friendly neighborhood

My predilection for procrastination is seeping into my blogging... Ideas run through my head at work, on the way home, at the dinner table, and then, when I actually have a few minutes after the kids are in bed, I put off writing until I'm too tired to put together a coherent thought. So, in honor of this nasty habit, I'm writing today about last week's party.

The "big act" for Owen's part was the arrival of Spiderman, in all of his full cheesy-costume glory. As the resident ham in the family, I of course relished this role and had been looking forward to it. The plan was to have everybody, especially Owen, out in the backyard with Spidey music blaring when Owen's "favorite hero" made his appearance. We had burned all of the various Spiderman theme songs to CD - the perfect mix!

Unfortunately, the plan quickly went awry... Owen somehow snuck back in the house and was walking upstairs just as Spidey was walking out of my bedroom. "Dad... get that thing off you!", Owen pleaded. Hmmm.. the suprise factor was now at zero. I didn't acknowledge it and kept trying to pull off the act. I picked him up and ran outside with him - Spiderman was at the party! A few kids cried, a few were so excited they could barely contain themselves, but Owen would have none of it. "Dad, you're not Spiderman. Take that off." Is he a future detective, perhaps?

My spidey sense was tingling as a murmur went through the adults in the crowd. Sure enough, 0ur next door neighbor sided up and gave me the plan. I would make a quick exit, change back into my Peter Parker clothes, and the neighbor would become Spiderman. Let's see what Owen does with that!


A few minutes after I came out asking Owen about Spiderman - "Owen, I can't believe I missed Spiderman!" - here came Spiderman #2! The look on Owen's face was priceless - oh for a picture of that! He was silent for a few minutes and you could see the wheels turning at a ferocious pace. Finally, he had enough and he just let Spidey have it - "Spiderman, get out of here!" Even if he didn't know "who" it was, he wasn't going to back down. All that talk about "his favorite hero" and he wanted no part of him now. We played with it for a few more minutes but it was his party after all and we didn't want to push it to far. Our hopes of him being thrilled by having Spidey at his party were dashed, but the actual outcome turned out to be funnier (and a better story).