Just a little background here…

For those of you that don’t know, the “I love you” sign in American Sign language is the same hand-shape Spiderman uses to shoot spider string (or web) from his wrists. The orientation of the hand is just a little different. Here are some images to illustrate my point.

American Sign Language: “I love you”

Spiderman shooting webbing from his wrist. Notice his hand shape.

Spiderman’s “I love you sign” – In this image his hand is even oriented closer to the correct position for an “I love you” sign.

Ok, now that we are all well educated… I have a story. 🙂

Last week Bridget and I were at Sam’s Club getting a few items. There was a young boy at the register next to us with his mom. I’d guess he was about 4 years old. The boys kept shooting spidey string from his wrists at Bridget (obviously just pretending) and making shooting noises with his mouth.

Bridget watched him intently for a couple of minutes. I wondered what she would do, or if she even understood what he was doing. She just studied his face and hand motions for a minute, then she raised her hand and gave him an “I love you” sign.

The boy looked a little confused. (Perhaps thinking she’d done the spider string wrong??)

On the way out of the store Bridget looked up at me and said, “That boy over there said he loves me.” I about died laughing. But for a 2-year old girl with very little exposure to Spiderman, how else was she supposed to interpret it.

Classic!