Sunday, January 27, 2013

Friendly Neighborhood Squid

There are moments in parenting when it seems that all your hard work and effort have not gone to waste. All the pieces fall into place and you get a sense that your child will be just fine. Despite molars coming in and some general toddler crankiness, last night was one of those moments.

First, we'll flashback to almost a year ago. We were at a bookstore, having a rare family day out. Whenever we go to a bookstore or other nerdy sort of place, we buy Squid something she wants. Not at every store we go to; we do our best not to spoil her. But, we want her to associate bookstores and comic shops and conventions with fun and special stuff. It's a little Pavlovian, but what the heck?

That day, Squid found a Spiderman plushy that she fell in love with. Being the dutiful geek parents that we are, we bought it for her. And, being the fickle child she is, her love for it had waxed and waned over the last year.

Now, every time she brings me the plushy, I make it dance and sing the Spiderman theme. Over the last several days, she has been obsessed with this ritual. Throughout the day, I am handed a stuffed Spiderman with the assumption that I alone can make him dance and sing. Last night was no different. She handed me Spidey, I waved him about, singing, "Spiderman, Spiderman. Does everything a spider can..."

I wanted to make sure I was singing the song correctly, so I asked the other half for some help. He was pretty sure we had it right, but his Spidey senses were telling him there were more verses, so he went to the interwebz for help. Not only did he find the lyrics, he found a Youtube video of the original cartoon's opening theme.

As soon as Squid heard the song, she grabbed Spidey and ran to the living room where Daddy was playing the video on his phone. She smiled and danced and when the song was over, signed and said, "More... more!" So, we played it again. And again. And then we finally decided to see if Netflix had the cartoons. Which they did. And which she was entranced by.

Yup, the kid will be all right.

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