Twenty-six thousand dollars worth. Yes. You read that correctly. Thank God for Anthem who foot the entire bill.
This chair does it all.
It tilts.
It raises up to a height that means Tess can be at counter top level with me and "help" with dishes, making cookies, whatever.
It has a remote that can be programmed to work the TV, an iPad, heck even a garage door (if we had one). It sounds ridiculous, I know, considering that she is just learning how to drive the thing and working a remote like that is WAY off in the future, if ever. But hey, go big or go home.
It has a soft fuzzy headrest.
It has her name embroidered on the seat.
It has a parental override control stick (looks like and older game controller) that the boys (read Bobby and Hunter) have decided is great fun as they take Tessie cruising around the house.
It really is a sweet ride. But there is one thing I'm just not happy about.
It's blue.
Sigh.
This is where her therapists (shout out to Kellie and Chelsea) come in. These two ladies actually dared to to tell me that Tess should get to make her own choices when she can and that I need to respect those choices. Well ladies, I hope you're happy with yourselves. You've created a little opinionated monster.
Harrumph.
So, being the most awesome, and totally confident that she would choose the pink or the purple wheelchair, mom that I am, I gave her the colors to pick from and asked her very pointedly,
"Tessie, what color do you want your new wheelchair to be?"
And I might have leaned the pink and the purples a little closer to her hand than the other colors and I may have even made her repeat her choice when she, quite clearly, chose the blue.
"Tessie, are you sure you want the blue one? It's going to be the color on your chair for a VERY long time. Wouldn't you like it in pink? Or how about purple?" And I must confess to really making those colors sound super exciting in the hopes that she would totally see that choosing pink or purple would be just the best choice ever!
No dice.
No, my little diva never once deviated from her choice of blue. No matter how many times I questioned her or moved the colors around, you know, just to be sure; I mean, I wasn't trying to trick her or anything. What would that say about me as a mother if I tried to trick my kid, my disabled kid, into picking what I wanted?! No way would I ever do that to my precious little angel. Okay, maybe I would. Whatever. Regardless, it didn't work. She just wanted blue. My little girl who I adore in all things pink, and up until this point had always, always, always either chosen things in pinks or purples, she chose the blue.
And I knew the right thing to do was totally support her choice, and I did. But I was faking my enthusiasm because mama WANTED THE PINK POWER CHAIR! *stomps foot and shakes fist in the air very dramatically*
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| Tess's sweet ride |
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| look at all that blue |
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| I'll admit that I like her name there |
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| the controllers that the boys just love |
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| Bobby, cruisin' around the house with Tessie |
And all I could think was "Damn that Elsa! It's all her fault!"
I mean, let's face it, Frozen is THE MOVIE for Tessie and she just loves when Elsa is running up the mountain, singing and turning everything she touches a shade of blue ice. Of course Tess would want a blue chair. Just like Elsa...well, you know, if Elsa was disabled and needed a sweet power chair to get herself up that mountain, but then I suppose she can just magically make her own out of ice but it would be awfully cold to sit on (but the cold never bothered her anyway) and.....um, yeah, got a little sidetracked there. Sorry about that. My brain is quite literally Frozen.
Oh well, I suppose I'll get over the fact that Tess has a mind of her own and may not always want what mama wants. Somehow.
But no matter what that brainwashing Elsa says, for now I just can't....
LET IT GO! (you knew I had to say it)
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| Just look at her smug little smirk. She knows what she's done to my formerly pink girl. She knows. |
