A Little More Like Italy

If you read the first post on this blog, it explains why my blog is called "Little Postcards From Holland."  I recited a story written by a parent of a special needs child.  It explains how having a baby with special needs is a little like planning to take a wonderful vacation to Italy, and instead, ending up in Holland.  If you haven't seen that post, you can click to see it here. 

When  I got pregnant, I had all kinds of ideas of things I wanted my child to experience.  And when I found out we were having a boy, I couldn't wait to teach him how to play sports.  If you know me at all, you know about my love and passion for all things sports.  I started playing softball at a young age, and never looked back.  Even when I was younger, I played football in the back yard with my brothers.  I tried basketball, but it wasn't my thing.  But I was in love with sports.  I loved every part of it, especially the competiveness.  When I got older, I decided to make sports my profession.  So the idea of being able to share this passion with my son was very exciting to me.

It didn't occur to me right away when John was born and we found out that he wasn't typical.  In fact, it took a very long time for Tommy and I to accept the fact, that he would never be typical.  We kept telling ourselves that he just needed to get bigger and maybe get a little therapy help, but one day he would catch up with all of his friends.  When we finally came to realize that he would never be a typical child, one of the things I thought about was not being able to teach him to play.  But with everything going on and all of the issues we were learning to deal with, I still didn't think about it much.  But when his friends started getting involved in soccer and basketball and even baseball, it broke my heart to think I would not be able to watch my son do these things.

Then a couple of year ago, Tommy came across something about a baseball league designed for kids that have special needs.  It's called Challenger Baseball and they have leagues all around the country.  So we looked into something like that here and found that Houston has two leagues.  One is in the West University area, which is not near us, but there is also one in Katy.  So we started to watch the website to find out when we could sign John up for it.  We ended up missing the spring season, but did manage to get him in to play this fall.  This past Sunday was his first game.

I knew that the basic concept was that all kids on the team would get a chance to bat and then they would switch sides.  I didn't know what would be going on in the field while the other team was batting.  Each kid has a buddy to help them and while they are in the field, all of the kids and their buddies stand around and toss a ball to each other.  So they are staying active while the other kids are hitting and running the bases.  Also, when the kids come to bat, one of the adults toss the ball to them from just a few feet away so the kids have a better chance to hit.  We elected to use a tee for John to hit off of because I didn't know how easy it would be for him to try and swing a bat while sitting in his chair.  Of course I helped him hold it and swing, but his favorite part was running the bases.

Some of our good friends came out to watch him play.  Tommy had asked her to take pictures for us, so the whole family came out.  Their daughter, Mia, is the same age as John.  When they got there, Mia came to say hi to John, and one of the ladies that runs the league asked Mia if she wanted to be John's buddy for the day.  She agreed and even got to wear a buddy t-shirt.  So it was me, John and Mia out on the field. 

We all had a blast, even though it was a little chilly.  John got a cool uniform and his team is the Cubs.  His number is 4.  In our family growing up, my brother and I would always sign cards to our parents or to each other with our name and our uniform number.  So I think I want to start that tradition with John.  Also, when I was younger, playing softball, I had a coach who decided to give every girl on the team a nickname.  The nickname was one that belonged to someone who had played professional baseball at one time.  The name I was given was Scooter, which was the nickname of Phil Rizzuto who played shortstop for the Yankees from 1941-1956.  I think it's time to pass that name down to John.

So after being in "Holland" for the past 7 1/2 years, getting to share this experience with John maybe feels a little more like that Italian vacation I was expecting when I got pregnant.  I know it's not exactly what I was hoping for, but watching him have so much fun makes up for that.

Ready to play
 

Is this how you catch a ball?

It sure tastes good

John and Mia

playing catch with Mia

John's first hit

Running the bases

Scored his first run

Family picture

Laughing at Mia

With dad after the game

Big Leaguer

I love having these things laying around the house

Proud to be a Cubbie