The rain held off on Alli's game until we were taking the team photos, so we made it! I am now glad that we went - Alli is doing better each time we go. This time, she actually - I know, it's hard to believe - but she actually ran from one base to another. AJ batted with her the first inning, and she did pretty well with him. When she was on first, she wanted to come to me, since I was by the dugout and was close by, but once she got on second, she listened to him, and he did very well with her. (He tends to micro-manage her, which I don't blame him, but it will set her off too.)

AJ was great! When we got there, there was no one on the field we were supposed to be on (or the one I thought we were supposed to be on) so he took Alli to the play area and let her climb around while I went back to the car to get my phone and call Ralph and check the schedule to see what I forgot. We got there at 8:20, and the coach wants us there at 8:15, so I thought I just forgot where or when we were playing! (Typical for me!) He kept her happy and occupied, and before I made it back to the car, everyone else started coming in (I was right - they were just all late too!)

Once the kids starting getting there, the coach had them start playing catch. Rather than agitate Alli by "making" her play catch, I let her just wander around. AJ played catch with one of the older boys, and he did very well with him. He was pretty accurate with hitting Isiah's mitt, so Isiah could catch most of the balls. He also managed to catch most of the balls Isiah threw to him, too, which delighted Isiah. We usually play outfield close to Isiah, so we help watch him during the game too. Luckily, the opposing team did not have any "power hitters". Some teams have some boys that can really hit, and the adults and "helpers" have to make sure none of the kids get hit with a line drive. Talk about "taking one for the team"! Unfortunately, the other team did have about 15 players, so it took quite a while to go through the line up for batting. Ours went a lot faster, as we only had about 9 kids there. We also only had one wheelchair and Alli that don't "run" the bases (though she did once!). The other team had several that had limited physical abilities. One boy (I think he was the coach's son) got out of his wheelchair to bat (coach supporting him from behind) and used his crutches to run the bases. Usually, the coach pitches to the kids, so they had a substitute pitcher while he was helping, and the substitute tended to hit the coach with the ball. He got quite a few laughs from the kids clowning around.

I did order pictures for Alli. The photographer managed to get one of her with an actual smile, not her snarl that looks like a smile. To get it, I ended up kneeling beside Alli, holding the bottom of a bat, trying to keep Alli's hand on the bat, and the bat close to her face, trying to stay out of the picture, and AJ was trying to keep her attention on the camera and keep her smiling (he had candy!). We did it! It took a few pictures, and thank goodness for digital cameras. The photographer was able to tell when she had a good picture. We were all amazed! I had planned on ordering just one picture as a memento, but since the digital looked so good, I ended up ordering a package of pictures. I guess that is how you sell photos!