It's Gonna Be a Pokemon Birthday

For reasons beyond my comprehension and I would imagine any rational thinker's comprehension, Cal is crazy interested in and borderline obsessed with all things related to Pokemon trading cards.  Why this one stuck and collecting and trading baseball cards (actually, stickers) didn't stick is beyond me -- he started doing them at essentially the same time, yet his collection of Pokemon cards is far more impressive than that of his baseball cards.

I'd include the names of some of the Pokemon characters that he's told me about in this post if I could -- I either can't spell them, didn't really understand his pronunciation of them or, to be honest, just wasn't listening when he was talking to me about it a time or two... or ten.  Pikachu and Mega Charizard EX are the only two that come to mind -- the former I had to Google to know how to spell, and the latter I only know how to spell because I asked him how to spell it once after hearing him talk about it fifty times.

From one day to the next, the set of cards with which Cal leaves the house in the morning isn't entirely the same as the set with which he returns later that day, having made some big trades with his classmates at some point during the day.  And sometimes it's literally been a "big trade" -- a time or two, he returned with a giant-sized Pokemon card, a big score in his eyes... at the time, anyway, as a few days later he had traded the giant-sized card for a regular-sized one or more, most likely getting some "Mega"-prefixed one or an "EX"-suffixed one, which are apparently the "stronger" cards of the Pokemon variety.

Not only does he like to have the cards, but he also likes to just look at endless pictures of the cards, spending most, if not all, of his allotted computer time Googling "Pokemon cards".  How.  Exciting.

For a couple of months now, Cal has been counting down to his birthday, I suspect less about the prospect of turning 7 and more about the prospect of getting more Pokemon cards.  He's written a few wish lists and has been verbally expressing near daily reminders that he wants more... MORE... MORE... Pokemon cards for his birthday, which will officially be here on December 10th.

The first hand-written birthday wish list that I can recall actually had on it something to the effect of "1. that Pokemon set that I almost bought at Target but bought the other one instead," as if I have a chance of remembering what that was.  His latest list is very detailed and quite compelling, leaving ZERO possibility that he won't get this for his birthday:

Cal's Latest Birthday Wish List

He gave me this on Monday.  Initially, he gave me two options to select, "Yes I will do it" and "No I will not."  It wasn't until I suggested that there was a third option, a Maybe option so as not to spoil any surprise, that he added the "I might do it!" option, which was the one I selected by circling it.

So while I don't and never will fully understand the allure of the Pokemon card collecting hobby, I do enjoy Cal's genuine excitement and passion for it.  How can I not support and encourage him to go bigger in this world of Pokemon?  Sure, I told him he needed to add a "Maybe" to the options for me to consider on his birthday wish list; but mentally, I've already circled "Yes I will do it."