Toddlers are adorable. And funny.

Yesterday morning, just before we left the house for the day, Gabbie went into our living room to get her shoes. Just inside the room, she stopped, started crying loudly, and turned around, running into my arms. We couldn't figure out what happened. Did she hurt herself? Was she stuck somehow? She hates having her clothes over her hands and her jacket is a little big. Maybe that was it.

After making sure she was okay, we chalked it up to being a toddler, dried her tears, applied hugs and kisses, and left the house.

Around dinner time last night, Aaron tried to get her to go into the living room to do their pre-dinner playing like usual. Just inside the room, she stopped in the same spot, and started crying. Aaron flipped on the light, and she started crying even more.

Weird.

Aaron was starting to get spooked. Gabbie was definitely spooked. I thought there must be some logical explanation.

Turns out I was right.

This morning we came downstairs, and Aaron set her down on her feet at the bottom of the staircase. Immediately she looked down and started crying and grabbing at me to pick her up. I looked down to see what she saw, and discovered what had her so upset.

Her shadow.

The way the lights and windows are in this room she has at least two to four shadows as soon as she walks in, and their sudden appearance was making her lose her shit.

We spent a few minutes trying to get her to be okay with her shadow, but nothing doing. She's freaked out. Our plan for tonight is shadow puppets. It will either make her laugh, or we'll have a guest in our bed for a few more nights.

Also, how horrible are we as parents, laughing at our daughter's fear? It's adorable! We give her hugs and kisses through the laughter, so at least we're not totally cold-hearted.