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Introduction
 
 
 
 

Chapter 16 – World Cup Gab and Toilet Bounce

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This is something else I never taught Gabby.  I just bounced the ball for her to catch in the air, and she did a header, sending the ball back to me. I thought it was an accident, but she did it again and again.  She loved it.
The latex soccer ball was the right size and had the right amount of bounce to play this way.  I think she would have headered any ball if I could have bounced it just right. In fact, she tried with the inflatable toy balls once and it almost knocked her over!
Her ability to header the ball was only limited by my ability to bounce it into a good position for her to hit it with her nose. It was kind of hard to hold my phone in one hand and bounce the ball properly with the the other, so when you watch the videos she does not header it 100% of the time, but when I set it up properly, she nails it. When I served it right on the money, when she headered it the ball either flew at warp speed in a line drive, or took a high, looping flight in the air.
The highest expression of this game I called, “toilet bounce.”
Often when I was in the shower, I would hear a “splash” down at the drain end of the tub.  She had dropped her soccer ball in the tub with me.

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Pic taken from the shower.  Gabby would stand in the open doorway
when I would bounce the ball off the toilet seat.

I’d pick it up, pull back the curtain and see her in the open doorway.  When we made eye contact she would start doing the happy dance.  I would bounce the ball high off the toilet seat, and following it in the air, she would rear up and hit it really hard.  She often bounced it off the back wall and right back into the tub with me.

I tried getting into the tub to record this, but she ignored me.  I took off my clothes and got in, still she ignored me.  I ran the water, no dice. Finally, I turned the setting to shower, THEN she would play!  I made some recordings, but bouncing the ball off the toilet seat while holding the camera and trying not to get it wet was very difficult.  I only got one decent recording, and in it I exposed myself when I captured it!  I never did try and record toilet bounce again.  I really regret that now.