Jedi Mind Tricks

When we bought our house, just over two years ago, I told Todd that the downstairs could be his "man cave" to decorate.  That quickly turned into "this tiny bar area in the basement can be yours to decorate":

I had some ideas about what I wanted to do down there.  Most of them involved large prints of classic movies like Wizard of Oz and Breakfast at Tiffany's.  Needless to say, this was not Todd's idea for what he wanted to do down there.  We agreed that we could hang a poster of "The Jerk", and I was willing to allow for one "Star Wars" poster, but beyond that - we were at a stalemate.

I have no way of knowing for sure, but I think he might have Jedi mind-tricked me. 

It started with this:

I made him this collage of all the swag he picked up at the Star Wars convention.  I gave this to him for Christmas last year, and it was the first actual piece of "art" to hang on our walls downstairs.

Then, for his birthday, I bought him these:



Iron Man and Gambit (from X-Men) to fill in another wall. 
Then, last weekend, we picked this little treasure up:

Captain America's shield - picked up for a steal at Marigold Days.

As we started thinking about how we were going to re-arrange things to make room for this on the walls, I found myself saying "You know, it would be kind of fun to go with a comic book theme in the basement."

I think Todd almost fell over.  At least that's how he acted. I'm not convinced that he somehow tricked me into thinking this was all my idea.  He's sneaky, that guy.

In any case, last night we found one more for our collection (on clearance!), which begins to fill in the last open wall and seals the deal on the comic book themed basement:

Further proof of this Jedi mind-trickery?
I think it looks pretty darn cool, actually.

What I love about this, more than the fact that it looks cool on our walls, is that this is such a good representation of the bond that Todd will share with our child(ren).  He can't wait to introduce all these favorite characters to our child, fostering imagination and a sense of awe.  I am the reader, but Todd is the storyteller.  I watched him make up a story for our dogs the other night, something about Oliver's heroic adventures in fighting off evil squirrels.  The dogs sat listening intently for about 5 whole minutes.  Todd has a gift!  I can only imagine the stories he will make up for our child, about his own heroes and the heroes he creates for them.  He and our child will share these stories, movies, and no doubt hours of make-believe playtime centered around these timeless characters.