The Pip is in a big superhero phase at the moment, and all of his games revolve around being a superhero of some sort. He has also basically memorized a couple of 30-page Justice League books, after demanding them over and over at bedtime. As I did with SteelyKid, I make a game out of reading the wrong words from time to time, and as a result, he can now “read” at least two books all the way through, as you can see from this cell-phone video shot at bedtime:
His superhero pretend games have the bizarre inventiveness you expect from a pre-schooler, mixing and matching from all the various media continuities he knows. On the playground one day last week, he was Superman, I was Batman, and SteelyKid was Wonder Woman, and we first had to capture all the characters from Jake and the Never Land Pirates (including the puny pirate heros; asked why, he said “Well, Jake and Izzy and Cubby were going after the bad guys, but we’re the superheros, so we’re the ones who have the get the bad guys.”). Then we had to rescue Elmo from Cookie Monster, followed by rescuing Big Bird from “the cookies that sprang into action” after the capture of Cookie Monster. Then we smashed Zach Bots from Wild Kratts.
Yesterday, he was either “Blaster” or “Blast Man” (he couldn’t quite keep it straight), with the power to blast bad guys by striking the pose seen in the “featured image” up top and making a blasting noise. There was a lot of blasting of me in my role as the notorious villain, the Tickler, then I suddenly switched sides, as he asked for advice on who to blast next. I suggested he go to Sesame Street, hoping it would prove to be located in another room of the house. He liked the general plan, but did mention that it was a long way to Sesame Street.
“How are you going to get there?” I asked. “Can Blast Man fly?”
“No, Blast Man doesn’t have flying power. I have BLAST POWER! I blast bad guys.”
“OK, but how do you get to where the bad guys are? Do you have a plane?”
“Well…” (he starts most of his exposition with “Well…”) “I make a loud noise, and then birds come, and they pick me up in their beaks, and fly me where I need to go.”
I asked for a demonstration, of course, so he stood up, squawked like an angry blue jay, then spread his arms, and said “Look! They’re carrying me! I’m flying!” and ran in happy circles around the house.
Now, you might be thinking “That sounds like a wildly impractical means of travel” or possibly “Are those African swallows?” but really, is it any dumber than Ant-Man? I rest my case.
Marvel Studios, hire this kid.
I think a good argument could be made that D.C. Comics is more in need of help.
True, but Marvel Studios is more likely to have the good sense to hire him…
Touche. 🙂