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Voices in My Head
About a year back, Carver fell into a habit of wanting to watch some short show on a smartphone right before he would lay down his head at night. We happened upon some fun videos showcasing superhero toys for boys about his age. He loved the videos so much, I thought that for his 4th birthday I’d get him some of the toys. They have been a source of fun off and on since then for both Carver and Hakan, and several more heroes and villains have joined their ranks.
Still, it seems that the boys have run out of ideas recently. The poor superheroes went unloved for a while. Earlier this week, Hakan was bored while he was eating, and needed something to entertain him. Usually, a fork that talks like Captain Hook will do, but that game seems to have gone by the wayside. I found a couple of the superheroes and struck up a conversation between them, including some encouragement for Hakan to eat. He kept eating, so I kept the show going. Hulk and Batman kept throwing the Joker in jail, but he kept getting out until they realized that the jail was our napkin holder, and it doesn’t have 4 walls.
It was fun, and sparked new interest in the toys. However, Hakan now relies on me for all of the dialogue. He’ll approach me in the middle of something and say, “Dad, do the Flash!” He then expects me to come up with some elaborate situation that will entertain him. He usually catches me at a busy time, so I have to turn him down, but otherwise I am getting to a point where my creativity is spent. The superheros are now reduced to talking about the weather.
I need to figure out a way to get Hakan to come up with ideas for the superheroes himself. He’s gotten better, and it’s pretty funny when he tries to talk like them. When he imitates the Batman voice, he basically just whispers in a serious tone.
He’s also randomly integrated a toy sheep into the group, having each hero take turns petting it and commenting on how soft its wool is. I suppose that deserves some points for creativity.