Have a ball

The purchase of this ball was a result of two recent incidents, and led to a rather unfortunate adventure.

Tuesday night we were at the church for Young Men/Young Women (the girls were, ironically, scrapbooking, but I hadn't gotten anything together to work on with them). Kate kept wanting to go run around in the gym, so we spent a lot of time in there. Then a guy came in with a basketball to shoot some hoops. Kate wanted that basketball. Wanted it bad. She wailed and wept and carried on for what seemed like a good 10-15 minutes. (It was very sad, and probably annoying for everyone else, I imagine, but I couldn't help laughing--I mean, who would have thought that a basketball would be such an object of desire?) When the guy took a break Kate got to have the ball for a while, and was just as pleased as punch. She has played with basketballs before--we were using one for an activity a couple of weeks ago, and during the Bishop's spiritual thought in opening exercises Kate was up at the front of the room, pushing the ball around and yelling "Wheee!" So this didn't completely come out of nowhere. We were just surprised by the strength of her reaction.

We have a couple of folding crates that we've been using for laundry baskets. A few days ago, Doug got the bright idea of pulling Kate around in one. This means that we've spent a lot of time hunched over, dragging her around the house while she signs "More!"



So, Wednesday afternoon, I borrowed a little red wagon from a friend in the complex. I put the laundry basket in the wagon and it just barely fit, so I pulled Kate around in that. She was having such a good time that I thought we'd take a walk up to Kmart, which is about 3½ blocks away. She likes looking at the stuffed animals and things. We played with the big plastic balls for a while and I picked one out for her. (Hey, three bucks!) The guy who checked us out tried to put it in a bag, but he didn't have one big enough. I said I'd manage somehow. I ended up holding the ball in one arm while I pulled the wagon with the other.

Shortly after we left the Kmart parking lot, on our way back home, it started to rain. It was a light sprinkle at first, but got progressively harder. By the time we were about a block from home, it was really pouring. Then a sudden gust of wind whisked the ball out of my arm and tossed it down the street, back the way we had come. We stood there in the rain, watching the ball dance away, performing graceful, gravity-defying leaps like an actor on wires in a martial arts movie. I was laughing. I seem to recall Kate pointing after it and exclaiming in surprise. ("Ball!")

In retrospect, I should have just left the ball and gotten Kate home. But we went after it. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I left the wagon at the side of the road and picked up Kate and hurried. We found the ball back up at the edge of the Kmart parking lot. Brother Smith from church was standing out in front of his house with an umbrella (I didn't even know they lived over there) and he walked us and the ball back home.

Kate was soaked and shivering when we got home, and looking a little blue in the extremities. I tried giving her a nice warm bath, but she wasn't going for it, just hunching over and crying, so I got her all towelled off and into a nice warm sleeper, and then we spent a good long while snuggled up and nursing. I called the doctor to see if there was anything I should be looking out for. I figured Kate would go to bed early after all that, but she didn't.

Kate seems none the worse for wear, and has been enjoying playing with her ball. This morning she even dragged the laundry basket over to me and then went and pointed at the front door. But we aren't going outside right now. It's raining.