When did my kid turn into such a clown?

D making a ridiculous face for effect

Dylan is such a social creature. He LOVES to be around other kids, and goes out of his way to ham it up or try to be the center of attention when other children are around. I'm wondering if this is a passing phase or a glimpse into his future as a class clown. He either gets so excited to be around other kids that he just can't contain himself (throwing toys or he's even been known to walk up and slap kids in the face out of sheer excitement - I do not find this cute, and I have no idea how to curb this because punishing him and explaining "that's not nice" so far have had no effect) or he will go out of his way to make sure all eyes are on him. This past weekend he was playing with a couple of little girls on the beach and suddenly put a ball in his mouth just to look silly. Now normally, he doesn't put things in his mouth. Even in the phase when kids normally put inappropriate things in their mouths, he wasn't too extreme about it. But now he is doing things that are potentially dangerous (putting things in his mouth, running away from us and toward heavy traffic, climbing under cars in a parking lot) just to be a "show off." Another thing he does is flip his eyelids up! This is so gross. I hated when kids did that when I was in school, and I have no idea how my 2.5-year-old learned to do that. He'll walk up to kids he doesn't know and say "look, look!" with his eyelids flipped up. Most kids are not impressed and run away. I know these are his attempts to be "social" but, so far, he doesn't seem to have the skills down. He is definitely not the most suave of toddlers out there...