My darling and very imaginative son is infatuated with superheroes. Superman, Spiderman, Batman… if it has “man” appended to the end, he’s a fan.
So I probably shouldn’t have been surprised when he started talking about himself in the third person.
“Super CJ is hungry. Super CJ needs… ice cream!”
“Mom, you’re frozen. Super CJ just froze you.”
I say, “CJ, don’t growl at people you don’t know.”
he says, “But mom, I have to… I’m SUPER CJ!”
The transformation occurred for the first time a couple of weeks ago, when we were at Zoomazium, although the cause is a mystery. Was he bit by a spider that I didn’t see? Fall into a vat of nuclear spillage? Who can say, really. All I know is that this event marked the beginning of the very exciting, often thrilling, and always hilarious adventures of… SUPER CJ!
So we were at the Zoomazium, and I was watching CJ stand in line for the treehouse. Suddenly he fell out of line to twirl around, give a big kick and leap into the air with a shout. He raced over to where I was sitting and announced breathlessly, “I twirled around and around and then I turned into… SUPER CJ!” It was clear from the sparkle in his eyes that he really believed it.
He now turns into Super CJ several times a day. This inevitably involves kicking, spinning, something that looks an awful lot like break-dancing (?!) and cool sound effects. Yes, the level of drama in my days has definitely gone up. The question is, what superpower do I need in order to survive?