Stop and Smell the--Shadow Animals

We were about ready to drop when we got home last evening.  It was ten-thirty; the house was trashed from our hurried 8:00 a.m departure.  The chickens needed to be locked up, the dogs and cats needed to eat, two of the six of us were over-the-top grouchy and the laundry fairy had failed to show up while we were gone.  (Again!  Grrr.)  She must have been hanging out with the dishes fairy, the dustmopping fairy and the vacuuming fairy.  I opened my handy-dandy HP Mini and pulled up my facebook account to unwind.  Always nice to spend time with my 600 most intimate and computer savvy friends at the end of a long day. 

Our youngest, who is ten, remembered the wooden toothpick he had chewed the end of after supper.  After fishing it out of his pocket with a happy, "Oh, good!  It still looks like a claw!" he asked me for a flashlight.  I probably ignored him--accidentally.  He asked louder.  Then he asked if we could turn off all the lights in the kitchen and see how the toothpick claw looked as a shadow.  Then he asked me to make shadow animals with him.  Then he catalogued the various types of shadow animals he was particularly good at making.  Then he shared which of his friends could (and could not) make which shadow animals.  I was about ready to blow a gasket.  All I wanted to do was sit down, catch up on everybody's life, and will my overstuffed body to digest the massive amounts of lasagna and garlic bread it had inhaled earlier while dining with friends.  I couldn't stand the onslaught any longer.

Reluctantly, I suggested we turn off all the lights in the laundry/utility room and see what kind of claw the frayed toothpick would cast.  I had absolutely NO INTENTION of making any manner of shadow animals with my fingers.  But, guess what?  The toothpick cast a really cool shadow; my little guy made some neat animals with his fingers and then...so did I.  It was really fun.  We both giggled, but more importantly, I did not blow off my son.  It wasn't much, and it wasn't for long, but  I played.  And he enjoyed playing with me.

Do we play with our kids enough?  I doubt that most parents do.  I know I don't.  We drive them around an awful lot, and coach their teams, but I have never taught my kids how to play S.P.U.D. or asked them to teach me how to play Capture the Flag.  But I am committed, because of shadow animals, to make a better effort.  It matters.