Of superheroes and star wars

A year or so ago, we introduced our son to Spiderman. Oh, not the shows or (goodness!) the movies. The theme song. Easily found on YouTube, by the way. And we taught our two year old to sing it, which we thought was very cute. He knew the whole thing, beginning to end, and would sing it for us. We loved it.

We're geeks, I know.

Superheroes have been making a regular appearance here. I don't know what it is -- it's partly just that he's a boy, and they appeal. It's partly his older cousin who likes them and who hands down shirts and shoes with characters on them. It's partly the new daycare which has increased his cultural knowledge so much he now knows the name of the black spiderman, which of course has never made an appearance in this house in his knowledge. Until now, of course.

Spiderman and Batman are our favourites, apparently. I don't know where Superman fits in -- apparently he doesn't have the cache of the other two, since he is pooh-poohed. However, we aren't discriminatory -- this afternoon while playing Batman / Spiderman we welcome to our little clique SuperWhy, who is the superhero with the Power to Read! (Thanks PBS!) We take all kinds.

I think perhaps it is because of Superman's first "name". "Batman turns into a bat." I was told the other day. "Spiderman turns into a spider". And ... "Superman just turns into a super." Which isn't a thing, after all. At least, not something small and creepy.

The other day I was conversing with a colleague who mentioned that her son once received a cape as a birthday present that had Batman on one side and Spiderman on the other and -- you can tell I'm the mom of a boy obsessed -- my eyes actually lit up the way they used to when someone mentioned a shoe sale. Her son has grown tired of it and too old and we are now the proud owners of this cape -- so proud that we wore it to daycare on Friday and shared it with all our friends. And wore it out of the house today to Stanley Park. And in the car. And this afternoon in the backyard.

Another colleague saw it, and her own eyes also lit up, being the mom of not one but two small boys. She then confessed that her older son, heading to kindergarten this fall, is much more of a Star Wars fan. "Oh!" I said, interested. "So how old was he when you let him watch the movie?" Because we've been debating. Star Wars is part of our own childhood, which we want to share with our child, and we think three is too early. But five? Is five too early?

"He's never seen it." she said. It's all from daycare. This explains a lot. Like why I was creeping about my backyard earlier today pretending to be Venom.

Man, am I living the life, huh?