Boys and their Toys

Okay, so I admit it was me that started the ball rolling on the early Christmas present stuff with my very comfy purple shoes. And then on the weekend we had our Mothers' Group Christmas party...

...where of course the boys each received some early cheer. Climber is pictured here with a book that folds out into a castle...

...whilst here you see Cherub proudly displaying his goodies:

... a "Cool Tie" (made by my talented friend Jenny, it has silicon beads in the middle section which, when you soak it in cool water, swell up and retain the moisture so your neck stays cool for hours; Climber had one so Cherub wanted one too) and a Pengie (both my kids have a penguin obsession which predates Happy Feet. Go on watch the clip, it's very cute and only takes a minute...)



But Fixit has gone and trumped us all with his early Christmas present to himself. Oh yes. Guess what he bought? Go on....




..have a guess.






Here's a clue.

Yep. It's a new bike.

I should probably say straight off that I am fine with him having a new bike. He's been talking all year about fixing up and selling the old ones so that he can buy one. And he's my love, you know, I want him to have things that make him happy. I even understand why he rushed the purchase through and brought it home in the worst financial month of the year:- because he has a bike ride planned straight after Christmas and I totally see that anyone would want the shiny new bike for that. I'm pleased for him and I really love seeing how happy and excited he is, like say when he mentions nonchalantly that he really ought to ride it in to work this morning instead of the pushbike because the new tires need scrubbing in.

But, umm.. now we have three. Three motorbikes, people. And I'm pretty sure that makes us bogans, seeing as how we now have an equal ratio of persons to automobiles in our house. *Sigh* I don't want to be a bogan, I'm so rude about them all the time.

And I wasn't aware till after the bike was all but home that we were getting a loan to pay for it; I just assumed it was coming out of some payouts Fixit had earlier in the year that had actually already been spent on boring things like dentistry and other crap. Never assume people, it makes an ass of u + me. It has all really made me see that Fixit and I don't discuss money very much. Which, you know, maybe we should. Because on the one hand, there's me trying not to overspend at Christmas time, meantime whoopee!! New Shiny Bike!!

He has promised to spend January fixing up the other 2 for sale, and really the main reason he hasn't already done that is that large amounts of his spare time get taken up with being a functioning, contributing member of our household, with dish-washing and lawn-mowing and child-minding the boys while I'm out teaching and actually hanging out with us at weekends and stuff. And I can see that he feels a bit guilty about it so in no sense do I want to beat him over the head. BUT..... the minute he sells two-thirds of our massive bike collection he and I will be going to Ikea to get the long-promised new couch! So that we can finally replace Nell's-Ex's-Nan's-Couch which, for an object that was designed to be comfortable to sit on, is ridiculously UN-comfortable to sit on. Ask Crafty, she's sat on it, she'll back me up on this.

'Til then, folks, I will be dressing up in sparkly purple minidresses, wearing makeup and ladyshoes, as I fight the pink corner in this wheel-obsessed household. I doubt the Honda Hornet will be only boys' toy arriving in our household over the festive season somehow. Sometimes its tough being the only girl.