Kick the Ball

Last night we had a blast. Charlie took a long nap and woke around 4:30. After a little dinner we all bundled up to go for a walk. Jack, only 4 months old, takes little convincing and little prep. Charlie, two years old, is another story. He was busy running around playing with trucks and during fly-bys would make some comment about going outside. Around 6:30 or so we finally got outside and started walking down the street.

After getting only a couple of houses away, Charlie turned around and started saying "home," "home, please." I asked if he wanted to go back and play in the backyard and he said yes. We turned around and headed back, Charlie leading the way running and saying things like, "C'mon guys."

In the backyard we dug around in the garden, loading up Charlie's dumptruck and dumping it out. We did this for about an hour. Both Kit and I were reflecting with admiration my mother's ability to work in the garden with Charlie. The two of them often play out there for hours during her visits. Charlie directing the effort as they work armed with their child sized shovel and hoe. It is adorable. Well, this went on for a while and we were getting cold and wanting a change of scenery so we persuaded Charlie to come inside where he could watch his Wisconsin Badgers on TV. Once inside, Charlie ran into the family room, jumped up on the couch and started hollering "Watch badgers...watch badgers, please." So we turned on a recording of the Packers on Monday Night Football. This entertained Charlie for about 5 minutes and then he was on to other things. So we turned the TV back off.

This is when the fun began. We were all laying on the floor and Charlie wanted to play ball. He got his big yellow beach ball and started lining up and kicking it. I was lying on the floor right in front of him and Kit and Jack were between Charlie and me. Charlie recognized right away that in order to have full kicking fun, he would need to clear out the lane, so he asked Kit to "Get out of the way, please." Then he began an hour of kicking the ball over my head or into my head and cracking up. He would say "Watch this" and kick the ball and then bust out laughing. He kicked it while it was sitting still, he kicked it while it was rolling toward him, he picked it up and bounced it, he ran into it and ran with it. He must have taken over 2000 steps during the whole thing. Hollering, laughing, and announcing all of his antics. It was super-fun and he was adorable throughout. His cheeks were bright read and his head was sweaty and hot. Around 9:30 I asked if wanted to brush his teeth and he said yes. We then headed toward the bathroom and upstairs to bed. Charlie is still asleep and I expect he'll try to recreate the fun we had last night at some point today.