Bowling with Jack

From Hollands at Home

On Saturday, Kristie, Jack and I went "real bowling," which is how a 5-year-old who is quite good at Wii bowling describes the experience of going to an actual bowling center and chucking an actual ball toward actual pins.

Kristie took both boys out bowling on Veterans Day with other Club Mom members from church, but she forgot the camera (and probably was too busy chasing Max to have gotten a good picture anyway). But we had two coupons for free games (thanks, LHS homecoming parade) and, since Jack understands both real bowling and the wonder of coupons, we decided to take him back.

When we arrived at the Brunswick Zone (formerly Hawthorn Lanes), the place was in full-on cosmic bowling, birthday party madness. Jack was practically hypnotized. But he paid enough attention to find our lane (17) and a ball and type his name into the scoring computer.

Here's a video of Jack rolling during this portion of our outing.



We had to work on getting Jack to not heave the ball two-handed down the lane (which always starts with a big thud) and move him toward more of a rolling motion, and he figured that out pretty quick. After he bowls, he races back to where he can see the monitor display whatever graphics there are to see.

Halfway through, the cosmic stuff ended, which was good for everyone involved. Here's a video where you can actually see the little guy.



Jack had a great time, even in defeat (see scores below). He was a prince about leaving without a fight and I think he even thanked Pops & K for watching Max so we could bowl uninterrupted. His behavior has improved so much since he started kindergarten... let's just say I never would have considered taking him bowling even as late as August, and I'm especially thrilled with how well he handled all the lights and sound that go with cosmic bowling.

It may not seem like much to those who don't live with him every day, but Jack is making tremendous strides away from the toddler behavior he clung to for so long and advancing toward "little boy" benchmarks that let me know he'll do great in school, at church, etc. I'm thrilled Kristie decided to plan this activity (in between hosting small gatherings Friday and Sunday night and waging a solo toy-shopping war Sunday afternoon), and I'm even more thrilled to think about when we get to go again.

From Hollands at Home

Yes, those are our scores. And yes, we had the bumpers up. You'll note Jack picked up the first spare of the day. Kristie and I can do better, but you wouldn't know from Saturday.