A Story Every Little Boy Can Relate To

From a conversation I had the other day in the car with AJ:

AJ: Mama, I have been a kid for a long time.
Me: Hmmmm, I guess that is true. You have been a kid for three years.
AJ: And three years is a long time. Mama, I think I should try being something different.
Me: Oh yeah? Do you want to be a big person?
AJ: No, I wanna be a superhero!
Me: Oh, a superhero?
AJ: Yes! I want to be Spiderman!

I think it is official that AJ has transitioned from being obsessed with Thomas the Train to being obsessed with superheros. He has Spiderman sheets on his bed, insists on wearing his Batman pajamas every night and asks me to tell him bedtime stories about Superman. Davey is interested in superheros as well, mainly because he likes to make noises like "bam! bam!" while punching his fist in the air, but also Davey still holds onto his love for all things Thomas.

In addition to superheros, AJ is very focused lately on guns as well, and the two are often together in his mind. Think Spiderman shooting the bad guys with his guns. He makes guns out of legos, construction paper or bristle blocks and pretends that pretty much any other toy he can hold in his hand is his gun, including my recent favorite, a frisbee. (Hey, who knows, maybe the physics of a perfectly round gun works better than I think it does.) He loves to shoot at people, despite all of our explanations, threats and eventually punishment on why this is not a good idea. He is especially fond of pointing his guns at people who are sitting in close proximity, such as at the dinner table. Conversations with him tend to center around who is going to shoot in the eye or who he will blow up into little pieces. We don't let him watch violence on tv, with the exception of Kung Fu Panda, which does have some fighting scenes, although no guns. This leads me to wonder whether this love for guns and blowing things up is part of a developmental phase or just part of being a little boy.