My One-Year-Old Nearly Beat Me Bowling

Today was discount Family Fun Day as we tried to get rid of some of the promotional "free whatever" coupons we've gathered in a pile over the past few months. On our nature hike this morning at Friedrich Park, we finally took a right at the initial trail fork and made it up to the old windmill. Both the kids enjoyed watching the big blades spin and the little goldfish in the water well play hide and seek in the weeds. Our four-year-old enjoyed identifying the numbered plants on the trail with the corresponding names on the map. Our 16-month-old was content to eat rocks and walk across the plank-bridges over and over and over again! We returned home in time for PBJs and Amelia's nap (oh, how I wish Nate would've taken one today. After his 6:00 wake-up and a long day, he just couldn't make it until bedtime. He started what would be an impressive meltdown just as we were finishing dinner at EZ's...but I get ahead of myself.)

"I found number 12 again, Dad...mountain cedar!"

Yup, there's the bridge...again!

After everyone was refreshed (and Jason and I finished our pm shot of espresso!), we loaded up the Sebring for an afternoon of family bowling! This would be nearly impossible for me to do alone with the kids at this age, but a perfect filler with Jason's help on a hot Texas afternoon. They had shoes down to a children's size 6. Amelia's in a 5, so what the heck? We let her try too! Nate an Amelia used the bumpers and the ball ramp. Nate's very first ball had to be retrieved by the attendant because it didn't make it down to the end of the lane. His second ball was clocked at 1.3 mph, so for future attempts, we had him use the ramp. He thinks that's a pretty cool physics experiment in itself--sometimes he just taps the ball off the ramp, sometimes he shoves it with a heave-ho! The end-point of this story, glossing over the chaos of having two kids under four with exploring personalities in the lanes; is that Nate bowled a 101, I tied Amelia with a 102 and Jason got a "lucky" tenth frame to jump ahead and win with a 121. Basically, Amelia nearly beat everyone!

Aren't these just the cutest bowling shoes ever!

She had fun with the cause & effect of it all...and she loves balls; so she was happy!

Nate celebrating after a STRIKE!

Pick Up the Park, Please!

We made a morning of visiting Jason at the hospital today. We wanted Nathaniel to have a visual of where "Daddy" works, so I loaded up the kids and headed to the base. I needed to pick up one thing from GNC, so we stopped by the BXtra (and I bought Amelia her first baby doll--her eyes light up whenever she sees one of her babies, kitties, teddies or monkeys these days. At 16 months, I think we've officially entered the baby doll phase It's amazing. I've certainly never demonstrated how to "properly" play with dolls, and yet she took the baby bottle accessory that came with it and held it right up to her new baby's mouth. Then she laid baby on the couch and gave it kisses! These kids never cease to surprise me.) OK, but back to base. Jason was in a morning surgery, so we had another hour to kill before we could meet up with him. I took the kids to the awesome park behind the commissary--it's a giant, shaded (oh-so-important this summer) 3-part park. Nate and Amelia explored all the sections--the 0 to 3-year-old section with a play train, car and ramps; the 3 to-8-y-o section with bigger steps, a tower, a twisty slide and suspension bridges; and the 9 to 12-y-o section (or smtg like that) with just every little bell and whistle a playscape could have--tunnels, bridges, climbers, towers, slides, twists, hangers, etc. About 30 minutes into play time, Nate found a plastic shopping bag and shouts, "I found trash, Mom!" I thought I'd put the candy wrapper that Amelia was about to put in her mouth inside the bag and throw it away. But for those who know how task-focused my son can be, we proceeded to play "garbage man" around the park for the next 30 minutes. I was a little disgusted when he brought used band-aids to the pretend "garbage truck," but I had enough when he ran up to me holding...a used tampon. Arghh. Seriously. I have no idea. I'm guessing (or hoping) some stray animal hauled it out of the park restrooms and tried to bury it in the wood chips. Needless to say, I tried to keep my composure while simultaneously disinfecting my child and ending this altruistic game of make-believe.



Oh, lunch in the hospital cafeteria was uneventful (minus Nate spilling my full cup of lemonade onto my tray). And both Nate and Mia enjoyed running circles around Dr. Dad during our tour.