In the days of my youth I spent many a summer weekend playing in softball tournaments.  The other day I was wearing a sweatshirt obtained at one such event.  The shirt in question features a ball in a glove with a bat and words surrounding it, so that the ball is only a small part of the overall design.  This is why I was intrigued to notice that Alethea seemed excited by the shirt and kept pointing directly to the ball.  I said to her, “That’s a ball Alethea.  Can you say ball?”  She said, “Baa.”

My amazement at her picking up a new word so quickly was later explained when Peter arrived home from work that evening.  “Have you been teaching Alethea to say ‘ball’?” I asked him.  “Yeah, why?” Peter responded.  I explained to her proud Papa that Alethea not only could say ball, but also recognized a 2-D representation of one.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, any guy who tries to teach his 8 month old to play catch is probably going to teach her to recognize a baseball somewhere in the process.

All of this has me wondering what’s coming next.  In my mind’s eye, I can just see Alethea at her preschool screening when the nice teacher holds up the number 7 and asks Alethea, “Do you know what number this is?”

“Of course I do,” Alethea will say.  “That’s Joe Mauer’s number!”