21 August 2011: excerpt

Today was very exciting. Atilla displayed recognisable signs of intent and purpose.

He was happily playing “roll the ball” with his father - his ball handling skills are improving wonderfully - he can 'catch'/stop the ball and roll it in a chosen direction. Dad was so pleased and called Mom - who was inattentive sitting behind Dad - to look and pay attention to this.

Mom was so pleased with Atilla's skills, she clapped her hands together with joy.

Atilla laughed, and rolled the ball to Dad again. Dad and Mom cheered him on. Atilla laughed his stuttering half-gurgle. He caught the ball, and rolled it back towards his parents.

Dad caught the ball, and Atilla bubbled into unhappiness. Whatever was the matter?

The ball rolled in the direction he had directed.

However Atilla had been looking at Mom when he rolled the ball. Mom wondered perhaps Atilla meant for Mom to catch it.

Testing this out, Mom joined in the game. The formation became a triangle: A, M, D.

M rolled to A. A gurgled in pleasure. A rolled to M. M caught it. A gurgled in joy. M rolled to A. A happy.

And so forth for a couple of rounds. The ball went off-course and was diverted to inattentive D (who was on the computer seeking images of “mantis cocoon”). D perforce rejoined the game.

A couple more times the ball rolled off-course in the same way - A rolls towards M but unstable ground diverts to D. Atilla then began to (seemingly) roll the ball even further to his right, away from the contentious ground, so M had to reach for the ball - unlike previous rounds when the ball rolled directly to her (more or less).

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Right now he is asleep in his cot. Bless. He's stirring, so all the best.