Learning from the master

Learning from the master
Although there are certain scenes from Spiderman 2 that we don't let him watch (for obvious reasons), Eric is absolutely glued to the parts of the movie that we do allow him to see.

Eric wears his Spiderman costume every day. Every Day. I do not exaggerate when I say that he literally wears his costume every day. The velcro has been ripped from the back of the mask and is held together with a binder clip, and there is a growing hole in the back near the zipper. The sleeves are practically black from constant play, as is the front. It has been washed numerous times and we have to fight with him almost nightly and insist that he not wear it to bed. Eric is a very sweaty kid and letting him sleep in a polyester costume stuffed with poly fiber muscles just seems like a really bad idea.

It is all Spidey all the time around here. Eric spends countless hours drawing pictures of Spiderman, and often begs us to draw more elaborate pictures for him. He has taped many of these pictures on the playroom wall, as a kind of montage to Spiderman. He has Spiderman shoes and Spiderman bedsheets. It's a phase, just like Toy Story was a phase, then The Wiggles (thank goodness that one ended!), just like he goes in and out of dinosaurs and dragons and lizards and other disgusting creatures. But Mike and I are finding this particular phase to be quite funny.

Aside from the fact that he wears this disintegrating costume 24/7, Eric is really into the villains of Spiderman. Eric loves Venom. And Carnage. And talks about them like there his buddies. In his little 4 year old voice that is missing the L's: "I wuv Carnage" with a sigh and a dreamy look in his eyes. I don't even know how he knows who Carnage is. I don't know who Carnage is. And then people look at us in a horrified way and ask why we've let him see Spiderman 3 when he starts to wax eloquent about Venom. He has not seen Spiderman 3. Are you kidding? WE have not seen it. I don't know how he knows all of this.

I will say this--he is making a really good argument for Nature vs. Nurture because I'm convinced that little boys are born with the superhero gene. It's not as if I spend all day talking about the virtues of Carnage. That part of his brain recently developed and Viola!

I think I should be worried about which part of his brain will develop next. What can be worse than Carnage?