My Little Spidey

My son is obsessed with all things Spiderman.   I remember when he was about 2 and he saw a picture of Spiderman on something in the grocery store.  He asked me what that was and I told him Spiderman.  I remember he giggled saying that was so silly, to have a spider man.  Sometime since then, he got bit by the spidey bug!   I love this picture…the smile on his face was worth all the effort it took to make that cake! 

I am not sure what made him pick Spiderman of all the super heroes to latch on to.  What was it about Spiderman that was more appealing then say Superman or Batman?  It’s not as if he watched any of them on T.V.  His love was born from merely seeing the character. 

When he was born my brother bought him a Spiderman onesie.  Perhaps his obsession was born then?   Has it really been 5 years since this picture was taken?  When did my baby grow into a little boy?

Given his love for all things Spiderman over the past year, it seemed only fitting that his fifth birthday party be a Spiderman party.  He even wore his Halloween costume to the party!  We played a few games, such as “Pin The Green Goblin to the Spider Web” and “Tag with Dr Octopus “(aka Scott), but the biggest hit by far was shooting the bad guys with spidey web (aka Silly String).    I drew two pictures of Spiderman Bad Guys and had the kids spray silly string on them.  They loved this! 

I gotta confess that my knowledge of Spiderman is very limited.  The truth is I’ve seen the first movie, but didn’t pay all that much attention to it and I think I slept through the second one.

But my son has been pumping us with questions about the webslinger…How does he fight bad guys?  Who are the bad guys?  What did the bad guys do?  And my lame evasive answers have stopped doing the trick months ago. 

I realized just how little I knew about the super hero world as I prepared for his party.  As I was trying to find pictures to look at in order to draw the bad guys for our silly string game, I came across one who was not labeled.  After drawing him I showed him to my son.  He thought he was pretty cool but wanted to know what his name was and what he did that was bad.  I had no idea, but it looked like bricks were breaking around him, so I said, “He breaks bricks.” My son looked at me and said, “Mom, breaking bricks is not bad.  What does he do?”  I turned to the internet and then to face book seeking out someone who could help me.  A huge thanks to my friend who responded with three Wikipedia links and the answer to my question…It was Shocker and in fact he didn’t  break bricks… he had electromagnetic power and was a thief. 

Through a varied series of events, I have really grown to like the Super Hero genre.  These guys are great… they are all these smart scientists types who fight evil!  I love it! As I type this I am doing my self induced “Super Homework” as Scott and I are beginning a movie marathon watching all 3 Spiderman movies.  When we told our son what we were going to do he was so excited.  He asked if tomorrow when he wakes up if instead of watching T.V. we can just sit and tell him all about “Spiderman.” 

I may end up eating these words later on, but I think I could support my son’s superhero obsession.