An Idea Man

BeeMan has the BEST ideas. He always knows what presents he wants for Christmas and his birthday. He knows what he wants to buy other people. He knows what kind of party he wants and where and who he wants to invite.

He just never tells us any of this.

His birthday is coming up in a few weeks and we haven't made any plans yet. There are just too many people and too many things to do around here. Well. WE haven't. HE has. In the car after school recently he said he was inviting Calvin to his Chuck E Cheese party.

"Really?" I said. I hadn't heard him utter the words Chuck and Cheese in the same sentence in at least a year. "Did you talk to Dad about a Chuck E Cheese party?"

"No" he said in a slightly annoyed and confused voice. Why talk to Dad about it? It was HIS party. He didn't need DAD'S input.

"We're going to Chuck E Cheeses then coming back to our house to eat Transformer cake."

"Transformer cake?"

"Yeah. They have Transformer cakes at Wal-Mart."

OK. I hope he's right because I can't make a Transformer cake. No matter where we ended up having it or what kind of cake we had, I figured I better find out who else he wanted to invite. It is his first year at school and thus has a plethora of kids to choose from so I asked who else he was inviting.

"Just the rest of my team." I thought he meant the rest of his class. That was a little scary. I really don't want to be in charge of 20 kindergarteners anywhere especially at a place where they encourage a kid to be a kid.

"No. The rest of my TEAM. My racing team." I was beginning to remember him talking about that before. They have races at recess. I asked if his team has a name.

He nodded. "The Red Jumping Jacks."

Ah, yes. The Red Jumping Jacks.

"What about any girls? Are you inviting any girls."

"No."

"Not even Zoe?" She's a new girl that moved to our street and he really likes her. And I really like her mom. She may be my last shot at an actual friend.

"OK. Zoe."

"Well. Not JUST Zoe" I said. "She won't like being the only girl."

"OK. Zoe and Rachel."

Oh oh. "But what about Valerie? You can't invite Rachel and not Valerie." They are twins in his class.

"OK. Valerie too."

Just to give him more options I said, "What about Marybeth?"

"OK."

"And Haley?"

"No."

"Why not? You can't invite Marybeth and not Haley! They're best friends!" And Haley lives right next door. I've already missed or ruined my chance at friendship with HER mom, but it would be a huge breech of etiquette anyway.

It was at this point he flopped back in the seat and gave a huge sigh. Why was I tormenting him like this? He HAD it all planned out. I was ruining it all. I relented and said, "OK. We'll talk about it later."

A couple blocks later I heard him mutter to Snickety, "Well. At least I'm bringing Spiderman cupcakes for the class snack that day."