Neil's Shadow

"I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed." 

-Robert Louis Stevenson (A Child's Garden of Verses)

Jonah is an old soul. In fact, I think all of my children are old souls. Perhaps those are the only souls the Lord has left to send down to earth these days. The oldest, wisest, most valiant of his spirit children. But nonetheless, Jonah has an old soul.

From the time he was the tiniest little guy walking around with that fuzzy hair and adorable little double cowlick on the crown of his head forming a perfect mohawk, he has wanted to do whatever the adults were doing. He has never been content to play with toys. I don't know why I even bothered buying him toys. He was most content helping with whatever project I or his father were doing. 

Neil has a had a little shadow for these eleven years now. This shadow comes in the form of his youngest son. He looks just like Neil with his fuzzy hair and double cowlick, and walks just like Neil, and most importantly does whatever Neil is doing. Jonah loves his dad and loves his dad's projects. It's been that way from the beginning. If Neil was painting a room, he had better find a roller for Jonah.

If Neil was building a shelf, he had better find an extra hammer, because the three year old would be pounding in every other nail.

Neil had better not dream of turning the sprinkling system on at the beginning of the season without informing the two and a half year old.

Or have the audacity to repair a bike tire without help from the resident toddler expert.

There was the year that Neil replaced our kitchen floor. He had the painstaking process of scraping all of the linoleum off the subfloor, but don't worry he had help. Jonah was with him every night, every step up of the way. In fact, Jonah worked on the project while Neil was at work during the day. I would be downstairs doing laundry, only to hear an awful pounding coming from upstairs. I would run up to see what kind of mischief Jonah was in, only to find him intently chiseling away at that linoleum. Don't give the boy anything Fisher Price, hand him a for real wrench, or chisel, or screwdriver, and you won't hear a peep from him for hours.

The most broken Jonah's heart has ever been has been when he has walked into a room to find out that his dad has been working on a project without him. That is devastation personified right there. Which is why it was very convenient that Jonah was off track while Neil has been working on our yard. What a blessing to have no homework to keep Jonah from doing the thing he really loves, and that is working along side his dad.

Lunch with his mom...that was a fun day.

But helping his dad dig this hole in search of the water pipe?....he informed me that that was the best day.

You can't see Jonah in this photo. But if you had been looking out the window like I was when I took this photo, you would see little sprinkles of dirt coming up from the ground. The hole was now deeper than Jonah is tall, but he could be found in the depths of that hole ...digging and digging and digging some more. He came out as dirty as can be and grinning from ear to ear.

Saturday was dirt moving day. Also known as the best day of Jonah's life. 

I found him moping behind a pile of weeds because he was sure his father wouldn't let him help control the tractor. We remedied that situation.

Aside from a scary brush with death according to Jonah, when he accidentally pushed on the gas pedal as he was falling off the tractor, making it impossible for Neil to stop the thing, and leaving Jonah with a large tire burn on his arm, everything was great!

School is back in session for Jonah. This means that I will have to be the homework Nazi, insisting that the child finish his reading before he goes out to work with his dad. Something tells me that there will be nights that the reading doesn't happen, because who am I to keep this sweet shadow from the man he adores? Who am I to keep a boy and his dad from working together side by side?