Pokemon or The Making of an Addict

It's been months now, about 7 months since my children have become enamored with Pokemon.  It all started at after school, when a friend of Kuba's generously gave him one Pokemon card. One.  
Just one card.

Perhaps a week after that, he got a few more handed to him.   I can't even remember the character names on the cards, but I do remember how excited Kuba was.  His excitement jumped from him to his brother, like a flea leaps to another warm body. Later that week that same generous friend (we'll call him the dealer) handed out even more of his cards - and the boys left that day with big grins on their faces and two hands clutching a dozen cards or so. Health. Damage.  The new vocabulary of Pokeman.

Not long after this, the boys begged us to take them to our neighborhood drug store, because the aforementioned dealer (ahem, friend) told them this is where he got his Pokemon stash. So we did. We willingly stepped over the threshold and into unchartered territory.

This new world belongs to playing cards with pictures of fictional creatures named Pikachu, Vanillite, Torchic, and Combee, who have a certain amount of health and can do damage to the health of other Pokemon when they battle.  To us, who are unfamiliar with the language, it's hard to understand, but it is all totally sensible to the boys and their friends.  They love to read the cards, trade the cards, compare the cards, sort the cards, drool over the cards, and build their desire for more- more- even more rectangular cards with pictures of the weirdest, cutest? little creatures ever.  

The spin out of control order went something like this:

1 Pokemon card
a few Pokemon cars 
12 Pokemon cards
a deck of Pokemon cards
a second deck
a box to keep them in
searching for more and cheaper Pokemon - even free Pokemon from neighbors
buying decks on ebay (with allowance $) 
needing a binder and clear plastic card sorting pages to keep them in (with allowance $) 
sorting them by color, theme, and stage
learning new words - like Basic, Stage 1 and Stage 2
buying a Pokemon handbook  at Barnes and Noble
(with allowance $)
getting a second book (with allowance $) 
getting a deluxe Pokemon handbook as a birthday gift from a fellow addict 
discovering Pokemon shows on Netflix
needing to watch them - in order, one show at a time
inventing a Pokemon sighting game and playing it with each other nonstop
acting out Pokemon
making lists of the Pokemon each boy "spotted" and acquired in the aforementioned invented and imaginative game
the Easter bunny steps in & gifts the boys a stuffed Pokemon each - Pikachu and Torchic and about 100 tiny Pokemon figures
renewed enthusiasm for Pokemon
an expanded Family meeting that now involves giving and getting appreciations for/from Pikachu and Torchic

This brings us to the current day.  With about 200 Pokemon cards, assorted teeny tiny plastic Pokemon, two plush Pokemon stuffies - oh, and two adorable Pokemon junkies.  



I can't wait to see what the future holds.