It was around Halloween last year that my daughter started getting into Spiderman. I had rented the newest Spiderman movie, The Amazing Spider-Man, and sat down to watch it with my little girl. A few days later we were strolling the costume aisles trying to find a costume for her. Since she hadn’t grown much, the choices of costumes was difficult. The only thing I could find for her were way too infant looking, but the ones that were supposed to be her size, should she have grown some, were way too big. We continued to walk around when she spotted a Spiderman costume. I had to politely say no, being the only girl to go trick-or-treating in a group with five boys, I wanted her to have a girly costume. Not to mention that Spiderman isn’t just my daughter’s favorite comic book hero, so there was a chance that one of the boys would be dressing up as him for Halloween.

Instead of getting her the costume I bought her a Spiderman movie. Then for her birthday I got her a Spiderman toy. For Christmas a Spiderman cartoon on DVD. Several months later I was shopping for shirts and shorts for her, she spotted a Spiderman tshirt among other superhero tshirts. Since they were all in the little girl section I thought, why not. After all I liked Spiderman too.

It wasn’t long after I got her the Spiderman movie that I noticed it was on constant repeat and the Spiderman tshirt was the only thing she wanted to wear. I think this went on for a few more months until yesterday when I tried to put the Spiderman tshirt on her. She cried out that she wanted to wear her Dora tshirt. It just donned on me that she hasn’t bothered with any of her Spiderman things. Have we finally said farewell to Spiderman and moved on to something else?

I looked at my daughter with a frown and jokingly pouted, adding a dramatic sniffle. She turns towards me and gives me a worried look, “What’s wrong Mommy?”

“I’m afraid you don’t like Spiderman anymore,” I tell her, holding up the Spiderman tshirt.

She frowns along with me and says, “It’s okay,” then reaches ever so slowly for the Dora shirt I had laying on my lap. I sniff again for added dramatic effect and she stands up and gives me a hug, patting me on the back. I was biting my lip, trying hard not to laugh. She sits back down on her bed and I say, “I guess it’s goodbye Spiderman.” She didn’t reply, only put her Dora tshirt on and ran out of the room.

It’s amazing how quick kids can transition from one thing to another, how they can love one thing, then move onto something else. I had planned on making her a Spiderman costume for Halloween, though with an added tutu. I know she would’ve loved it. Now to figure out what she would prefer instead. I don’t know, maybe she’ll still pick a Spiderman costume, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see, Halloween is only a few months away.