Superheroes on Three!

Little did we know when we pulled this shirt out of his "next winter" drawer that Ryder (for action power!) would disappear from our lives and Super Sonic Dude would hop aboard the Self Family train. Here he is, the newest member of our family:

He does everything FAST FAST FAST because that is Super Sonic Dude's power! Apparently. 

And can we just talk about this little Super Sonic sidekick for a sec. She has been loving the super hero gig. She flies around with her arms up in the air or behind her like this saying "Ssshhooommm shoom!" 

But seriously. Super Heroes have taken over our lives. He has never even watched any shows or read any books about any of these Marvel superheroes, but nonetheless, they have made a way in to our family. It all happened right after Halloween, when quite a few of his friends were dressed up as little Avengers. That was just TOO cool for school. THEN, right after Halloween, he got a letter from his cousin Zoey with super hero stationary and that about BLEW HIS MIND. He kept asking over and over again, "Who is this one?" "What's his name again?"

So one day when we were drawing, I decided to draw a Superman and cut it out to play with. Shae was SO excited about it so I covered it in contact paper and stuck it on a Popsicle stick and we had ourselves our first paper doll (er, hero). Of course, Shae then wanted ALL the super heroes, so we got to work.

Here are Iron Man, Super Sonic Dude/Super Sonic Mom with their lightning bolts (apparently that has something to do with their power...), and Captain America.

Daddy drew Thor and like I said, I drew Superman. We have a Super Sonic Girl floating around somewhere too...

Why do we spend money on toys? Seriously, he has been entertained with these little guys for a few weeks now. AND...it has taken his drawing and cutting skills to a new level! That has been one of the coolest things for me to see in all this. He was just never patient enough when we would draw before and always just scribbled on the paper (even though it always WAS something to him, usually some made up word like a "farley" or "pak-na"). But now that he has found his passion in life, he takes the time to actually draw it. So interesting to watch that happen.

He has now given us all new names. I am Spiderman, Belén is Iron Man (or sometimes Super Sonic Girl), and Darin is Thor. And you better believe we had a full on Super Hero Thanksgiving. When we all sat down to eat on Thanksgiving, we said the prayer and Shae then stood on his chair, put his arms in the air and said, "Let the Super Hero Thanksgiving begin!" He made Grandma Cat Girl...which later turned in to Black Widow, I think?, Kuhn-ta is Super Man (because he has a Super Grandpa shirt) and Philip varies between Batman (he has Batman pajama bottoms) and Captain America (he has a Captain America shirt). I believe he also announced Amelia as Wonder Woman while skyping with her on Thanksgiving. Surely there will be many more super heroes to come...

He kept begging me to go to the Popsicle stick store so that we could make more...so we did (make more that is, not go to the Popsicle stick store). Spider-Man and Cat Girl. 

There was an evening before bed where me, Darin, my parents, and Philip all played Super Heroes at the same time with Shae. The way his eyes lit up. He was in heaven. Five adults all under his Super Sonic control. "Alright super heroes...our first mission...we must save the earth from the fire, let's go!" Cue all of us running around the house pretending to do something...to someone...to the earth...to a bad guy? Oh man, he just ATE IT UP. It was pretty special.

Then yesterday he about wet himself out of excitement when I showed him this video. We've watched it at least 10 times since then.

Having such a key role in turning everyday life into an imagination playground is easily one of my favorite things about parenthood thus far.