Charlie and the Basketball

Charlie seems to be growing up so fast lately! The more he grows up, the more of a "boy" he becomes. It's all about cars, trains, planes, dinosaurs, loud noises, running as fast as you can, jumping as much as you can, making things crash, and yes.... balls of all sorts.

Charlie has also become quite the escape artist. He is very proud of his ability to open and shut all types of doors now - traditional door knobs, levers, and he's even looking at the safety-covered knobs lately... Additionally, and something that has caused me a lot more caution when going into the garage or outside, he has figured out how to turn locks. He has locked himself in the bathroom several times, and locked Lynnae out of the house once. So far, I have not been locked out of the house... (that noise that you hear echoing through the blog is me knocking on wood.)

One day, I excused myself while Charlie was playing downstairs with his favorite train toy - Gordon - because I had to use the restroom. I couldn't have been gone longer than a couple of minutes, but when I came back out only Gordon was sitting on the kitchen floor. I walked around the downstairs really quick to look for Charlie, and didn't see him anywhere. I got back to the kitchen, and was starting to panic a bit when I looked outside and saw a basketball flying through the air. I looked to where it came from... and sure enough, there was Mr. Houdini in his green shirt, in my backyard, having the time of his life.

I couldn't really be annoyed with him when he looked so happy, so instead I grabbed my camera and went outside. He played with that basketball for about a half-an-hour. He's not exactly the best yet... he just throws the ball forward, instead of arcing it up... but, he was copying Andy and I by trying to dribble it. He also managed to "pass" it to me (although I had to run quite a bit to catch his pass,) and actually caught it a few times when I passed it to him.

After he was done playing, he was pooped! It was well past nap time, so we went upstairs, read his current favorite Doctor Dan, the Bandage Man, and had a talk about leaving the house without asking mommy or daddy. With a fast nod and a smile, he "pwomisssed" that he would wait for me from now on. (When I asked him if he was sure he said, "Charlie sure 'bout that.")

I was pretty impressed at his 2 year old basketball skills. Maybe his birthday will find him one of those kid-sized hoops.