Quinn’s Pointing to the Tree Shadow

There are so many wonderful experiences involved with having a toddler. One of them is the ability to experience somewhat of a second childhood through them . As adults, we tend to get so caught up in the “important” tasks of life and just don’t have time to truly appreciate our surroundings or take  the daily occurrences of life for granted. Thankfully, my little girl slows me down, helps me to reminisce and take pleasure in those childhood moments of wonderment. Since she was about sixteen months or so, Quinn has become fascinated with her shadow. Her face will light up as she points to it and says, “Shadow!.” She’ll jump around, giggle and run to see if it is moving with her. Last week, we had a lovely March day, and she was able to go outside and get in the swing. She then noticed her shadow was much larger than usual and that the tree had a shadow too. My little girl became so excited, pointed to it saying, “Tree shadow!” I just had to take her picture as I recalled how I loved looking at my shadow and the shadows of other objects to see how big or small they would get throughout the course of the day. I can’t wait to do shadow puppets and animals with her.  Even one of my favorite poems that I teach in my Children’s Literature class is called “My Shadow” by Robert Louis Stevenson. I hope it will be one of hers too. Here’s the poem below:

My Shadow