It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...Spiderman Super Why and he cooks?

I had forgotten how much as a child I loved superheroes.  Mami always thought it was an odd thing for a little girl to be into, after all it was suppose to be a "boy" thing to do. Then came Wonder Woman and all I wanted to do or be was her.  To my mom's shagrin, I dressed up as her for two Halloweens in a row! I guess Mami wanted the type of daughter that would want to do tea parties and play with barbies and dolls.  Instead I was a gender bender, I guess that's why for a long time my mom and I had a hard time connecting. 

I was the little girl in jeans and a t-shirt who grew up in a neighborhood of boys.  Occasionally I would partake of so called "girl" activities, but most of the time it was ball, tag, and being a superhero.  Then my favorite superheroes came along "Charlie's Angels".  Talk about girl power!  They always seemed to facinate me in the way they could be pretty and tough in one big swoop.

So Thing One has gotten into role playing these days. Most notably being a superhero.  It all started with Big Cheese giving him a Spiderman coloring book you can find at any dollar store.  He must have been about one and a half and he was just taken by the whole bad guy, good guy action.  The action of the characters just sucked him in.  Before I knew it he could spot a Spiderman cup, hat, shirt, action character, from several feet away before I could even see it.  "Spiman, mama...Right there!!!" 

I've never been a fan of Spiderman particularly, but if my son was embracing it, so was I. So just when I accept his facination over the webbed one I get thrown a curve.  I couldn't figure out why Thing One was always taking the question mark magnet off the refrigerator and he was acting as if he was flying around with it.  What was this new behavior?  Big Cheese then went and purchased a new series of characters for Thing One.  I asked Big Cheese what these characters where, because low and behold one particular character had a wand with a question mark on it.  "What?! He hasn't told you all about Super Why?!" Big Cheese exclaimed.  Apparently he and Thing One had been watching PBS and happen to stumble upon "Super Why"  a superhero that enjoys reading and telling stories.  I had to TIVO it since I was never home when this particular show was on.  I was really happy with Thing One embracing a character that did more than just fight bad guys. 

Thing one now has many Spiderman outfits, and shirts and shoes.  He even has a dress up cape, mask and wand to become Super Why whenever his little heart desires.  One week he wouldn't even take it off to sleep.  It was a challenge to get him anywhere without the darn cape! Although there have been many times when my heart stops and I want to stop him from leaping off couches and other things because he is acting like Super Why or Spiderman.  I don't want to discourage this play I just want his imagination to go where it takes him, SAFELY.  

Thing One is definitely all boy, that's for sure.  Although, we had to buy him a kitchen set because he loves to pretend cook as well.  So my take away from all this, let my children be who they want to be.  I don't want to put them in a box and say this is a boy or a girl activity and limit them to just that.  They are discovering so much out in this big world and how they fit into it.  So for now, I have a son who flies through the air and cooks a gourmet meal.  I'm wondering what Thing Two will discover when she reaches Two.  Maybe she will be a princess mommy who drag races.