Saturday, 21 November 2009

• Playing Catch

  I played catch with my daughter this weekend.
  
  Mother/daughter "catch", I've discovered, is nothing at all like the game of catch I've seen between Father and Son.
  
  Here's how father son catch goes:
  

  • Son stands a good distance away from father.  A beautiful field of fresh cut green between them.
    
  • Father tosses hard baseball (a ball the father bought the son for his 2nd birthday) in a tight fast fashion to his son who stands a good distance away...
  • Son catches the ball with a solid "Thwap" to his glove (yes...he's equipped with a glove).
  • Father smiles with pride.
    
  • Son pitches ball back to father who catches the ball with another solid "Thwap" followed by confirmation of his skills with "Good one, son!"

  
  Here's Mother/Daughter catch: 
  
  I purchase a small rubber playground ball at the toystore before our trip to the park.  It is bright green, rubbery soft and has small blue animal footprints on it.
  
  

  • We stand about 10 feet from each other.
  • I toss the ball underhand to my daughter who flinches and it bounces off her hands and rolls back in my direction.  I run to catch it.
    
  • I throw the ball again and she catches it and holds it aloft saying "I got it! Look!"
  • "Great Honey, I reply.  Good job!"
  • She tosses the green rubber ball back to me and it flies over my head downfield (which unfortunately for me, also means down hill since the field is on an angle...this is not Beverly Hills.)
  • I run.  The two  guys next to me (a teenage son and father) laugh at me as I continue to chase the rubber ball the eludes my grasp over and over again, continuing to roll downhill.
  • We toss the ball a few times successfully to each other.  We get cocky.
  • I decide we're ready to step it up a bit, and besides...I didn't feel like I was really "nailing it", so I do a "wind-up" thingy like you see in Baseball and "pitch the ball to my daughter and her waiting arms.  I pelt her on the cheek and she cries.
  • We stop for a "consolation break."
  • She recovers and we reestablish our positions on the field.
  • I decide to go light and toss the ball underhand.
  • The ball gets stuck in the tree overhead.
  • I have to ask the father and son next to us to use their expertise to use THEIR ball to help dislodge OUR ball from the pine tree.
  • We root for them.
  • They succeed.
  • We get the ball back and decide we might do better if we got really close to each other.  We stand about 2 feet apart.
  • I try to use this experience to "toughen" her up with a game of "don't flinch".
  • We throw the ball back and forth really fast and try not to blink.  

  Yes, Mother/Daughter catch is an exciting game for sure.  Next time I think I'll bring a bigger ball.  Yeah...that's the problem...we need a bigger ball.

  • 6:05 PM
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