Pa-ta-dee (Basketball)

Today has been a really great day with my little guy. We spent a ton of time reading this morning and pulled out some "new" books.... like the Berenstein Bears baseball version. I also got him Curious George goes to a baseball game yesterday when I was out, and we read it 5 times in a row this morning. Baseball is currently his favorite sport, and he alllllllways wants to play. Most of the time, he wants to be the one with the bat and makes me put on his little glove and pitch to him. He'll swing and miss and then run after the ball, drop his bat and assume pitching stance. It's HYSTERICAL to see him pitch, cause it's obvious he's trying to copy the guys on TV... he gets the leg up and everything. Lol. The only problem (for mommy) is that he INSISTS that I squat down in the catcher position. He doesn't want me on my knees or sitting down - I must be squatting. That gets super tiring for mommy after a while!! This morning, we changed it up and HE was pitching and I was the batter... that was a lot of fun, though I would have gotten to take base TONS of time for all of the times he hit me. :)

After about 30 min of playing baseball this morning, I got him to agree to go outside (he loves being outside... he just doesn't like the whole getting dressed/shoes/coat on part) to play basketball. He was so excited that he actually BROUGHT ME his coat and sat down so I could put it on. He held his little basketball the whole way and kept saying "pat-a-dee!" "shoot!!" When we got to the court/playground, I was a little frustrated to see a group of guys already there.... I was hoping we'd have the place to ourselves, because he thinks he's a big kid and wants to go over and jump right in. It was hard work corralling him off to the one court where the big guys weren't playing... he kept running over and throwing his ball at the big guys. Lol - when I DID get him to stay and shoot, he kept screaming "SH*T! SH*T!" He was really saying shoot, but it sure didn't sound like it. hahaha. It was hysterical. After basketball, we went over for a maaaaarathon playground session. He's getting much better at climbing and doesn't want to hold my hand anymore. He took two NAAAAASTY falls (one while chasing his basketball and one time he went flying and slammed his chin on one of the steps)... but he was ok after a minute of mommy hugs. It's SCARY letting your children run around on those playgrounds, but it's something that has to be done - can't hold mommy's hand forever! About half-way through our playground adventures, a school of little kids (they looked to be about 3-4) came over to play. ALSO scary letting your child watch all these daredevil acts these kids are doing (going down the slide headfirst, jumping off of high things), but I can't keep him in a bubble! He immediately ran to the slide and went down head first. Sigh. He's SUCH a friendly little guy and it's so cute to see. At one point, he went around waving and saying hi to each and every kid. I love that about him. OH - and how could I forget. This kid is SUCH a flirt. Anytime he sees girls, he instantly becomes "cute." lol. Today, he ran over to a group of girls (teenagers), threw them his ball and then (NO JOKE) showed them his muscles. hahaha.

He still LOVES nursery rhymes right now and will sit through entire long nursery rhyme books. It really surprises me how many he remembers. This morning, I was trying to flip past Tom Tucker (cause it's boring) and Eli flipped back and said "tucker?" He LOVES simple simon (lol... mom, the "creepy" guy that you hate), humpty dumpty (lol... whom he calls "homo"), yankee doodle ("doodle!"), jack and jill (he loves anything where anyone falls). I've found that if I relate his food to nursery rhymes, he's much more likely to eat it. I made him macaroni the other day and he ate the whole thing cause I sat there singing Yankee Doodle ("and called it macaroni!!!) on repeat. Yesterday, he ate some green peppers because I kept saying "Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" over and over. Good times.

I just ordered him two sesame street DVDs for his second birthday... sing-a-long ones that have some of his favorite songs (Itsy Bitsy spider, wheels on the bus) on them. He's going to love them, and mommy's going to love having something for him to do while I take care of the new little one!

I went to barnes and noble yesterday looking for Bob the Builder books, and they didn't have any! The woman told me "they're not IN right now." Crazy, right? Guess I'll be ordering those online, too. I saw the cutest little toolbelt in the store the other day and am thinking of getting him one. I'm not entirely convinced that he wouldn't try to use them as weapons, though. :)

He LOVES talking to "Riley" and "Tiffy" and was playing baseball with them this morning. I'm so glad we have pets. :)

His newest favorite thing is carrying his table and chairs into the kitchen. Apparently he prefers eating in there. Lol. It was super cute to see him lifting and carrying the chairs... he was like a little mover guy.

He continues to LOVE being a ham at the grocery store. All of the grocery store checkout people love him cause he becomes Mr. SUPER animated smiley guy around them all. Yesterday, the workers were coming from all of the aisles cause he was singing and giving out high fives to everyone. Lol.

Ok.... going to attempt getting in a nap myself before he wakes up. It was an exhausting morning!!!