Dan's House of Foo

Take the Toddlers Bowling

We needed something to do with our wee ones (four of them aged four or less between our two families), the day before Xmas when everyone else we know is out shopping and we're busy not caring. Someone happened on the excellent idea of taking them bowling. Oh the hijinks! Oh the surreality! Half the time the kids weren't on the lane at all, instead opting for:

• Eating snacks on the sidelines
• Playing with their bowling shoes, which were way too big for their little feet anyway, and we would've let them on the lane with no shoes except the bowling alley people insisted it was some kind of legal liability thing and they had to be wearing bowling shoes, even though it sure looked to me like it was much more hazardous to have the little tykes trundling around in shoes that were longer than their legs for heck's sake, and maybe it was just a coincidence, but the more bowling shoes we rented the more money they made. I'm just saying.
• Wandering off randomly to the bathroom, the video games, the pool table, etc.
• Wandering off randomly to nowhere in particular.

It was fantastic! Seriously. I don't know why, but the maelstrom of chaos that erupts around groups of toddlers at play fills me with glee. I helped $sprog bowl a few frames and then that was it, no more help, "I can do it myself, Dad!" And heaven forbid I should set foot on the lane at the same time as him after that.

Then we all came back to our house, played with Fisher Price musical instruments in the backyard, ate a wonderfully chaotic grilled cheese lunch while the kids emptied every single toybin in the house on to the floor and proceeded to roll around in the ensuing pile, and are now all settling in for naps (myself included). Whew.

I love the holiday season!