That's YOU, Daddy

I think I understand how games like Concentration, or Old Maid, or any number of games where you have to match things up and make pairs, became popular with kids. Because Jack loves to see matches, and pairs, and things that are like each other. I probably first noticed it when he had one of the Sandra Boynton books out, and on its back cover it had the covers of other Boynton books, and he wanted to match them up with each other. "We have that one....and that one...and not that one..."

So when he notices a picture of me, or the picture in his room of Emily, Jack, and me just a few minutes after he was born, he sometimes recognizes the pairs. "That's YOU, Daddy," he says. And, "That's YOU, Mommy." "And that's you, Jack," I say.

It gets funnier when it's not a photo. Like when Emily draws a sketch of the three of us on his Magna Doodle pad, where we're basically like Peanuts characters or something, and Jack points at one: "That's YOU, Daddy." I drew one recently that was a silly caricature with a square jaw, big grinning teeth, full head of wavy hair. Jack looks at me and points at it: "That's YOU, Daddy." Well, okay, sort of, I say.

Jack doesn't stop with pictures and people. My sister brought him gifts -- a superhero backpack, with the Hulk, Spider-man, and Mr. Fantastic on it, and a set of superhero refrigerator magnets. He brought the backpack over to the fridge where the magnets were, and held the image of the Hulk up to his magnet. "That's YOU, Hulk." And, "That's YOU, Spider-man."

As for Mr. Fantastic, well, he didn't know who that was initially. He was just "that guy." I told him who it was, and he repeated it and was as proud as if he'd made a new friend. "Want to see Mr. Fantastic, Mommy?" Okay, Jack, Emily said. "Want to see Mr. Fantastic, Daddy?" Okay, Jack, sure.

The best thing is that I found this old card game from the 70s, which I bought on ebay a few years ago -- nostalgia, really, since I had the game as a kid. It's a Marvel superheroes game, and it's basically Old Maid, but with Dr. Doom as the Old Maid. And you make pairs of the superheroes, including the Hulk...Spider-man...and even Mr. Fantastic.

Think I'll bring that game out tomorrow.