Balls And Paper Airplanes

I always suspected having a child would mean a living room full of toys regardless of how many tucked away bins, containers, or drawers I got.  What I didn't know was our living room would become  entirely consumed by balls and paper airplanes, two of Jordan's obsessions.

Although we have a variety of balls ranging in color, size, texture, and type, the one we seem to have the most of (and seem to have lost the most of .... though I anticipate finding most of them when we are packing) are little plastic golf balls.  We have little white ones with holes, white ones with pretend golf divets, red, yellow, green, and blue.  And even despite how many little plastic golf balls we have somewhere in the home, at any given time, we only seem to have five rotating in his practice swings.

I also seem to be picking up a lot of paper airplanes lately.  Jordan has become completely obsessed with paper airplanes, trying to make them (he'll take any piece of paper and start folding randomly before he hands it to you for immediate assistance), fly them, and saying "dee" as he flies them (his way of saying airplane in Chinese though far off sound wise).  Because of our proximity to the Spokane airport, you can also frequently find him sitting on our coffee table, looking out the window into the sky for airplanes.  The moment he hears or sees one, he will point and explain, "dee!" over and over again.

Luck be a baby.

Not only did Joran get to attend the Spokane Golf and Travel Show last week (where he got to hit balls like Daddy into a net), but he also got to feed his paper airplane obsession last week.

Recently, we saw a flier at the library for an "engineering paper airplane" special event.  Jordan, not knowing what the event was as he is not of reading age despite knowing his "O" and "E" thanks to Super Why, was already convinced from the paper airplane on the flier that this was a special flier worth holding onto.  True to the fact, he would not physically let go of the flier (even when it fell in the dirty wet snow leftovers) all week long while riding in the car.  He'd stare at it, point at the airplane depicted, and tell you "dee" and then mutter to himself "dee," "dee," "dee."  So by all means, I put it in our calendar to take Jordan to the library event, and it did not disappoint.

Last Thursday, Andy took him to the library for the airplane event while I stayed home and worked, but from the sounds of it, Jordan was so excited, focused, and on cloud nine... so much that he even had two little cookies.  Andy came home with an origami paper airplane book and Jordan hasn't let it out of his sight.  On a daily basis, he will retrieve the book, open it and browse through it, or bring it to you as an indication that you are to make him a new airplane to play with.  Any piece of paper he sees lying around, he will take into his hands, begin folding, and tell you "dee."  As a result, I have been continually throwing away paper airplanes, only to see them multiply faster than bunnies around the house.  They show up underneath the laundry, tucked away in corners, behind the couch, underneath toys, and everywhere in between.

As for his ball obsession, it's still debatable whether his first word was "Mom" or "ball."  Whatever sport we happen to be watching, Jordan has to grab the appropriate ball for the occasion.  The other morning, he opened up the Mormon Channel app so we began watching an "I am Mormon" video about an ex NFL player.  As soon as he saw the football field, he rushed out of bed, ran into the living room, and came back holding his football.  Now he was ready.  He does the same thing when Andy is watching basketball, he'll grab his basketball, and then go back to sit with Daddy, before trying to make a few shots on his too tall hoop.  And of course, there's no surprise that he will always grab his golf clubs or go hit some balls when golf is on the television.  So predictable.  

Due to his ball obsession, he got a little too much credit from another gymnastics parent who told me how impressed she was with his listening skills at only 21 months.  You see, the gymnastics class was "sports themed" that day, so they had the kiddos kick a foam block like a soccer ball, throw a foam block like a ball, use a stuffed stick to hit the foam ball like golf, and throw the foam block like they are hiking a ball.  Jordan, at 21 months, understood all of these actions, because they are ones he is frequently performing at home with his plethora of balls.  But for the gymnastics parent, she was in utter awe that he understood how to hike a ball, kick, throw, and use the stick to hit it like a golf ball.  Haha.  I didn't even think to point out that he does all that at home, I just enjoyed the compliment and humbly attributed it to the fact that he has slowly caught on with each class he's been to.  It wasn't until I was driving home that I pondered upon it and realized, he had a competitive advantage compared to the other kids not playing with balls, hiking footballs, kicking footballs into field goals, throwing basketballs, baseballs, and hitting golf balls everyday single day.  It's like asking a 1 year old girl to twirl like a princess... pretty sure they've all got it down to the tee.

Balls and paper airplanes.  It's the story of our child's life right now.  He does also enjoy his other toys, but I'd say these make a frequent appearance more than anything else.