A Tale of Two Balls

Abby likes to throw things for Ella. She isn't very good at it yet, but Ella isn't too picky. Most of the time the object being thrown makes it, oh, 1 foot away from Abby. Unless it's a plastic ball and they are standing on the wood floor. That's the best.

Anyhoo, the other day Abby and I were out in the backyard, wandering around when Ella brought over a ball. Abby immediately picked up the ball, but refused to throw it. It was way too cool (in adult lingo, disgusting) for throwing. After waiting around for a while, Ella realized she wasn't going to get what she wanted from Abby, so she went and scrounged up another ball from some dark corner of the yard and brought it over to me. Abby spotted it and a look of astonishment crossed her face. "What?! There are TWO of them?" She ran over and absconded with the second ball before Ella or I could do anything about it.

Ella was clearly distraught by all the ball hoarding that was going on. She followed Abby all over the yard, willing her to toss one of those balls (or to at least accidentally drop one so she could give it to less selfish party).


Abby totally ignored the intense stares being directed at her, instead focusing on the laborious task of keeping the balls in her hands while at THE SAME TIME walking. Ella tried to be a bit more obvious, exerting her will in closer proximity.


Although this new tactic forced Abby to take note of Ella, she was recalcitrant. Finally, Ella resorted to pleading. "Please, kind baby, won't you throw my ball?"


And that did the trick. Directly after this photo, Abby tossed both balls at the same time.