Those were the famous last words by a talented balloon artist."It's a dialga." whispered my son, when the woman behind us at Chevy's asked what the balloon guy was making. Much like the ploy of speaking louder to someone who doesn't speak the same language, my shy son thinks if he whispers strangers will not actually see him so he's free to talk.
For those who don't have a boy between the ages of 5 and 9, a diagra is a Pokemon.
A little background first...My kids actually got excited the other day when I asked if they wanted to go to dinner. They are normally quite the homebodies unless they are going to a friend's house, but after the call by dad saying he would be home quite late, I decided to take us all out. My son touted the tortillas when he request Chevy's, but he was really just remembering the balloon guy. He gets to choose since his younger brother never actually eats anything.
Now, this post was originally going to be about what the heck you are supposed to tip this guy, he who wanders around Chevy's where parent's are unable to resist the call of the balloon animal for their little ones. I was the only parent in there who subtly shooed the guy away on his first round, but just could not keep it up when the table next to were having their airplanes made.
I want a Raichu, says Donovan. "I only know what Pikachu looks like," says balloon man. "Well, Raichu is just an orange Pikachu, isn't that right?" I ask my son. Yep. He whips that one out, no problem.
"Uh, I want a sword," was Keegan's request.
"Are you sure?" I totally stupidly ask. "Last time you didn't get a Pokemon and you really wanted one." I don't know why I said this...this did happen last time, but he was slightly bothered, but is not this kid who would cry until he got what he wanted. He moved on.
"Okay, then, I want a chagwrh [okay, I have no idea what he said]," was his response.
The balloon guy reminds us, he only knows what a Pikachu looks like, but if he had a picture. One again, mom stupidly comes to the rescue and whips out the Pokemon handbook. I just happened to have in my bag, along with 2 race cars, a platic dinosaur and a pair of boy's underweear. I swear I hadn't even had the margarita I was craving. So he rifles through the book, explaining the Pokemon he wanted isn't actually in the book. I recommend he pick something simple, and continually ask "are you sure?" to the guy. But I was also totally enjoying this for some reason, what would happen? Here's what he picked.
I recommended he just make a light and dark blue Pikachu - "really, they aren't very picky kids" I assured him. But after quite a long and intricate twist-fest, he produced this masterpiece, apologizing that it was not an exact match - are you kidding me? I was truly amazed.
And of course rather than avoiding the whole tipping issue, I felt compelled to give quite the hefty tip for this masterful effort.
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