"What do the kids want for Christmas?" my mom asked last week, twice.
I expect the next time the phone rings, the question will be the same. I have been putting her off, because I really don't know.
Katrina is nine, Spencer is six. Katrina is still a girl, not an evil pre-teen yet, although I suspect how long that will last will be measured in days, if not hours. She doesn't like Barbies anymore (which had been a safe bet for several years), but likes Monster High, the ghoulish equivalent to Barbies, with impossibly long legs and permanent Halloween costumes.
She keeps asking me when she can have a garage sale to sell off her old toys. I try to explain to her that she would get next to nothing for them, and I really don't want to host a garage sale. "I'm saving money for an iPad," she said.
I offered to pay her for sanding frames I am making for fine-art canvas wrap pictures. I'd pay her one dollar per piece, which is actually quite good, since she could probably do 20 in a couple of hours. So far she hasn't made the connection that she could then put that towards her iPad fund. She finished eight.
As for Spencer, his favourite thing in the world right now is the old laptop I bought on a Boxing Day sale six or seven years ago that he uses to play games on PBSkids.org and CBC Kids. He's also discovered how to find cartoons on YouTube, and even how to bookmark them. I suspect he's going to be the hacker of the family.
Katrina has the desk beside him in the family room with Michelle's old desktop computer on it. Her favourite activity is playing Michelle's old Sims 2 games. She also uses it for homework, and has just started to do typing exercises.
If and when they get bored with the computers, they play with the enormous collection of Lego acquired since I was five. Katrina builds houses, just like on The Sims, which has me thinking she has a future in architecture. Spencer's constructions are much more fanciful spaceships.
Between the computers, Legos and now two-year-old iPods, they hardly touch anything else.
When it comes to Lego, Katrina has become greatly enamoured with the new line of Lego Friends, the girl-focused line. It has more girlie colours - pinks and purples that I never, ever saw in my 33 years of collecting Lego. The mini-figures are totally different. They're skinny and more feminine.
Lego Friends has caused a huge surge in sales for the company, and I can see why. Despite enough conventional Lego to cover a pool table four inches deep, Katrina is much more inclined to play with the "girl Lego."
On the radio the other day they brought on an expert regarding this and the "pink aisle." Some people get their noses out of joint due to the gender distinctions in toys.
For Katrina, she had some interest in Lego before, but it really took off with the Friends line. I never, ever told her old style Lego was boy Lego. She never said that either, until just recently. She just likes girl Lego.
Frankly, I don't care. As long as something got her interested in the best toy made, I'm happy.
So I think I will tell Mom that she can't go wrong with Lego. Just be sure to get the Lego Friends for Katrina and Lego Star Wars for Spencer.
At Christmas I like to spend a day or two building with the kids. Katrina's already asking me if we can do that again. I told her we're building a drilling rig. Maybe it will have the Friends in the doghouse and on the drilling floor.
- Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected].
