Captain Binky and Super Lion

Being the shutterbug I am, I sometimes have a vision of a shot I need to capture.  And if it gnaws at me long enough, I have to make it happen.  I've driven by a certain footbridge nearly every day since we moved here and I've seen in my head that I would take Ben's birthday pictures on it.  But I put it off and put it off.  It was serendipity then, when my friend Stef unveiled some new, gorgeous family pictures on a footbridge exactly like my footbridge!!  It was a sign from the universe that I needed to get moving. 

There was this giant yellow tree in all it's fall glory behind the bridge, and the other day a gale tore through Naperville that not only froze us to our bones, but started blowing the leaves off my yellow tree!!!  The time was NOW.

I wanted these pictures to be gorgeous, like in my vision, but most importantly, I wanted them to reflect Ben as he is now.  There was no doubt then, that his two most prized posessions had to be visible - his Binky and his Lion.  We don't leave home without them, though he knows they usually have to stay in the car so that we don't lose them.  And of course he had to wear his new birthday cape, because it says so much about his personality and his current love: superheroes and action guys! 

When I'm scolding one of his siblings, Ben comes right behind them and scolds me right back with "Don't you be mean to my brudder!"  or "Leave my sister alone, you big stupid!" (he's convinced himself that stupid means 'a person who pushes buttons' and is not a bad word...he's pretty persuasive with his argument too - it's quite hilarious to hear him carry on about it).  Half the day he's talking in his Superhero Voice, whenever he's playing with toys or imagining something, it's narrated very dramatically.

Maybe it's a third child complex, that you need to be a superhero to have the power because your the low man on the totem pole?  Whatever it is, I think it's positively DARLING that my youngest is the one who sticks up for the underdog and wants to make sure everyone is okay.  He probably wouldnt' want to be Captain Darling though, so we'll settle for Captain Binky. 

And here he is in all his glory...

And after a long afternoon of fighting crime in freezing temperatures, our hero heads back to his chariot, for a snack and a nap (and a lollipop bribe...did I mention that he'd just had his flu shot too?).