No really, this is going to be a positive post! Well, most of it.
Jack got sucked in to the Pokemon craze. I'm not sure exactly when it happened. I know that several neighbor kids are into it, so I think he got exposed and I didn't have time to properly talk him out of it.
I will admit to having bought him some cards. I paid for half of a pack and then made him earn my half by stopping sucking his thumb. Yes, we're still dealing with that and yes, I'm not above bribery.
But mostly he buys his own with the money he earns from his chores. Fine.
He has binders and pocket sleeves and he carries them around with him often. He tries to teach me how to play. I'm hopelessly confused, which I guess is frustrating to him because his Monday Wish the other day (a new tradition in our house) was that Mommy and Daddy would suddenly know how to play Pokemon without him having to explain it anymore.
But it has redeeming qualities. He does lots of math while playing with them. Pokemon is all about how much "damage" each card does to the other one - as in "this card does 180 damage to your card." And while that's a really negative thing to base a game on, and not remotely grammatically correct as a statement, it does make him add and subtract like a mad man.
He also tries to read the cards, which include relatively hard words which he attempts with gusto.
He saves his money to buy more cards and researches which stores sell their packs the cheapest. He's learning valuable money-management lessons, like the now infamous "It is not okay to use daddy's Ebay account to buy ONE Pokemon card for $15." It was a bold move though - you have to give him credit for that.
He also, with absolutely ZERO prompting from us, gave Ryker a huge stack of cards and his very own pocket sleeves. It was the happiest day of Ryker's entire life. They now sit contentedly for MINUTES ON END looking at the cards and rearranging them in the pocket sleeves. They sneak into each other's rooms to sit quietly playing with them.
So it's not all bad.
