Jerry, the baseball player

On Tuesday, I was watching a Mariner’s game and Jerry happened to come sit on my lap. He watched a bit before something caught his eye. He stared for a bit longer and then it dawned on him - “poi!” he said. (Poi is Japanese for throw.)

Jerry had realized that the pitcher was throwing the ball to the catcher. We spent the next 10 minutes watching the game - with Jerry and I both noting when “poi” happened. Then Jerry hopped up, ran over to where my baseball mitt and ball were (on the shelf) and pointed at it - “boh boh” (ball).

Eriko handed him the baseball and soon he was making dents in the floor. It was such an exciting moment, for a multitude of reasons - to see his face and body language as he made the connection between what he did and what the players were doing, to have him understand exactly how to follow along, and for it all to be around baseball… it was very cool.

Today we spent about 30 minutes (total, morning + afternoon) throwing the baseball. Jerry has this mischevious streak in which he throws objects where you aren’t and laughs, but that has been very rare with the baseball. Perhaps it is because I end up looking dissappointed and say “ball” instead of laughing along with him - and hearing me say “steeeeeerike” is so much more fun. ;P

Here’s a great video of Jerry throwing an orange ball:http://photos.kirsch.org/albums/jerry16/MOV03776.mpg.