A certain young man was about to crawl behind a rocking chair, which happens to be a place where a tantalizing (especially to a nearly three year old boy) tangle of various and sundry power cords make their home (take a deep breath, I just love these long and impossible sentences, and there’s oh, so much more coming), when his mother barks in her most stern and commanding voice, “Don’t you go there…”
In a mere blink of an eye, a flash, he twists his body to face her, extends his arm, and webs her. WEBS her.
Oh to have captured the expression on his face (this picture captures the gesture, but not the expression). That picture would paint a thousand words.
Oh to fully grasp the depth of the Spiderman obsession. With that flick of the wrist and glint in his eye, he cast forth his invisible web, using his mighty toddler powers to make his mother stop telling him what not to do. Priceless.
I turned to Mr. Gadget. “Did you see what your son just did? He webbed me.”
If only I could have managed not to laugh, and be visibly impressed by my child’s intelligence, dexterity, and imagination, I might have been able to convey the message that “Mommy means business and no means no and you’d jolly well better listen when I’m talking to you, young man.”
Instead, he was obviously pleased with himself, and amused. And even though he didn’t obey me, I was at least able to distract him away from the nest of cords.
