The New Toy...

I got a new toy, last night.

Well... I'll rephrase that. My daughter got a new toy. She just doesn't know it yet.

I just needed to set it up first. Make it so it was ready to go. Yes, that's it. Not play with it, simply ensure it's all prepared.

It's her birthday next month, four days before her baby sister's. We've spent a bit of money on her, it has to be said. She loves Monster High dolls, a craze of Mattel where they take a classic horror character, such as Frankenstein's monster, and give him a daughter.

Meet Frankie Stein. Meet her friends, Draculora and Abbie Bominable.

Then meet the endless stream of further dolls and merchandise to go with it. Wii games. Cars. Houses. Magazines and films. My daughter now has twenty one of the dolls. We've bought her the house for her birthday. I don't mind, really. It's better than her being sat in front of the TV or computer. She's using her imagination. And, she was given a doll rather than some form of chocolate egg at Easter - though that did coincide with a treat for being such a good girl.

So, we were spent up. We'd covered everything we wanted to and, hopefully, our back garden will be finished being completely changed around in time for a barbeque party.

But...

I'm not a soft touch, honestly. It's just, well, I didn't have much when I was a child. My parents had little spare money, though that wasn't something I actually suffered from. Not that I have a lot, I just want to give my children something I didn't have. We ensure they're not spoiled. She appreciates what she gets and is thankful of even the smallest treat or gift. There are never any tantrums and she does well at school, is wonderfully polite, and makes us proud.

So. I saw this tablet. As tablets go, it was very cheap. Less than £50. I shouldn't have, but I knew she'd love it. We went to Manchester a couple of weeks ago and, in the car (a two and a half hour drive), she used my own tablet to watch a film and play some games. Granted, mine cost a fair bit more than £50, but, to a ten year old, that's not going to matter.

She has a basic android phone - used to make sure, if she's at a friend’s or out playing, she's always got a line to us. The tablet is also Android, and, for the price, is excellent value.

OK, it came from China and was all in Chinese. Luckily I know my way around the menus to manage to change it to English. Once that was done, it's an impressive piece of kit for the price. 7" capacitive screen, WiFi and the latest version of Android. It's not got a superfast processor (1.2 GHz) and only 512MB of RAM, but this will be ideal for the apps she will be using. And it also has 8 GB of storage, with a slot for a MicroSD card.

(It's a Sensai N77 AllWinner, from Amazon if you're interested.)

I can throw on some films, she can Skype her friends, she can play her games. And she can smile.

Oh, and she loves to write, a little like her dad. The case I bought for it - for a mere £7.50 ish - has a keyboard attached. She's always making up stories (usually about how wonderful her family is - or mermaids...) and likes creating her own newspapers.

I know she'll love it, so I'm not berating myself too much for spending that bit more money when she was already getting a lot for her birthday.

So, last night, I was setting it up. Not having a play, oh no. Purely making sure my daughter's new birthday present it up to scratch and ready for her.

Honest!