Balls, Balls, Balls

Evan is in love with balls. If it isn't square, he thinks it is a ball and he'd like to be playing with it. This makes a trip to the grocery store very interesting. Watermelons are big balls, eggs are oval balls and blueberries are small balls. Recently he got a little frustrated when he couldn't pick up the watermelon ball that was on our counter and he didn't seem to understand why I was stopping him from throwing his blueberries (by the way--they do bounce).

Breakfast is a bit of struggle each morning. I've started sneaking one egg out of the carton while leaving the rest of the eggs in the fridge. Seeing a whole dozen is just too tempting for Evan's little hands. I prefer to quickly crack the egg and get the shell thrown away before Evan sees what I am doing. This morning, he saw the egg as soon as I took it out of the fridge. He started making the sign for ball and saying, "ba..., ba..., ba..." As I do every time he sees an egg, I explain that it is an egg, not a ball, then do the same demonstration I've done dozens of times--break the egg, show him the shell, rinse the shell and let him hold it. Today he put the two halves back together and looked so pleased when he looked up at me and said, "ba..." I don't know, but I think he was probably wishing he could sign, "I told you so, mom."

He played with the shells for, oh, about five minutes before they turned into twenty or more shards of shell. He didn't seem to mind that the "ball" had broken. He kept playing with the pieces, handing them to me one at a time until we had finally disposed of the entire thing. I just hope he outgrows this phase by next Easter!