We Are The Incredibles

Today, I realized that our family is very much like The Incredibles (you know, that cartoon movie about a super hero family). I realized this when playing with Penny today.

Sean is Mr. Incredible. He isn't a gigantic mass of rippling muscles who can throw cars around, but he does single handedly financially support our family. He is the slient rock around which we all revolve. He can also fix just about everything we need fixed around here: leaky faucet, broken screen door, dishwasher that leaves junk on the dishes, and even those sippy cups with the straws that don't line up right, clearly a superpower.

I am Elastigirl. I can't actually stretch my arms under a table and pull my kids apart, or stand in one place and vacuum the entire house, it only seems like it. I run around, chasing kids, stretching myself between them. I am wife, mother, blogger, aspiring fiction writer, I'm taking an online class right now and will start another next week. I'd say I stretch a lot.

Samantha is like Violet, the oldest daughter who can disappear and form force fields. She wears her hair partially covering her face, like Violet. She is my shy girl and regularly disappears to play in her room alone and will stop her pretending if she sees someone watching her, pausing her multi-character conversations until it is safe.

Ella is like Dash, the middle child. He is more outgoing, just like Ella and very active. While I'm happy Ella can't move so fast that she can't be seen, I do often wonder how she managed to climb something or get into something in the two seconds I looked away. And she is always on the move, never tiring, my very physical child.

That leaves Penny, who is like the baby, Jack Jack. Mostly, just like Jack Jack, she sits in a chair or on her gymini, cooing and babbling happily away while the rest of us run around like we have the world to save. Jack Jack never really does anything, the whole movie, you're just waiting to see what superpower he has, just like we're waiting to see who Penny is. Today, while playing with Penny, I lifted her up, holding her suspended a few inches from my face, her whole body became stiff and tense. In my mind, I saw her turn into a flaming fireball, then a lead weight, then a little devil baby, just like Jack Jack does at the end, finally revealing his superpowers. She didn't, of course, she just threw her head back and squealed in delight with a big, toothless smile. Good enough for me.