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Near: Christopher Foreground: Nico
February 26th, 2013
I needed to change up the activity with my boys after I picked them up from school. So I decided to take them bowling rather than the same old stuff we usually do like the playground, indoor playground, mall playground, city playground, park playground, okay, well, you get the point. [As I drive past all the same ole, same ole parks.]
Fun for them lately has been running up the stairs and then sliding down the slide. [Repeat] Run back up the stairs, then back down the slide. But watching isn't stimulating, so I participate in the action. But after a few stares...from the other kids, who are trying to go down the slide and patiently wait for me to leave, I sulk back to the bench area and wait.
Currently, they have yet to play any kind of organized sports. So I figured I would break them into the sporting life beyond the iPhone and let them break some bowling pins legally because, knowing my boys, they'd break them without a ball. [Kids have no fear.]
I was nervous because I imagined my young sons running down the bowling lanes, kicking the pins onto the hardwood ally, then pulling on the re-rack machine and short-circuiting the bowling ally electrical system. [Although, if I was losing in a game, I wouldn't mind.]
Nico loves the bowling application on my iPhone, so when we walked into the bowling alley, sheer joy overtook his tiny body, and a giant smile appeared. He screamed delightfully as he witnessed grown men roll a ball down a full-size and very real bowling lane. For him, this was 4D at its best and far beyond the usual pixel screen he is accustomed to.
I knew today my sons would have joy in Bowlingville.
It's great to see such enjoyment on their faces when they do something trivial, like rolling a heavy ball down a thin lane and knocking over some pins. But for them, this kind of action is organized destruction. Dad is actually allowing them to knock over stuff without the usual, "STOP!" or "Don't do that!" or "STOP!". [ Yes, I know It repeated that, but with kids, that's what you tend to do.]
It sucks that my current age and knowledge of how life works can jade the shit out of me and cloud the fun of this game. I used to bowl in a league and have long grown tired of it. But I try my best to allow my boys to bring back my youth, and I find myself enjoying the moment as much as they are, with a massive smile on my face. After all, all their new experiences are my experiences, like the excitement of seeing a movie with someone new who hasn't seen it, even though you've seen it 5 times.
It is tricky keeping them from running down the lane, though. I want to tell them that if they cross that foul line, they'll be in danger, and all these bad things can happen to them, but yet, I don't want to scar them for life. But these lanes are very slick, and as soon as Nico crossed the foul line and entered the oily area of the floor, he fell right on his butt. Problem solved.
Christopher appeared content with watching the bowling ball come out of the ball return machine. For him, it was the best magic trick ever performed. It's way better than Dad's disconnecting thumb trick. You know, the illusion that I detached my thumb from my hand, even though I never did. Kids eat that up.
With one eye on Nico as he threw his ball onto the lane, I had my other eye on Christopher's hand so it wouldn't do its own disappearing act. Or other things like venturing into another player's game...there he goes! [Running after him]
I hadn't bowled in years, and here I am bowling with my own 2 sons. Something I did as a child in league play. But something I grew out of and lost interest in as a teen and young adult. As my sons roll the ball down the lane, I can now feel how flinging that ball can release the stress of a long, hard day. That is until I rolled that dreaded 7, 10 split. I'll let Nico run down the lane and knock it over. [Come on, just this once.]
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