Dear Iron Man,

My torment continues!  I had to run to the store yesterday, and of course, we headed to the “Man Now Store” (Target.  Walmart is the “Man now and Food Store”).  Dean was so hoping to find the “green Man Now” (Titanium Man) or “bad guy” (Ivan “Whiplash” Vanko)… but it was not to be.  I figured that I might get out of the store without another action figure, but it was not in the cards.  My little boy was just crushed… I think those are the only two action figures we do not have, and seeing a little three year old search for them and not find them is rough.

It is so cute to see him look through the lines of action figures.

“Man Now?  Man Now?”  He would call.

“Mama, no bad guy!”  He told me after we looked through all the stacks.

“I know, baby.  Why don’t we go look at the Lego’s?”  I thought perhaps they would have something that would catch his eye.

Oh, how wrong I was!  Lego’s do not compare to Iron Man.

He found an action figure he already had, but they were on sale, and he was so happy to have it that I just didn’t mind.  We walked into the house, and Roy took one look at it and sighed - though that could be his amazingly painful sinus infection talking.

“You already have this one, buddy.”  Roy told our son, who was pushing him to open his “new” action figure.

“Dada, my Man Now.”  Dean shook the case at his father. Roy’s signal to open it.

Roy smiled and opened the container for Dean.  My little boy was thrilled, even though I think we have two of that action figure already.

If I could just find the green one and Ivan, our collection would be complete!!  I am really tempted to buy him the Iron Man 2 bedding set, but wouldn’t you know… Target didn’t have that one either!

Signed,

Iron Man’s Biggest Fan’s (tired) Mom

(remembered from February 2009)

If you have boys, you might be aware of the lure of action figures. All four of the older boys have, at one time or another, fallen prey to Power Rangers. About four months ago, maybe a bit longer, even our little Dean developed his first “obsession” - Iron Man. We have also seen Transformers, GI Joe, Star Wars, Pokemon, Bakugan, Ben 10, and many others. So, why would it surprise me that there is some toy called “Battletoads?”

Every few weeks, Hayden’s preschool had a fundraiser at Chick-fil-A. The restaurant would donate 10% of your total right to the school. One Wednesday, Hayden came home with a little sticker on his shirt.

“Mommy, I have to go to Chickalay tonight!” Yep! That’s how he said it, and I admit, it was so cute, I have taken to saying it that way as well.

“Really? And why is that?” I asked him.

“Cause my teacher says so.”

“We’ll see.” I responded. It was a rainy day, and before I knew it, it was 6pm. I had nothing pulled out for dinner, and the kids were getting hungry.

“Want to just go to Chickalay?” I asked my husband, who was lying on the couch looking bored.

“If you want to.” He replied. (Why did I KNOW he would say that?)

“Fine!” I turned around and yelled up the stairs, “Kids, let’s go. We’re going to chickalay.”

“Nice!” One said.

“Cool!” Said another.

“Finally, I’m hungry!” This from our oldest, who, if he does not consume at least 15,000 calories a day, is convinced that he is at risk of starvation.

I got the two younger boys dressed, and we all piled into Godzilla (our big, green, 12 passenger van). So, we get to Chickalay and placed our order. While Roy was waiting for our food, I heard my cell phone jingle. I took it out, and saw I had a text message.

“Where are my BBAATTLLEETTOOADSSSSSSS!!!!?????” Because of the poor spelling, it took me a moment to figure out what the hell that final word was.

“What’s a Battletoad?” I was sure it was some new action figure. Little toads that came with outfits - chainmail maybe? Small toads dressed up like ninjas? No wait, that’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Maybe they’re little toads dressed like knights with swords, horses, and a catapult?

Roy and the older boys started to laugh. This only further convinced me I was right. I mean come on! What kind of toy is a toad with a sword and a crown!?

After a moment, Roy stopped laughing and explained to me that “Battletoads” is an old game that came out in the early 90s for the NES. It was supposed to rival the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” According to Wikipedia, it was one of the most graphically advanced games for the NES. Ok, so why was Joey asking me where it is? Did we have this game? I KNOW we didn’t still have the NES. Was I supposed to find an NES and a Battletoads game? Apparently I was taking this all WAY too literally.

I am still not quite sure what the deal is… apparently some kids called up a GameStop asking for this game, and they thought it was so funny that they kept doing it until GameStop got angry and threatened to call the cops on them. Or maybe it’s a YouTube video. I still don’t know. All I am sure of is Battletoads is NOT a new action figure series, and that it is for the NES.

So anyways, as we were driving home from Chickalay, Joey mentioned he wanted the new “Chronicles of Riddick” for the 360. Roy told him that he would buy it for him, if he would run into GameStop and ask if they had Battletoads.

I, of course, thought this was hilarious. As Roy went to turn into the parking lot of the shopping center where GameStop is located, I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t catch my breath. All the kids were laughing, and I think for a moment that if we were better parents, we would not be encouraging our kids to bother hard working sales associates. Joey stopped laughing long enough to tell Roy that he couldn’t do it. He was too embarrassed and giggly.

“I’ll do it!” And Corey jumped out of the van.

“Doesn’t count if you have no proof!” Roy yelled after him, and, of course, I had to jump out of the van to see if Corey really does it.

We ran into the store. Unfortunately, we were laughing too hard to get it out. And since we were (and are) such good customers there, most of the people that work there knew and/or recognized us, so I think our crazy behavior got a pass.

Corey finally got it out, and the young man behind the counter laughed. He told us no, they didn’t have Battletoads, but he was pretty sure that you could download it for the Wii.

“Really? Cool!” Corey got this out and then asked if they had the game that Joey wanted.

It was at this point that I realized I did not have my purse, and since I didn’t think they were going to give us the game, I told Corey we were going to have to come back when I actually had some way of paying for it.

We stumbled out of the store, still laughing like a couple of drunken frat boys, got into the van, and told Roy what happened. He laughed at us and drove home.

Again, I am sure that encouraging my kids to behave in this manner is the mark of an irresponsible mother. Okay, maybe not irresponsible, but certainly childish. On the other hand, those few minutes of silliness gave us all something to laugh about. Something we still laugh about today, and it created a little inside family joke that we can joke about for years to come! I do want to add that I would not advocate them making prank phone calls and actually bothering the young men that work at the store, nor would I have done this if we didn’t know the people working there. As I mentioned before, we are in there often - trading games, buying games, or just asking questions - so they know us and know that we were just joking and meant no harm or offense.

I think that certain obsessions can be healthy. As long as you aren’t peeping in someone’s bathroom, or incessantly stalking someone on Myspace or Facebook, obsessions are a part of life.

I will start with my husband. Over the course of our marriage, he has gone through phases. For awhile it was some online game called Counterstrike. He would play into the wee hours of the night with his friends, then he would go to work the next day with those same friends and I am guessing they would talk about the game they played the night before. I married a geek, what can I say? I often tease my husband that if he wasn’t so good looking, he would fall into the whole “Revenge of the Nerds” persona. On the other hand, he was young when we married, only 22, so perhaps I am lucky that he was only into video games. I have one girlfriend who married soon out of high school, and her husband was into cocaine and strippers. Guess who is still married? (Not her!)

There was a (very) short foray into oil painting. I think he only did two paintings, but we spent a few hundred dollars, so if he had wanted to do more we certainly had the supplies (still have them too, did I mention Roy likes to keep things… EVERYTHING!) After his painting, he took a break from his “hobbies” (that is what I call all our little obsessions). I was pregnant with Hayden, and we were getting ready to move, so no big deal. Well, then we moved and it took us some time to get the house in order. (If I am being honest, it still needs some work.) So again, Roy’s hobbies fell to the back burner.

Then in 2005, he decided to get a fish tank. Ok, whatever… the kids will like it, and I read somewhere that people that watched fish for even just a few minutes a day reported lower stress levels. And trust me, my stress levels are probably off the charts. We started with a little 10 gallon tank. It was cute, but I knew it wouldn’t last long. That tank developed into a 44 gallon tank. I liked this one… it was sort of an elongated cube, with a cool stand… but, alas, that still wasn’t enough. So, Roy decides to upgrade to a 75 gallon tank. It came with a perfectly good stand, but he found plans and built his own… this HUGE monstrosity, that once finished was great looking, but moving it into the house was hell. It took Roy, Corey and I 30 minutes of grunting, groaning, pushing and pulling. I am pretty sure the reason my back hurts every morning is because of this little endeavor. So anyways, that worked for awhile, but he soon got restless. He began changing up the configurations of junk in the tank… we had pebbles, sand, black sand. Plants and little ornaments, no plant and no ornaments. You name it, we had it. And we had my two fish… Oscar and Omar. We got them as babies, and they grew into monsters, but Roy was still bored. So, he decides to “upgrade” (I say it like that because all it means to me is more expensive and less hearty) to a saltwater tank. Again, we started with a little 10 gallon… and knowing my husband, I knew this would be a short lived endeavor.

“I think I want a biocube.” He says to me one day while I am cooking dinner.

It sounded expensive and time consuming to me, “Ok… what’s that?”

“It’s a fish tank. I think I want the 29 gallon one.”

“I assume this is for saltwater stuff, right?” I asked, and to my credit I made a valiant effort NOT to roll my eyes.

“Yeah. It’s cool, it has pretty much…”

“HOW MUCH?” I interrupted him and did my best imitation of Bill Cosby.

“It isn’t too bad. I mean, we’ll save a lot of money.”

“HOW MUCH?” I asked again.

Again, Roy tried to justify his desire, and again I cut him off. I just want to know how much the thing is, so I can budget for it. I don’t care what color it is, or what it looks like. How much is the damn thing?

“It’s about $350.” He finally answered.

“Fine, whatever.”

He looked at me and walked away. I adore my husband, but from what I read, saltwater means twice as much work, money, and the stuff seems to die A LOT quicker. But I want him to be happy. A few weeks later, he got his Biocube, and I got some fish. He is very sweet about it all, letting me pick out fish or coral. Right now, I have a little skunk shrimp named Pepe, and we have two clown fish that I have yet to name. I don’t like getting too attached to the clown fish as we have already lost 6 of them. The Biocube is nice… but, alas, it still wasn’t enough. He took $150 and bought another tank from some guy. A good deal, or so he says, but anyways… it sat in the garage for awhile, and at one point, he even put it out at one of my annual yard sales. It didn’t sell, and he decided to give it a shot and set it up. He did some touching up on the stand, built a hood for it, and it now sits in our family room. I admit it is beautiful. Roy bought an anemone, and I love it. It sits in one corner of the tank, the tentacles just flowing in the slight current, and the clown fish swimming in and out. There are some other corals and fish in there, but I usually watch Pepe (yep, he is still swimming around almost three years later!) and the anemone. All in all, we have spent thousands of dollars and many hours on his fish tanks. Now, he justifies that by telling me that some of the people on this forum he participates in spend upwards of 10k on their tanks. Which is awesome for them, but I don’t live with those people, so why would I care what they do with their fish? Now, you might think I am bitter about this, that I am not a fish person. Not the case. As long as we have the money, no problem. But I have to tell you… fish stores are BORING.

Each of the boys has their own little “thing” as well. In the past, we have seen Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, Bakugan, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh… you name it, we’ve seen it.

Right now, Corey is probably obsessed with Glee and Pink. No, not the color, the singer. She rocks though, so I’m cool with that. Glee is hilarious, so again, cool with that.

For Joe, it’s his Xbox and World War II. He has read countless books on WWII, watched movies, looked at websites, but it’s educational so I’m not complaining. His video games are another story. He saved his money and bought the Xbox on his own, with the understanding that if grades fall, I will still take it away. There was a bit of an issue at the end of last year, but after a stern talking to and stricter limits set and enforced, I think he got back on track. He earned some money and recently bought StarCraft 2, apparently it’s the coolest thing ever, so we’ll see how long that lasts.

Addi is very much like Joe. He loves video games, and Counterstrike is “the thing” for him right now. Addi gets over stimulated easily, so we have to really watch him when he plays certain games, and depending on his mood, there are times we don’t even let him play at all. It’s just too much for him, but that is the nature of ADHD. Children with ADHD can have trouble focusing, but if they are interested in the topic, they can become obsessive. I will say he is getting better at understanding the limits we try to set, and though he gets upset when we say no, it is a learning process for him, and he is slowly learning.

Hayden flips and flops with his little obsessions. Right now, it’s probably going outside to play with his friends, so I won’t complain. He has a number of little friends in the neighborhood. Right on our block there are probably eight or nine little boys that all play together in some form or fashion. He has a “best” friend that he plays with almost daily, and the boy and his little sister are sweethearts. They live with their mom and grandparents, and they are also so nice. I love that he comes over to our house, sits on our couch, eats with us, and just hangs out. But Hayden also goes through toy obsessions as well. I would say right now his thing are Lego Bionicles. He LOVES them! The only issue is putting them together can be challenging, so he spends time yelling for his brothers, his dad, or, in a pinch, me to help him… PLEASE!

And then we have our baby, little Dean and Iron Man. To be honest, I’m not sure how it got started. I think it was a rainy afternoon, and the boys decided to watch “Iron Man” on Blu-Ray. Ever since then Dean has been all about “Man, Now.” He prefers to only wear Iron Man clothing, and that includes pajamas. He knows exactly where Walmart and Target have their Iron Man toys, and I admit it’s so cute to watch that we occasionally indulge him. I think we have every Iron Man action figure at this point.

I have my own thing as well - and my tastes change and evolve. Right now, I play a game called Farm Frenzy. It’s silly, and really has no point, but I like it, and it helps me relax… except for that one friggin’ level that I can’t get a Silver Star on, no matter how many times I try, how many tricks I use, or what strategy I take. Never mind, I guess it isn’t relaxing… but it’s a lot of fun!

The point is we all have our hobbies - some are expensive, some are cheap, some are educational, some aren’t - but we try to look for something positive in regards to these little obsessions the kids (and Roy and I) garner.