Nothing Beats A Quickie!

The Things We do for Our Children When They Do Not Even Realize...

Ailsa loves dressing like "twinsies" with Zoe.  She loves to have Zoe wear the same colours as she is wearing.  And sometimes, she wants Gavin or I to do the same.  This morning Ailsa asked me to wear my yellow T-shirt when dropping her off at school.  Ailsa was dressed in black leggings and a yellow/ orange/ multi coloured shirt.  The only black leggings I have are fleece.  I usually wear them under pants in winter but ok, sure why not.  As for shirts- I only have one yellow shirt.  This particular shirt just happens to say,

"Nothing Beats A Quickie"

Nothing beats a what?  Why would I have a shirt like this?  Well, Quickie just happens to be the name of Zoe's wheelchair.  Hers is actually labeled as a Zippy.  I guess the smaller chairs just didn't seem right with Quickie written on it so they changed the smaller chairs to "Zippy" instead.  Two years ago at Easter Seals Mom's Camp (an amazing weekend away for moms who have children with physical disabilities) I was given this brightly coloured shirt.  Of course, they only had extra-small size by the time I pulled up to camp late.  So I have a very small, tight fitting, bright yellow T-shirt that says, "Nothing Beats a Quickie."  And this happens to be written in large, bold letters across my chest.  This is the shirt Ailsa would like me to wear while bringing her to school.

Why not?  I'll grab my light jacket and put it on top.  No problem, right?

No problem, except school is 1km (2/3 of a mile) away and I am sweaty by the time I jogged to school pushing Ailsa in the stroller the whole way while she read me her homework book (yes, I am teaching awesome homework habits already!)

I kept the jacket on while in the school yard.  Despite the sweat running down my back, I kept that jacket on.  I did not think typical parents would understand the joke on my shirt.  And I was pretty sure the moms would not appreciate me "flaunting myself."  So there I was, sweating and smiling and waiting for that damn bell to ring.

On the way home, I strip off the jacket.

So there I am, in tight fleece leggings and a very snug small T-shirt.  I've put on five pounds since I had a medical procedure in February.  Five pounds is not a lot of weight but after spending over a year working really hard to lose 35 pounds and finally, finally, finally being at the weight I felt comfortable at, putting on 5 pounds suddenly makes me slightly self-conscious.  And so, even if the yellow shirt did not proclaim to all the world that I love quickies, I would not walk around my neighbourhood in tight pants with an even tighter bright yellow T-shirt!

On the positive side, there were some young men doing construction in the street and one stopped, smiled and gave me a thumbs up as I passed.  So I can only assume he must know someone who also has a Quickie chair and understood my joke...