Soccer balls, belly buttons, and butterflies

If I had to sum up a few things that Evan is obsessing over these days, it would be the three items in the title: soccer balls, belly buttons, and butterflies.  Of course, there are still a few other things he is still really into (trains, his plush animals--especially bunny, etc).  Nonetheless, these three are hot items this week.

He has a book called "My First 123s".  It's basically a picture/word book that increasingly shows more of various items when you get to the higher numbers.  When it comes to his books, he's really only interested in a few right now and this is one of them.  He likes to flip through it quickly to the number 20 page that has 20 sports balls on it.  Then he points to the soccer balls and ask "that?", to which we say those are soccer balls.  Then he'll flip back to the number 6 page and point to the 6 butterflies and ask "that?", to which we'll say "butterflies".  Evan's been learning the sign for butterflies, so we'll often do the sign to reinforce that learning too.  Butterflies have always been something that Evan's liked; from the last page of the Hungry Caterpillar book to being included in random pages of his "Fuzzy Wuzzy Wombat" book and other books.  Perhaps his new Baby Signs DVD (Park signs), that includes butterfly, has reinvigorated his obsession with them?  The same goes for "ball".  He's been obsessed with balls for quite some time, and the park-themed Baby Signs DVD has a sign for ball in it too.  However, I'm not sure where the soccer ball aspect came in.  The 20 sports balls include basketballs and tennis balls and beach balls too, but he always asks about the soccer balls.  There was a soccer ball in "Spot loves his daddy" that I always pointed out by name, so maybe that is part of it (though we haven't read that book in a long time!).

While I may be able to explain the soccer ball and butterfly obsession, I can't quite explain the belly button one, except that it's the newest part of his (and our) body that he's discovered.  He points to our belly buttons when he sees them and says "that?" to which we say "belly button".  He lifts up his shirt and looks for his own belly button, feels for it with his fingers, and bends over trying to get a better look at this peculiar spot on his tummy.  He can also point to it when we ask him where his belly button is, as well as if we ask where mommy or daddy's belly button is.  Thus, he knows what it is and finds it so fascinating.

I wonder what will catch his fancy next week?