Channeling My Inner Superhero

While I was washing my face last night, my son hopped up on our bed and asked his dad "If you could be any superhero, who would you be?".  I listened as his dad replied "Are you asking who my favorite superhero is or who do I'd want to be?".  After thinking about it for a moment my son answered "Who would you want to be?".

 

I turned the running water down so I could better hear the conversation.  My son waited patiently while my husband took several minutes contemplating who he'd most want to be.  "There are so many cool ones to choose from.  You've got Spiderman who can swing between buildings and climb up them. Not to mention having the web blasters he can shoot out of his wrists.  Batman, who has the coolest car and airplane ever.  Superman who can fly......." and it was at that exact moment when my husband broke out in song.

"I believe I can fly.  I believe I can touch the sky.......".  Our son started trying to talk louder than his father was singing "Dad! Dad! Dad, QUIT singing! Who would you be?! Dad?!!".  I could almost hear my son's giant eye roll and could have scripted this whole scene because it is one of the things that I love about my husband. He's got a great sense of humor and also has a great tenor voice and he will use them together to tease you mercilessly when given the opportunity.

Without being able to contain myself, I started laughing hysterically at my son's consternation with his father.  If you give my husband any opening to break out into song, he's going to take that opportunity, and boy was that a pretty good set up.  And heaven help us all if that opportunity also opens the door for him to dance.  He was born with 2 left feet and when he starts dancing......... well, it's just wrong on so many levels.

Finally my husband quieted down and answered my son's question.  "If I could be any superhero out there, I'd want to be a really cool one like Wolverine.".  My son got a great big smile on his face when my husband returned the question.  "Ok son, so which superhero would you be?".  After a bit of deep thinking and with a hint of mischeviousness in his eyes, my son replied "I'd want to be my own superhero.  I'd be a little bit of Wolverine, Spiderman, Superman, and Ben 10."

"Hey!  Now that's cheating!  You never said I could combine them!" my husband complained.  Laughing hysterically my son started doing a little victory dance around our bedroom at having outsmarted his father.  Standing at the door between our bedroom and bath, I watched quietly as the two of them were cavorting around the room being goofy - and yes, there is no other word than to describe what they were doing except cavorting.

It was while I was standing there watching their goofy antics enjoying the blessings of my family when my son finally saw me watching them.  He stopped and asked me the same question "Mom, who would you be?".   "Why, it's very easy.  I'd be Wonder Woman!  She has some cool indestructable bracelets and she wears a tiara that she throws as a projectile.  But, best of all, she has an invisible airplane AND she can fly!"....

And can you guess what happened at that moment?  If you guessed my husband and I breaking out into song together, you'd be corrrect.  With arms spread wide as though we were flying in the air we sang:

"I believe I can fly
I believe I can touch the sky
I think about it every night and day
Spread my wings and fly away
I believe I can soar
I see me running through that open door
I believe I can fly....."

And with that, my son flew through the open door to the quiet and safety of his own room.  Oh well, I guess the younger generation just doesn't get our adult humor......

by: Christie Bielss

Ambushed!

Taking a walk down Memory Lane, although these days it seems to be a shorter stroll......
It was New Year's Day and we'd just moved in to our Arkansas home the day before and had gotten blasted by a foot of snow. We had a little Silky Terrier, Lauren, who was much shorter than the depth of the snow, so in order for her to attend to her needs, we had to take her for a walk out onto our quiet snow-plowed street.

As we were returning from our walk and were remarking on the quiet stillness of the winter snow, we were suddenly, and without warning, pelted with snowballs. We aren't talking 1 or 2 throws here, we are talking about an all out ambush by the neighbors!! 2 families, who, from the number of snowballs in their arsenal, and the size of the snow fort walls they'd built, must've spent HOURS devising and implementing a plan of attack!

What they didn't know was that I'd spent 4 years in Buffalo, NY and could make snowballs faster than they could blink!  In my family I was the snowball maker while my brothers were the snowball throwers.  My parents, who were in town helping with the unpacking of boxes, heard all of the commotion and faster than Superman, my Dad came out to help us battle the villainous neighbors! Being from West by God Virginia, he was an expert not only at making snowballs, but with throwing them with great precision.

In the end, we won on more than one front that day. We beat those rascally neighbors at their own ambush but, more importantly, we established a friendship that has lasted over 13 years and withstood many moves on all of our families.

by: Christie Bielss