my hero (or, why my daughter threw forks at a boy in church)

Autumn disappeared into my craft room yesterday afternoon and insisted that I stay out until she finished her super secret project. 20 minutes later she came downstairs wearing this.
A Spiderman mask. She made it all on her own, complete with an elastic band to secure it to her heroic little head.

Thanks in no small part to Adam (remind me to post photos of his comic collection one day), Autumn has a profound love for comic book superheroes. She has seen just about every Marvel and DC hero movie that has come out in the last year or so (The Dark Knight being the exception, as it's not as child friendly as the others). Just about every day you'll find her fighting crime, rescuing civilians, or sometimes just flying around the house and showing off her "moves."

She has a very strong belief in doing the right thing, sticking up for those who can't stick up for themselves. She has no interest in doing what is expected of a little girl, and instead always follows her gut instinct to do what she feels is right. I think this is something that children naturally know how to do, and it only goes away when we teach it out of them.

Once a month or so we take Autumn up to Pennsylvania to spend the weekend with my grandmother, also known as Grandma Honey. On those Sundays she takes Autumn to church with her, where she attends the Sunday school program. One such Sunday resulted in that other "proudest moment" I alluded to in a previous post.

Grandma Honey: Well, we had a little incident at church today.

Me: What happened?

Grandma Honey: I'm not really sure exactly what happened but Autumn had a fight with one of the kids.

I sigh, a little embarrassed that Autumn was misbehaving in church, and turn to my child.

Me: Hey Autumn, did something happen at church today?

Autumn: Yeah I throwed some forks at a boy.

Me: You...threw forks? At a boy?

Autumn: Yep, I throwed them. They were just plastic ones!

Me: And why did you do that?

Autumn: He was a mean boy and he was hitting the kids and yelling at them.

Me: Did you tell an adult that he was being mean?

Autumn: Yeah I telled them but they just didn't do anything and he just kept being mean so I got some forks and throwed them at him and he stopped.

We still swell with pride every time we tell that story. How can a mom be mad at that? The kid stood up for herself and protected the innocent. When the authorities wouldn't intervene, she took the law into her own hands, and she kicked ass.

Truth, justice, and the American way. That's my girl.