I Honk for Wumper Whoopin

Erm, let me clarify the title. Joel's speech is generally pretty clear, but for some reason, when it comes to superheroes, it becomes a bit garbled. He pronounces the other ones fine, but the Hulk becomes Honk, Wonder Woman becomes Wumper Whoopin, and Venom becomes Vemon. He is currently somewhat obsessed with superheroes. Fortunately for him, Ariana shares this.

My dainty princess wanted a fancy, elegant party full of glitz, glamour and rhinestones aplenty. Her gifts from us? All action figures. She got Firestar (her alter ego), the Invisible Woman (her other favorite), Spiderwoman, Rogue and Jubilee, thanks to Vintage Stock and Amazon. Today we had a special mommy-daughter coffee date, and picked up the Beast, Mr. Fantastic (with stretchable arms) and the Rhino (with removeable armour), much to her delight.

On his last trip to Mexico, Carlos got the kids Spidey, Venom, Doc Octopus, Thor, Wumper Whoopin, the Green Lantern, Ice Man, the Green Goblin, Wolverine, Flash, Batman, Robin, and I may be missing one or two. For Joel's birthday, he got Iron Man, Ironmonger, the Honk, the Silver Surfer and some vehicles for Iron Man and Batman. Between them, they now have most of their favorites, although we still need the Thing, Galactus, the Human Torch, the Black Cat, and Super Skrull. Overall, they seem to prefer the Marvel characters, although they like the DC Comics heroes, too.

I've never seen Ariana play with dolls, despite gifts of several lovely ones from her grandmothers, but she adores the action figures. Of course, looking back, when my sister and I played with dolls or Barbies, the plots always revolved around spies, crime solving, survival adventures and other action themes. Wonder Woman was my favorite TV show when I was Ariana's age. I know my sister in law, with two older brothers, probably played more with G. I. Joes and other action figures than with dolls, too, and grew up on action flicks. I guess Ariana comes by it naturally. For the record, Joel loves his little baby doll, and cuddles and nurses it often.

For the last few months, Ariana and Joel have had countless hours of fun playing with their collection. Bedtime now always involves at least a couple of superhero stories by Carlos, Nana and Beeps (it is usually a collaborative effort). During our coffee date today, Ariana earnestly explained that it was very important to have some villans, as well as the good guys, because without some form of conflict, there wasn't an interesting story. It is hilarious to listen to her and Joel play with their action figures and develop their story-telling skills. I'm glad that she sees herself as someone strong who helps those weaker than herself. I must remind her, though, that with great power comes great responsibility. That applies to picking up toys, too, right?