Fetch!
Abbie has a lot of toys. Scattered across the living room floor are all kinds of toys, from plastic toys that make electronic sounds, to plastic toys that light up, to plastic toys that make electronic sounds while lighting up. Her favorite toy, besides her Noisy McLightsalot doll, is a simple ball.
Abbie has lots of balls. Her favorite balls are a pair of small inflatable rubber balls, each about a foot in diameter. They’re generic playground balls, almost identical except that one is green and one is orange. They’re suitable for a game of foursquare or kickball, though we most often use them to play fetch. Sometimes I feel guilty about playing the same game with her that I would with a dog, but then she’ll pull something out of the trash or try to eat dog food, and I remember that they’re still on a similar cognitive level.
Playing fetch is a great way to entertain her while I feed the twins. While I sit defenseless with a baby propped on each foot and a bottle in each hand, she’ll walk up to me holding a ball. I’ll free a hand by supporting the bottle with my chin, ask her to give it to me, and throw it across the room encouraging her to “go get it.” She’ll oblige, toddling after it without regard for any plastic toys or pets that may be in the way. When she returns after giggling the entire time, we repeat the process again and again until she spots a toy that’s making an extra entertaining noise, or until I make a bad throw that lodges the ball between the sofa and the wall with all those sippy cups I’ve forgotten exist.
We must bring these balls when visiting the park. While walking through the park’s parking lot, she loves swiping the ball from the stroller and playing a solitary game of catch. She’ll throw the ball and retrieve it herself whether it rolls to a stop on the grass or gets wedged under someone’s driveshaft. When I finally coax her into actually entering the park, she continues playing fetch, but this time I have to dropkick the ball. If I throw the ball for her, she looks at me with an expression generally reserved for attempts to make her eat chicken in non-nugget form, and bounds off to climb up the slide. If I dropkick it while encouraging her to “go get it,” she bounds off retrieve the ball giggling the entire time. We’ll continue this cycle for several kicks until she’s too exhausted to continue running after the ball, and commences running around the playground.
She’ll fetch other balls too. The neighbor children leave several balls of various sizes in our shared backyard. When she spots these, she must collect them all and deposit them on the trampoline before climbing in with them. I think she likes watching the balls bounce with her, though she may just feel the trampoline is too safe and wants the extra hazard of dodging balls while leaping at breakneck heights.
Occasionally her gathered balls will roll out of the trampoline. Sometimes they escape through the entrance opening in the safety netting, though a couple of the balls are small enough to slip between the coils around the trampoline. When one breaks out, she has to stop bouncing, climb out, and return the ball to the trampoline before resuming her bouncing and giggling. I don’t know what possesses her to do such things, but hearing her laugh is a lot better than hearing Noisy Mclightsalot do her thing.
Abbie has lots of balls. Her favorite balls are a pair of small inflatable rubber balls, each about a foot in diameter. They’re generic playground balls, almost identical except that one is green and one is orange. They’re suitable for a game of foursquare or kickball, though we most often use them to play fetch. Sometimes I feel guilty about playing the same game with her that I would with a dog, but then she’ll pull something out of the trash or try to eat dog food, and I remember that they’re still on a similar cognitive level.
Playing fetch is a great way to entertain her while I feed the twins. While I sit defenseless with a baby propped on each foot and a bottle in each hand, she’ll walk up to me holding a ball. I’ll free a hand by supporting the bottle with my chin, ask her to give it to me, and throw it across the room encouraging her to “go get it.” She’ll oblige, toddling after it without regard for any plastic toys or pets that may be in the way. When she returns after giggling the entire time, we repeat the process again and again until she spots a toy that’s making an extra entertaining noise, or until I make a bad throw that lodges the ball between the sofa and the wall with all those sippy cups I’ve forgotten exist.
We must bring these balls when visiting the park. While walking through the park’s parking lot, she loves swiping the ball from the stroller and playing a solitary game of catch. She’ll throw the ball and retrieve it herself whether it rolls to a stop on the grass or gets wedged under someone’s driveshaft. When I finally coax her into actually entering the park, she continues playing fetch, but this time I have to dropkick the ball. If I throw the ball for her, she looks at me with an expression generally reserved for attempts to make her eat chicken in non-nugget form, and bounds off to climb up the slide. If I dropkick it while encouraging her to “go get it,” she bounds off retrieve the ball giggling the entire time. We’ll continue this cycle for several kicks until she’s too exhausted to continue running after the ball, and commences running around the playground.
She’ll fetch other balls too. The neighbor children leave several balls of various sizes in our shared backyard. When she spots these, she must collect them all and deposit them on the trampoline before climbing in with them. I think she likes watching the balls bounce with her, though she may just feel the trampoline is too safe and wants the extra hazard of dodging balls while leaping at breakneck heights.
Occasionally her gathered balls will roll out of the trampoline. Sometimes they escape through the entrance opening in the safety netting, though a couple of the balls are small enough to slip between the coils around the trampoline. When one breaks out, she has to stop bouncing, climb out, and return the ball to the trampoline before resuming her bouncing and giggling. I don’t know what possesses her to do such things, but hearing her laugh is a lot better than hearing Noisy Mclightsalot do her thing.
posted by Matt at
11:32 PM
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