He did what???: Meet my son, Harry Potter

Ashton has always enjoyed reading, but it wasn't until the middle of September that he became obsessed. Six months ago, if I asked him to go read for a while and give the playstation a break, he would have a woe is me episode. He liked reading, once he was actually reading, but would not do it voluntarily. Literature lazy is what I call it.

As of September, when he picked up the first Harry Potter book, I can now call him a bookworm. He rarely removes his nose from his book, and lots of times I have to actually ask him to stop reading. It is all he wants to do. The playstation has taken a backseat, and really he hasn't even asked to play. I began to love this new found hobby of his as he is flying through the 7 book series. Then came the backlash.

I say backlash only because I'm pretty sure Ashton actually thinks he is Harry Potter.

I wish I had been writing all of these down, but a minimum of 4 times a day Ashton compares something to, or references Harry Potter. It started off every now and then, but these days, as he is half way through the last book of the series, it is extreme.

Here are a few things that have happened over the past few months that show his extreme love for all things Harry Potter. Just so you know I'm not crazy:

He was asked to write an essay over Thanksgiving break about something he was most thankful for. He thought for a while, and decided to make a list of his top 5 things he is most appreciative of, then narrow down that list. I can see why it was a hard choice.

1. Harry Potter
2. JK Rowling (author of Harry Potter)
3. Mary GrandPre (illustrator of Harry Potter)
4. Family
5. friends

I guess I should just be happy family made the list. He ended up choosing books, because then he could write about all of the top 3 things.

Daily, Ashton casts spells. The only one I know is 'Avada Kedavra' which has been Avada Kedavra'd from being used inour house as it is the killing curse. He has tried several times to recreate the spells in Harry Potter, only to have them be unsuccessful in real life...yet he keeps trying.

He spent at least an hour writing his own Parseltongue (snake language). He then spoke this language for the rest of the day. Everyone went to bed early that day.

Ashton was recently elected to student council, which we are super proud about. Only he claims he has really been elected into the Ministry of Magic.

Often, he makes attempts to pass his Harry Potter robes off as a jacket. It has not yet worked.

His Christmas list was about 5 pages long, and 98% of the things he wrote down were Harry Potter things.

While at his last ortho appointment, he came into the waiting room threw up his hands and shouted "GRIFFANDOR!". I was puzzled, as were the other people in the waiting room. Then he explained he had chosen Harry Potter's griffandor house colors of red and yellow for his braces. Since he has planned out which house colors he will represent next. I believe the order is Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, then Slytherin.

Last night we were watching Deal or No Deal, and it happened to be celebrity week. The celebrity of the night was Cedric the Entertainer. When he came on screen Ashton said, "Well...he's going to die." It took me a really long time to figure out what he was talking about and how he even knows who Cedric the Entertainer is. Finally I figured out Cedric is the name of a Harry Potter character who kicks the bucket.

In the past 3 months, Ashton has read a total of 3,613 pages and will be much closer to the 4,000 page mark once he is done with this 7th book. He now says any book less than 800 pages is an easy read.

Ashton thought he was hilarious when he gave lego Voldemort bunny ears.