hey spidey. pass the salt.

things in our house really changed the day marcus was invited to a superhero birthday party.

he wore a cape.

he ran amuck. he deemed himself the supermarcus and saved the playground. at least according to supermarcus he did.

his boyhood was forever changed:

since that first cape wearing event, marcus has grown into a superhero LOVING little man. he comes home from school every.day. and takes off his boots and coat. and pants.

yes. and pants. and under those pants? seven days out of seven he's in spiderman.batman.hulk.ironman. underwear that makes him feel invincible. every day at 5:30: 'mama? i jus gonna go in my underwears. dat ok mama?' mama [me]: 'of course.' and away he races, typically content in said superhero undies for about a half hour before he decides its go-time. and by go-time, i obv mean time to race down the hall to his superhero lair that his rockin' mama built him, filled with a variety of superhero suits: Thor, Captain America, Spiderman, Knight Armour, a Pirate suit, and a Doctor's suit [why not]. he also has all the props: shields. swords [convrotersal i know. don't through rocks at your screen people]. face masks. you name it. so he suits up as his choice hero of the day, and goes about his business. some days, he just goes about the usual:

other days? he has taken to what can only be described as 'superhero tear'. he gets this unreal superhero scowl on his face. it seriously looks like the bad guy is just about to bust around the condo corner and marcus is so.ready. to get him. he races around the house, hands swinging in perfect tight clenched fists. he takes multiple various belongings of mine: name it. keys. make up. office supplies. and he hides them in random locations. why? no idea. i asked him last week and he said it is just what he has to do when he's on his tear. i just indulge his imagination. i play batwoman when i'm told. i shoot webs in walmart. i shoot webs on our winter hikes. i shoot webs at the bank while we wait for the teller. i shoot webs over the breakfast bar while making organic dinners and i shoot webs while i'm fielding business calls. school forms. vitamins. laundry. errands. life. i indulge the kid, i am in awe of his 'play' and i am thankful that he occassionally deems ME cool enough to join in [imagine that.]

the only rules?
when we aren't in full-on play, absolutely no phsyical shtuff. some days while on a 'tear' he will run by me and deliberately throw me an elbow just because he's 'in character' but that was halted in a hurry after an elbow to the mama head.
no use of the word 'die'
no guns. no pretend guns. no saying we have guns. no guns.
with the mere exception of webs, no using the word shooting. he has to be specific and say he shot a web to 'get me'. i walked him through the ways he can use the word appropriately and i'm lucky he's got it under his belt with few excited boyhood exceptions.
no 'kill'. no words along those lines. just good fun play. and an understanding that true superheros are NEVER out to hurt people, they simply use their tools to 'get' bad guys. and for now? it's a win.

the icing on the cake was glazed earlier this week when alicia shouted out a new read: how to tuck in a superhero. a light read on raising your own pint sized superhero. i'll def be picking this read up, and anticipate that if anything, parenting tips aside, i'll feel even more connected to my very own 'piderman'. because let's face it people. even spidey needs to hang up the suit and take a nap now and then.

until next time caped crusaders.
psssoooo [that's my shooting webs]
-superkare + supermarcus
xo