12 February 2012

Superfriends

I haven't been posting as much lately. I'm not sure why. It's not that plenty isn't going on. Something happens, and I think: yeah, that needs to go on the blog. And then I compose the entry in my head. And then I sit down to the computer to write it. And then I spend the next 2 hours looking at all the Captain America costumes with a 3 year old draped over me saying, "That one, Mommy. Try that one."

So I'm going to sift through all the piled up ideas sloshing around in my head, and boil them down to this: Eamon rocks. I always knew I would love my kid, but I was completely unprepared for how much I was going to LIKE him.

Something has happened over the last few weeks in which Eamon has come out of his latest "snotty independence" streak. You know, the kind where everything is "NO!" and "I DO IT!" and "DON'T HELP ME!" The kind where he questions you on everything from why he has to go to bed to why he has to wear shoes to why he can't eat Oreos and bacon for lunch. And the questions aren't the gentle-inquiry variety, either, but a defiant, twitch-inducing, "WHY?"

But we survived that. And now he's still independent, but...sweeter. Helpful. He's now the oldest kid in his class at school (there was one older, but he moved up to the next class), and we've had nothing but great reports about how helpful he's been with the other kids these last few weeks. His teacher was out with the stomach flu for several days, and apparently Eamon stepped up and really helped out with the teaching assistant and substitute.

He's been the same way around the house. If I need to vacuum, he's right there, asking if he can vacuum his room. He helped carry all the Christmas boxes back upstairs to put in the attic. He wants to help make his own meals, is saying "please" and "thank you" without much prompting, and has been randomly giving kisses and cuddles.



And then there's the superheroes.

We are obsessed with superheroes around this house.

And I literally mean "we."

Aaron loved superheroes as a kid, but I somehow missed the boat. And it turns out: they are awesome, and I can't believe it took me until age 31 to figure out how awesome they are. They are like science-fiction soap operas. I marvel at the complexity of some of the issues (for instance, Ironman's "let's-get-them-before-they-get-us" versus Antman's "violence-only-as-a-last-resort"), and the flavorings of mythology mixed with science. And yeah, I know it's not hard science (we're not talking Michael Crichton, here), but some of the ideas presented are becoming less and less far-fetched.

So Eamon and I share this new-found obsession with superheroes. Aaron is slightly more mature about the whole thing, having grown up knowing about the awesomeness. But Eamon and I have the bug hard-core. I'm pretty sure that Eamon only toilet-trained because there was superhero underwear in it for him. I spend Saturday mornings reading Wikipedia articles on superhero characters while E watches the Avengers. Most of our books are about superheroes and I have no problem with washing Eamon's spiderman pajamas over and over so he can wear them almost every night.

(Yes, apparently I have the same interests as a 3 year old boy. What about it?)

All this means that more than ever, I love hanging out with my child. In fact, I need to finish writing this blog, because someone is reminding me that those Captain America costumes aren't going to look at themselves.


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