It’s started! She often announces, “me like it” when she sees things that please her in shops, or when we’re playing with friends. Somehow though, until now, she’s not made the association between asking for something, a shop, the act of buying and it being her.
Until now.
Her friend has one with Hello Kitty on it, which makes her mother and I laugh as they are a vintage family, very free of any kind of branding, another friend has a sturdy boy style one, and the children we see in the park have them, with bright orange wheels and shiny handlebars. She looked on with a look of yearning last week, managed to persuade one of the little boys to let her have a turn and beamed proudly as she flew along the path. When it was time to leave she got a little upset, “Me want one, please Mummy please”.
Then it happened, we were in town, walking along and all of a sudden she said, “Mummy carry me”, I bent down and picked her up. She kissed me and said, “love you Mummy”. “I love you too “, I replied, she kissed me again and then beamed, “We go to shop and Mummy buy me scooter? Please Mummy? OK”. I was a little taken aback and said vaguely, “maybe one day”. Which met a stern response, “No Mummy, now, need scooter, need one now. OK?”
I managed to distract her with counting apples on the market stall and we headed home. She had a snooze and I checked my emails. There it was, an email asking me to do a product review, I get them from time to time and haven’t ever done one because the products never seem to be quite right. This time however, there it was, a scooter … and not just any scooter one with Minnie Mouse on it.
Now, I’m not a brand person either, but I was given a stuffed Minnie Mouse at the BritMumsLive conference a few years back by Disney, one of their sponsors. I put it in the bottom of the toy box and forgot about it. Of course Hope found it and Minnie has long been one of our bedtime companions, so the idea of a scooter and her favorite cartoon character combined was too good an opportunity to miss.
I didn’t tell her it was coming.
It arrived today.
We’d already had a busy morning paddling in the sunshine and she was sleepy, but she spotted the big plastic bag it came in (efficient home delivery service), “What dat Mummy?”
We opened it up, and she saw the huge pink box and the pictures. “Mummy, it’s Minnie, Minnie in the box”.
Minnie Mouse Move n Groove Scooter box
I sat her down at the table and went and got her lunch, and told her that the contents of the pink box were mine until she finished her lunch, she has never eaten avocado, ham and beetroot so quickly, “yummy lunch Mummy, have present now?”
By then I had removed the instructions and the handlebar, “ooooooh”, she said, “pretty”, and promptly started to try to peel off the flower sticker that was on the end of the handlebar.
She then said, “Open it Mummy” and asked me to take off the plastic strip with flowers on it on the stem (wrong word probably) of the handles … it took me a moment to realize it wasn’t tight packaging but actually the decoration, I’m not convinced it will last long as there is an edge which looks invitingly pullable, but she enjoyed counting the flowers while I foraged in the box.
open it open it
sticker looks a bit too easy to peel off
easy to assemble
As it turned out I didn’t need the instructions, there are only two pieces to her new Minnie Mouse Move n Groove Scooter, and they fit together in a really easy insert and click kind of way, and once together the scooter seems very robust.
It was at that point she clicked it really was a scooter, that the scooty party was covered in pictures of Minnie Mouse, and that it really was for her; she was delighted.
“Mine scooter, mine Mummy, not yours, mine.”, she turned to her Grandmother, ” Got a scooter, mine, Mummy gave me scooter”, and attempted to scoot on the gravel. That didn’t work well so she picked it up, it is almost as tall as she is, and carried it very painstakingly into the garden (it is robust and light weight which will be a Godsend when it comes to trips to the park which is a short walk away) … again not the best place to scoot, but she insisted and wouldn’t let go of it. She managed to scoot a little way, testament to the sturdy design and free spinning wheels, and then picked it up again. We headed round to a flatter surface and she gleefully scooted off. “Watch this Mummy, WHEEEEEEEEEEE”.
all ready to go
We spent the next half hour playing with her new favorite possession and then she declared herself to be “me ‘sausted Mummy, my sleepy” … and now she’s having a snooze.
The scooter has a clever tilt mechanism which turns the wheels, she’s probably a little small for that (the scooter is designed for small folk of 3 and upwards) but she was delighted to watch while I did it and then climbed on and tried to tilt and turn herself.
We will give it a good run tomorrow in the park, and she can whizz along like her friends there.
So there you have it, a pink scooter covered in flowers and pictures of Micky’s friend has made a small person very happy. The scooter sells online at AsdaDirect at £25 which I think is a bargainous price for something that will give her lots of enjoyment (albeit without the stickers which she has now already tried to peel off), and also the skills and confidence to graduate, in time, to an inline two wheeled one.
I’m going to have to buy a pair of running shoes to keep up!
and she’s off …
