Tuesday, December 23, 2008

"I'm not Little Dog!"

Someone in our family is having a bit of an identity crisis. Instead of reveling in being the cutest 2 year old in the history of humankind, Little Dog has decided he is a superhero. I can't say I'm entirely surprised. Since the first time he watched it, Little Dog was obsessed with The Incredibles. For a long stretch of months, anytime he was asked what movie he'd like, he'd demand The Incredibles. Many mornings he'd wake up and after calling me to his room to get out of bed, he'd start talking about Mr. Incredible. One day, while watching his favorite movie, he looked at the DVD cover, pointed to Jack Jack and said, "Dat Little Dog!" then pointed to Mrs. Incredible and said "Dat Mama!" And he was thrilled with the discovery. His world revolved around the Incredibles. Even when I sang him to sleep at night, he'd demand songs about Mr. Incredible. It was so persistent a demand that I had to make one up, and this made up song has been sung about a thousand times.

Big Dog has never been much into superheroes. He'll play Power Rangers with his friends at school, a game that involves a lot of running, kicking and posing with hands on hips in a very super hero kind of way, but he has never seen the show. He likes the Incredibles, but would rather watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on most days. So when his 4th birthday gifts included several Spiderman action figures, they were pretty much passed on to his little brother. And when one of the Spidermen was partially consumed by a Great Dane, I replaced it with a Batman since Spiderman was out of stock at Target. He immediately found a new love.

Though he'd never seen a Spiderman or a Batman show, he was in love with the idea of being super. We frequently heard about his super friends, and the cape his grandmother made him over a year before started to become part of his regular wardrobe. He had to have it on at all times, and when I forgot to bring it to Portland for Thanksgiving, grandma had to rig one together out of a pillowcase and a bag clip. He ran all over the house "flying" holding his cape out back as though it was flapping in the wind behind him!

Lately, I've been indulging him. Since we've been snowbound, I've walked to the video store a couple of times to pick up some new DVDs. The first time I got Little Dog a Batman and Superman movie. He ate it up. We watched it repeatedly, it was all he could talk about. Next I got a DVD of the old Spiderman cartoons. The same cartoons I used to watch on Saturday morning when I was a kid. And now Little Dog is back on a Spiderman kick. He loves the idea of the Green Goblin. I am frequently told that I am the Green Goblin, then quickly defeated by my own little Spiderman. In one episode, Spiderman shows his web shooters to a little girl and explains that he made the technology that enables him to spin webs. Little Dog's eyes lit up. He found a rubber ball that had been chewed to pieces by our dog, and started aiming the rubber chunks at us as his "shooters". It became part of his role playing.
"Are you the Green Goblin?" He'd ask.
"Yes, bwahahaha!" I'd reply, since I'm not entirely sure what a Green Goblin would say.
And he'd reach into his "pocket" which was actually his pull up, and pull out his "shooter".
When we changed his pull up at bedtime we found it was loaded with these pieces of rubber he called his "shooters". We've since asked him to find a new place to store his shooters.

Everyday, Little Dog becomes a new super, and everyday the role play changes slightly. Heaven forbid you call him by his name, he'll angrily denounce it, "I'm not Little Dog! I'm Batman!" or Superman, or Spiderman, or any other super d'jour. For a while he was fixated on the evil characters, but now he seems to love the good guys. I have had to remind him that we do not jump out of windows or off buildings since these are common activities in superhero shows, but he seems to be ok with this limitation. Big Dog has been getting in on the act lately, but he has not taken the obsession to the same level. He's still more excited about Christmas that any cartoon character. And he has a limit for tolerating the repeated viewing of Spiderman.

For Christmas, Little Dog will find a selection of superhero eye masks in his stocking. And even though he's a little sugar fiend, I think he'll like them more than candy.

2 comments:

katherynei said...

You don't seem much like the Green Goblin to me :). Have you watched Super Friends? A bit old school, but awesome all the same!

Anonymous said...

I'm with Katheryne on this one...I'm totally NOT getting the Green Goblin vibe from you! *lol*

My little one is all about Bambi and lately, of ALL things, A Christmas Story. Her big thing is walking around the house and whereever she happens to be, shouting, "You'll shoot your eye out!" *lol*

I have been here before and had you bookmarked but my browser vomited all of them into cyberspace when I updated and I was lucky enough to find you again through KD's blog!

I'll be back...often!

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