The Big Gift

Gift giving is a constant in the Christmas tradition. Each family approaches it differently, but the result is the same. You give and get presents.

In years past we haven't really thought about what to give Fuller for Christmas. Yeah, we give him a gift or two, but since there are so many other people around who love giving him gifts, we let them and we spend the money on things like food, electricity, and clothing.

But something changed this year and suddenly we found we wanted Fuller to have a specific something. Damon first brought up the idea of the Smart Cycle in September and I immediately said, "No. We have no room for it!" Damon talked about the other aspects- the video game merged with exercise- and ignored the bigness of it.

Then one day I saw it online, in action. And I wondered if we could store it under the craft cabinet (incentive for D to finish the craft cabinet too). Then I saw it in action at a Wal-Mart and thought, "We could store it behind the chair bed."

And I was sold.

We talked about it some more, decided the price had dropped enough to eat into our pizza budget, and I said I would get it.

Yesterday, after some searching, I had the Smart Cycle in the trunk of my car. I had purchased it in front of Fuller, so he knew there was a "bike game" in the car. (There's a small milestone- I can no longer purchase Fuller's gifts in front of him.)

As soon as Damon came home, Fuller asked about the "bike game" and I let Damon decide if Fuller would have to wait. We had already decided the Smart Cycle wouldn't make the trip to Ohio and back, so the gift had to be given sometime soon. And since Damon wanted to play with it too, he went ahead and set it up.

Fuller sat patiently on the couch for about 30 minutes while Damon screwed the pieces together. We took the opportunity to explain Christmas and gifts and the True Gift, but it is possible Fuller only had visions of ABCs in his head. When the Fisher Price logo came on the TV, Fuller giggled and trembled with excitement. And he was in seventh heaven when he finally got to sit on the seat and start peddling.

I prefer to not think of it as dumbed down exercise equipment, but I know it really does get the kid moving. The Smart Cycle requires peddling for the games to work. If he doesn't keep moving, the game just sits there. Fuller quickly understood the objects of the different games, from running over the alphabet letters in a certain order or getting a frog to grab letters to spell certain words. There is one racing game, just for timing purposes, and he really like that so far. In twenty four hours he has really grasped the different purposes of the "bike game."

I see many lessons in moderation and patience (plus some leverage for discipline) in our future, but for now, I love seeing how excited he is to play his "bike game." I can't imagine giving it to him on Christmas morning would have been any more exciting.