Bicycle! Bicycle!

Littletree has been hankering for a new bike for aaaaaaages.

She got her previous (first) bicycle when she was four, and has long since grown out of it. A bigger bike was found second hand at an op-shop, but it needed a lot of fixing and really wasn’t worth the effort. So meanwhile, it’s been months and months since Littletree could go cycling with the other neighbourhood scamps, and I’ve been putting her off, saying “oh, we’ll just get that old bike going” or “we can’t afford a new bike right now, you’ll just have to wait”.

Then last week Littletree and I went for a trip to the city with Lady Demelza in search of a new mini-oven for her and Uncle CJ to have in the flat downstairs, and lo! It turns out that one can just buy brand new, shiny bicycles for only $80 in Kmart.

And I thought – what’s wrong with me that I can’t just buy my kid a bicycle – every kid needs a bike, and all the other kids are out riding. It’s not like she wants an xBox or what-have-you (I’m not entirely sure she knows what an xBox is – come to think of it, I’m a bit hazy on that myself).

So we got a brand new bike. Littletree was so excited. The look on her face totally reminded me of when I got my first new bike for my birthday, I think it was my 10th – a real “grown-up” bicycle, it was purple, with gears and everything!

And as with most cheap things these days, the bike needed to be assembled, but thank the goddess, Uncle CJ brought his tool kit with him (because I don’t happen to own any tools at all any more) and he was handy enough to help Littletree put it all together.

Littletree even got to learn about Allen Keys

And the result:

Awesome!

She’s been out riding around the neighbourhood with her friends almost every day this week!