Red Ball, Orange Ball

If I had to guess I would say that Critter's love of balls - large, small, light, heavy, soft or hard it doesn't matter - started when his Grandpa visited in May. If my memory serves me correctly, it was the first morning they were with us and Grandpa got on the floor with Critter and started throwing a small, hard plastic ball with him. Jude caught on right away likely because he loved throwing anything and everything he could get his hands on. This was much to his Grandpa's joy since he played baseball through college - second base for Cal Poly, SLO - Go Mustangs!

Since then, his obsession has grown and now he has favorites. He loves his medium, red, bouncy ball which we have rightly named Red Ball. There have been a number of times when Critter is very upset for one reason or another and we don't know what else to do so we say, "Red Ball", and he starts to giggle. It works almost every time. He loves talking about it, bouncing it and kicking it.

About a week ago, we were taking our morning outing to a nearby park and lo and behold on the street (not near any homes) was a lonely, worn, orange basketball. I watched to see if anyone was going to pick it up, but given the early hour of the morning there was no one else out and about. We picked up the ball and proceeded with our jungle gym adventure.

Being the show-off that I am, I decided to show Critter my not-so-stellar basketball skills. I dribbled in circles, between my legs and bounced up and down with the ball. He loved it. He thought I was pretty good (some day he'll understand otherwise, but for now I'll take what I can get). From that point on, he has loved Orange Basketball. It is much heavier than Red Ball, but he manages to lift it over his head to bounce it across the floor. 

I not-so-secretly hope that he loves sports as I do. Me? Competitive? What? But even if this is just a phase it is fun to see him figure out what he likes and doesn't like.