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I'm Jeff Glor, Katie Couric is on assignment today.

I don't know about you, but our vote for father of the year goes to Steve Monforto.

Did you see this the other day? If not, go on line - that video is everywhere by now. Believe me, it will warm your heart.

Steve, a die-hard Phillies fan, was at a game the other night and caught a foul ball hit by Jayson Werth.

Steve was thrilled, and he wanted to share his joy with his three-year-old daughter, Emily. So, he handed her the ball to look at. Then, to his amazement, Emily threw the ball back toward the field.

What did Steve do? Did he get angry at the loss of his treasure?

No. He pulled his daughter toward him and gave her a big hug for all the world to see. He said later, "I didn't want her to think she did anything wrong."

Steve put his child first as all good parents do. The crowd cheered. And so should we.

That's a page from our notebook. I'm Jeff Glor, CBS News

Wow! What a voice!

It's surprising that a little girl, with a wide eyed stare that seems so matter of fact, could belt out tunes so profoundly, with such a self-assured presence.

And to think, her parents were told, “she'd never speak."

That’s the miracle, the inspiration of Gina Marie Incandela, a seven year old Orlando girl who’s not only a model for kids, but could teach anyone how to fulfill a dream.

Gina Singing at the Mets Game
Gina Singing at the U.S. Open

But Gina’s journey was a little different, more difficult in some ways, and thanks to parents who listened and offered support, a little easier in others.

You see Gina was diagnosed at the age of two with a mild form of autism called Pervasive Development Disorder. It not only impaired her speech, but her social skills, her fine motor capacity, and her language development.

But thanks to early diagnosis, her parents placed her in occupational therapy and intensive speech therapy which continues today. Progress was slow at first, until they introduced Gina to music. Taking music therapy with Mrs. Theresa Evans unlocked the development door. Her school work improved, she got along better with her peers, and something else. She actually had talent. Her mom, Michelle Incandela said, “Even if she could only sing the vowel parts of the song, she would sing it in perfect pitch and perfect key. I was really something spectacular.”

Gina was about to give them another spectacle. At five years old, she heard the national anthem on TV and declared she could sing it better. And she said she wanted to sing at a major league ball game. Her mother couldn’t believe it. But instead of tossing the notion aside, she found a try-out for a Spring Training game for the New York Mets. She won an audition, and soon, was standing on the pitchers mound belting out the patriotic tune.

Gina was in demand. After just a year, she’s sung in hockey arenas, ballparks, conventions and hometown games of the Orlando Magic. She became the team’s good luck charm, singing at nine playoff games, including three NBA Finals.

All the attention was a bit nerve-wracking for her mom, who said, “you’re sending your child out there, in the middle of the field, and you just have to pray that nothing goes wrong and hope that audiences like her.”

But Gina was right in her element.

I asked her what was the hardest part of singing before thousands of people? And without missing a beat, Gina replied, "It’s a piece of cake. The happiest day of my life is when I’m singing."

Be sure to check out our piece tonight at cbsnews.com/evening

George Osterkamp is the CBS News producer in the San Francisco Bureau. He worked with Correspondent John Blackstone on this story for the CBS Evening News.

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We discovered Mia through the therapist who had been helping the little girl overcome the terrible abuse she suffered when she was less than a year old. Dr. Lenore Terr, a San Francisco psychiatrist whose specialty is childhood trauma, had written a book about Mia called "Magical Moments of Change: How Psychotherapy Turns Kids Around."

Dr. Terr was the host when I met Mia and her mother, Sharon Behrens, nearly a year ago at the doctor’s office. At that meeting the women and Mia – then 18 – all seemed so self-assured and warm, it was hard to imagine the struggles the three had gone through to save Mia from the lasting damage early trauma often causes.

“She growled. She spit. She hissed. She screamed,” Terr recalled of Mia’s early days starting treatment. Terr knew the odds were against Mia, but the doctor sensed an intelligence in the frightened little girl – and in that, she found hope.

Using dolls and a tea service, Terr worked with Mia for years to overcome her fear of others.

“We made reality out of the tea party,” Terr said. “And it was no more a game. It was reality.”

Mia’s therapy was both mental and physical ...

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Hey, everybody.

As the year comes to a close, I wanted to take a chance to update you guys on Stand Up 2 Cancer and the great things have happened since the three-network telethon in September.

In connection with that effort on CBS, NBC and ABC, SU2C has raised more than $100 million for cutting-edge research. Two-hundred and thirty-seven teams of scientists sent submissions, and a group of eight finalists will submit detailed proposals for the chance to win a Dream Team Grant, to be awarded in 2009.

If you watched the telethon, you might remember a very special 11-year-old girl named Pearce Quesenberry.

When we met her, she was battling a brain tumor. Her doctors and her parents had decided on a very aggressive treatment, including 31 rounds of radiation and four rounds of chemotherapy.

Pearce experienced fatigue and terrible stomach pains. At the time of our meeting, she needed a tube for nutrition. She was unable to eat food, and she lost her long, curly brown hair.

She was receiving experimental ...

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For decades, it's been a kind of myth about math: that boys are just naturally better at it than girls.

Well, guess what. Like most myths, it's just not true. And a new study out today confirms it.

For more from my Notebook, click on the little monitor.

We know that exercise can keep you healthy. But some news out today indicates it can do it in ways we never imagined.

The Journal of the National Cancer Institute reports that you can protect yourself from breast cancer by starting to exercise while young.

For more, just click the little monitor.