because the bus was coming.

The school nurse was there and I said, "I want you to know I did not dress her and please just take off the blue shirt when you get to school." However, there was more. As Maggie rode the lift up to the bus, I noticed her pants were light black cotton pants that hit her about mid-calf. Her bare legs had a nice blue tinge. I looked at the school nurse again and said. "I REALLY did not dress her this morning."

Poor Maggie is off to her inner city high school with freezing cold legs and clashing shirts. The night nurse is of a different culture and perhaps in that culture, this outfit is ok, but not in mine. I felt like a bad mother.

I can fix this. Tonight I think I will lay out the clothes I want Maggie to wear in the morning and I will get up a bit earlier in the morning to do inspection. Of course Maggie will probably start a new trend and I will embarrass her by putting her in matching clothes that actually keep her warm.