Angles

Ashton sees different things in everyday items.

He sees a helicopter in our dishwasher sprayer.

He sees a playmate in his shadow.

He sees a pocket when he wears his undies backwards (and likes them better this way).

He sees the world through a different perspective and I think this is the greatest thing about him. I wish I was more like him and I love him for this.

I Didn't Do It....My Shadow Did

Lately Ashton likes to blame his shadow for all his wrongdoings.

"Did you hit Kate?" says mommy.

"No. I didn't do it." replies Ashton very convincingly.

"Why is she crying?" I ask again.

"My shadow hit her. Yeah, my shadow did it."

"Oh, I say. Well, your shadow is going to go to timeout if he hits Kate again. And since you go where your shadow goes, guess you'll have to go to time out too. So just tell him to play gentle with Kate." I sigh.

"Ok, shadow be nice" lectures Ashton to his outline on the wall.

Peter Pan Amongst Us?

Today as Ashton finished his breakfast, he noticed the early morning sun peaking through our window that sent a ray of light upon our wall. While passing into the ray, he noticed an interesting phenomenon appeared. He asked me what that was, and after trying my best to explain the blurry duplicate before him, he waved at the shadow. Of course, the shadow waved back, bringing a fit of astonished giggles from Ashton. Then there was the mutual jumping up and down - giggles, the dual reaching up high - more giggles and the touching the shadow's head - even more giggles.
But the giggles stopped when Ashton told the dark image "Come on Shadow! Let's go!", but alas, the shadow could not follow into the darkened stairway. Ashton came back, checked on the shadow's well being, then again tried to bring Shadow upstairs again to play. He tried to yell at it, force it, even muscle it where he wanted to go, but that stubborn ol' Shadow just would not listen.
Ah...Shadow turned out not only to be a physical replica of Ashton's shape, but also of the very things that define him, inside and out!
Lately Ashton's been having some nighttime fears, so tonight I plan to give him a flashlight to use in making more shadows to play with tonight. Since he appears to be up anyways, at least he'll be up playing with and not fearing the darkness.