V is for...violence?

   my son is all boy. a rough and tumble, guns and swords, motorcycles and four wheelers, super heroes and villains kind of boy. now don't get me wrong here, my daughter keeps up with all of this 'boy' behavior. she just does so in a very lady like way, hair done, frillies adorned and a little color on her lips. my son is in love with the whole good guy bad guy scenario; super heroes versus. villains. i find myself asking my husband,  "is this too violent for a four year old," often while flipping threw comic books, watching movies and even while playing. we edit where necessary and don't edit where it's just pure rough and tumble testosterone infused adrenaline.
  the other afternoon mikey asked to work on "lettaas". let me translate: letters. i don't know why he doesn't pronounce his R's but i find it awfully cute. so he was tracing letters and i was asking him what sound each one made.
  when we got to the letter V i asked, "what letter are you tracing buddy?"
  "V!" he proclaimed with much gusto.
  "very good, and what does V sound like?" i ask.
  mikey set his top teeth upon his lower lip and produced and very pronounced V sound.
  "wonderful," i say quite impressed. it had been long since we worked on letter names and sounds so i added, "like vvviolin" enffacess on the v sound.
  "yeah!" he agreed. he then set down his dry erase marker and made a fist,  "and vvviolence!!!" he exclaimed as he swung it through the air.
  now i had two ways to go about receiving this. i could 1.) freak out and assume he would eventually be that crazy kid growing up with a tendency to shoot the outdoor cats with a sling shot, ...or...  2.) realize that kids hear everything. especially when mommy is asking daddy if their are any pages in a comic book that we should skip, or a scene in a movie that needs to be passed up, or if we should calm down while playing. of coarse he knows what violence is, we've talked about it before. "no buddy, that is just too violent, we don't need to see this".
  "very good, buddy!! i'm proud that you have such an extensive vocabulary for such a young gentleman," i respond with a high five. quickly i turn the page to the letter Y. yarn, yo-yo and yodel. i breathe a sigh of relief as this turn of excitement will soon calm down into a literal yyyawn fest.