On Friday evening, Julia and I experienced our first soft ball game.  I’ve signed Julia up for our local Challenger League (http://wmll.org/A1-InfoPages/ChallengerBrochure.pdf).  Kids with disabilities of all kinds are paired with kid volunteers, broken up into teams, given tee shirts and coaches, and play to the best of their abilities.  

We arrived very early.  Trying to be absolutely on time, I mistook the arrival time for volunteers as our arrival time, but the extra time allowed lots of time for Julia to get used to the surroundings and make leaf dolls.  The West Madison Little League has lovely facilities.  From what I gather, it is the boys’ facilities and most girls play at a high school which is not as idyllic.  This place was like a movie set’s dream baseball facility.  Three perfectly manicured fields set into gentle hills with one field up a slope on a man made plateau.  Bleacher near each field but not in excess.  A convenient barn/ field house with a porch and grass and flower beds.  Early evening at this place was beautiful enough to wring the heart of even a diehard sports UN-enthusiast -- which is me by the way.  Throughout the evening I needed to ask some very basic questions although I did not own up to total ambivalence to any ball throwing to catching or kicking sports.  

Julia was very nervous and very unfriendly.  There were a lot of kids and adults waving tee shirts, shouting directions and general milling around.  Wheel chairs bumped along over the turf, some kids moved without control or made sounds beyond ordinary speech.  I recognized the shell the Julia drew into -- the kind of shell which would have led to a melt down or some physical reaction a few years ago.  She kept it together but seemed to have no interest in the little girl -- same age, same height -- who was her buddy.  There was a practice game, just one scoreless inning, but taking enough time to feel like they played a game.  

Julia and her buddy, Morgan, started by fielding.  Perhaps this will develop into having something to do on the field, but most, perhaps all, balls that were hit never made it out to the field and so there was nothing game-related that Julia and Morgan had to do.  Instead Julia drew in the pebbled track of the field, at first in silence but then I noticed that she would look up at Morgan and talk to her.  I suppose the Morgan asked her questions or she wanted to talk to her about some dinosaur she was drawing.  After awhile, the team was called back into the dugout and it was their turn up at bat.  I lost sight of Julia, until she needed to find some water and one of the coaches took her to the fountain.  (I have to bring a water bottle next time.)  And then she disappeared into the gaggle of kids.  She went up to bat when it was her turn, took instruction from Morgan and the coach on how to stand and how to swing her bat. And then, let it fly when balls came at her.  She hit two of the balls -- one obviously a fowl ball (SP?) and the other straight out to first base.  (Had there been some playing skill among the kids, it  would have been an out.)  Julia and Morgan ran to first base and then Julia stayed quite engaged as she progressed around the bases as other kids hit balls.  She was jubilant when she reached home.  I was a bit teary eyed to watch her standing on third base, chatting with Morgan very comfortably with multiple exchanges, even nodding her head and definitely looking at Morgan when they spoke.  I wondered whether all the therapy and learning and practice had created this skill or how allowed it to surface.  Had it been an interchange between two neurotypical kids, it would have gone unnoticed.

After the game, we stopped at an ice cream shop, close to the field and stood on line with other players, volunteers and parents.  We ate sundaes and talked a little bit about playing soft ball.  Julia still says she doesn’t want to glove although I am sure she would like to use one if she had it.  I think one of her therapists played soft ball and perhaps could introduce her to catch with a glove.  And I’ve been playing catch with her in the pool and her ability with a slightly larger ball has soared.  

This was the first inkling that my decision to put less emphasis on therapy and more on activities with other kids is good for Julia.  Next up, violin lessons, but that will be in a few weeks.  

This is the beginning of the last week of summer for us.  Some school appointment, doc appointments, therapy for Julia and an orientation day for me, but there should be time until Friday to swim each day -- squeeze in two more private swim lessons -- and then, swim club is over.  We go to Upham Woods for a weekend camp out with church on Friday.  See Mary on Monday.  And school begins on Tuesday.