Daddy's Tender Heart (or how I was conned into buying a purple bike)

For Kathleen's fifth birthday, we're giving her a bike.  She has asked for various and sundry things (including a horse and carriage), but she's getting a bike.  Whenever the children start asking about various things they want for birthdays, I always remind them that although they are free to ask for whatever they want, Brandon and I are the ones giving the gifts, and so we will choose what we're giving them.  I'll be interested to see how long that explanation can hold up.

When Kathleen got a tricycle for Christmas several years ago, I found the most solid, gender neutral one possible because in this family almost everything gets passed down.  And in fairly quick order.  Just the other day, the girls were talking about passing down their blankets.  I assured them that blankets are personal possessions and so are kept.

So when I started looking for a bicycle, I looked for a nice, solid, gender-neutral one.  And I found that toddler bikes don't come gender-neutral.  They either have streamers and unicorns or man-eating trucks on them.  Eventually, after searching and searching I found these ones:

Of course, they were the most expensive bikes I could find, but they were nice, solid, gender-neutral bikes, acceptable to both girls and boys.  They blue one even looked a little girly, and I worried that Brandon wouldn't approve.  When I showed him the blue bike, he took one glance and snorted 'That's a boys' bike.'  So I showed him the next one, 'Boys' bike too,' he announced.

I explained to him all of my reasoning, my desire to be economical with our money (which always plays well with him), how I didn't think our boy(hopefully -s) would want to ride a pink bike with streamers.  To which he only replied, 'I rode a girls' bike and that didn't hurt me a bit.  And they have lower bars which help in a fall.'  

After some wrangling, he threw up his hands and announced that I could do what I like.  So I got to work scouring the internet for a good deal on the bike.  After a few websites, I stumbled on this bike:

I showed it to Brandon.  He approved, and then thanked me for deferring to his preference.

And that's how I found myself calling a bike shop in Raleigh, asking about having them hold that purple bike until we come in August.  I guess the boy (-s) will have to deal.