Being a sidekick mom

"If you want to call me a name, call me Bruce. If you don't like Bruce, you can call me Batman."

Jacob says this to me or Andy on a regular basis. In fact, we all have alter egos in our household, and sometimes alter egos for our alter egos.

Andy is Super Hero, which, in case you didn't know, is Superman's nickname. Drew is Baby Bat. Rocket used to be the Joker (every time he barked he was laughing maniacally), but I guess he left his evil ways, because now he is Green Arrow Dog. Uncle John, our former housemate, is Green Arrow. Because that's not confusing at all. And as for me, I am Robin. 

I haven't always been Robin. For awhile I was Alfred, which I kind of liked. It meant I was the older and wiser one. A good identity for a parent. For a brief and beautiful period of time, I got to be Catwoman. A female character! Not Thomas the Tank Engine, not Donatello the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, not Dr. Sharp Tooth the T-Rex, but Catwoman! Hurray!

Well, it wasn't meant to last. For quite some time now, I've been Robin. The sidekick. I guess it makes sense, because Jacob is 4, so the world revolves around him, right? And truthfully, I will be following Jacob around on his adventures for a long time as he grows up. Real-life ones like school and sports and music -- or whatever he gets involved in as he gets older -- and make-believe ones (not necessarily a distinction he makes in his mind, but you get the point). 

And soon my other little super hero will have a mind of his own and adventures of his own. Well, okay, Baby Bat already has a mind of his own. He's just not really expressing it in words yet. His language is more like... climbing on things. But he might be Batman too some day (can we have two in one house? will the world implode?). Or maybe Thor. Or Iron Man. I'm kind of rooting for Iron Man. (Please, God, not the Hulk. Please no mega-tantrums justified by creative license.) 

At any rate, I don't expect to lose my sidekick status any time soon. So I've embraced it. I'm living with super heroes. I'm the sidekick. And this blog tells our stories.