Bacon, Cauliflower, and T-ball

With Day Five of the bacon trial safely behind us, and since bacon is so closely related to pork, we decided to take the risk and move forward swiftly with the food trials. We added one of Asher's favorites: cauliflower. Beginning yesterday, Asher has begun to eat one of his favorite dishes: cauliflower and potatoes. Cauliflower is high on the food allergy scale, so I'm a bit nervous.

If he passes the cauliflower food trial, his diet will be very close to what it was before we started this process. Let's hope that apple is the only thing we need to remove from his diet....

Yesterday, we had our second t-ball practice. Raj and I were a little more prepared this time. I had done some Web surfing and found some great information to guide us through coaching t-ball. Raj and I shared the information, talked about a few things, then implemented all this stuff on the field. Some of it worked, some needs tweaking, but we're getting better at this coaching thing. But the most important thing is that the children seemed to have a good time and to be learning how to play t-ball. Phew!

One of the most rewarding moments on Asher's team was with a three-year old named Olivia. This was Olivia's second practice and she couldn't have been more terrified. She arrived sucking on three fingers, her arms wrapped around her and her head down. As her mum pushed her toward the crowd of pre-schoolers, tears dropped from her eyes.

Our first drill was to run around the bases. Since I was the only coach for the team, I asked one of the parents to help. The parent lead the team around the bases while I brought up the rear. There was Olivia, trying desperately to make her way back to her mum. I gently took her arm and with a gentle bit of persuasion, I coaxed her to run the bases with me. And that's how we began the practice.

With each drill, I had to gently coax Olivia further and further. At the end of the practice, I actually saw a smile on Olivia's face; she was enjoying herself! And she even joined the rest of the team as we put our hands together, raised them up and cheered "White Tigers!"

One of the negatives of coaching is that I'm so wrapped up in working with all the children that I don't get to see Asher play. I saw him hit the ball off the tee once, and he can run the bases really well, but that's all I managed to see.

I look forward to next week's t-ball session.