Spiderman by Day, Harry Potter by Night

Seven year old Ryan has an incredibly vivid imagination. Always has. Ryan has never really expressed an interest in regular "boy" things, like balls, firetrucks, cars, dinosaurs...Ryan's interests are purely fiction. Superheroes, Charlie Brown, Looney Toones, Buzz Lightyear, Harry Potter--the more make-believe the better. He dresses up, draws elaborate comic books, talks with accents--Ryan is a born method actor.

Lately both he and Eric have revived their love of Spiderman. They each have a costume which they wear daily. I have drawings all over my house of regular Spiderman, Black Spiderman, Venom, the Green Goblin. They hang from the swingset and leap from the furniture. It's all Spiderman, all the time. Except at night. Around bedtime Ryan gets into Harry Potter mode. He has always been completely fascinated by Harry Potter. I don't even know how to pinpoint what aspect he finds so interesting. From beginning to end, the story of Harry Potter completely captivates him. He was Harry Potter for Halloween (complete with striped scarf, made by moi), he had a Harry Potter birthday party, and the July 21st square on Ryan's Harry Potter calendar states the arrival of the 7th and final book (which is coming to me, by the way. Ryan sleeps with his books and "loves" them to the point of their demise. Ryan gets paperback versions).

The boys each have an upstairs bedroom with dormers. They are great bedrooms with lots of character and angles. And the favorite part for each of them is the little crawl space in the dormer. It's the perfect little hidey-hole and Ryan has named his the Secret Lab. We put a carpet remnant on the floor for him and have allowed him to decorate any way he wants--he has drawn on the walls and has all kinds of treasures stored away in there.



Ryan is really, really excited about the release of the 7th book. So excited in fact, that he has been sleeping in his Secret Lab, just like Harry Potter has to sleep in the Cupboard Under The Stairs at the Dursley's house. My only caveat is that he must sleep with the door open so he doesn't suffocate to death.

In knitting news, I'm still plugging away at Peter's surprise birthday gift and I'm determined to finish Gordon's hat tonight. I have many baby hats to make, in my head, but I need a trip to the yarn store for some colors. I really want to replenish my Etsy store, but I think it may be another week or two. So, I'll just keep plugging away at the projects I've already started. What a novel idea!

Alice update: you're probably wondering what's up with Alice, as it's been awhile since I've talked about that passive-aggressive-geriatric-peeing-feline. Still peeing. On my bed. I bought new waterproof pads that are working great, so I don't have to completely sanitize and remake my bed every night. But Alice is still same old Alice. Mike was at the pet store buying food for her the other day and somehow he got to talking to the employee about the problem (I'm having a hard time imagining how the conversation got started. "So, I need some food for this cat we use to love, but now we hate her because for some reason she hates us and pees on our bed every day. Do you have any food that might control that problem? Or poison her?"). Apparently when some cats have a hairball problem it often feels like a bladder issue to some cats and they have the immediate urge to pee. So the pet store employee recommended this hairball stuff, which is basically petroleum jelly with cat nip in it. Alice loves it and happily licks a big blob off my finger each night. And pees on my bed the next morning.

Sigh.......