William's happy place

I can't remember if I have explained William's bowling obsession on here. But it's unreal. My big guy is positively enamored with bowling. He gets to watch a little TV with Mikey every weekend morning. He always chooses to watch professional bowling (which we have on our DVR). The other day, I told him he had a surprise - it was his Easter basket. He got a huge smile on his face and said, "New bowling???" As in, "Did you record a new tournament for me to watch?" I hated to disappoint him with a measly Easter basket!

Let's see if I can name all of the pro bowlers that William can identify by name and also other random info. We have: Osku Palerma (two hands on the first bowl, uses one hand if he doesn't get a strike), Pete Weber ("PDW"), Jason Belmonte ("Belmo" - bowls with two hands), Sean Rash, Tommy Jones, Brian Kretzer, Mika Koivuniemi, Ronnie Russell, Dom Barrett, Mike Fagan, Stuart Williams, Patrick Allen (people say "yeah hoss" for him), Norm Duke (people yell "Duuuuuuke" when he bowls). Yep, that is how I am filling up my brain with new info these days. Am I brushing up on the American Revolution? No way. Keeping my editing skills intact? Not so much.

He got a bowling set for his third birthday. I bought it for a couple of bucks at Goodwill, and that thing has gotten hours upon hours of use. It has led to about a thousand tantrums but many more smiles, high fives and jubilant yells.

As I'm sure you can guess by now, William's happy place is the bowling alley. We have only been there once since the obsession began, and that visit was last month. We bought an hour of bowling for one person and got Mikey some shoes. Mikey mostly helped William get the ball down the lane (verrrry slowly), and I mostly chased Ryan around and tried to keep him from slip-sliding all the way down the lane.


Such concentration


Just chillaxin' while big brother bowls. In truth, he sat here for .5 seconds, but what matters is that I caught the moment!


Where's the touch screen on this thing?

William has a great sense of a direction and a keen interest in street names. He could probably give better directions to our house than I could. He likes to ask if we are on 290. If I say yes, he asks if we are going to pass the bowling alley. It's a happy day when he gets to see his happy place.


William in action! I don't expect that he will be so in love with bowling forever, and I am glad to capture this unique time in his life. And if he does grow up to be a pro bowler, Mikey and I will be front and center as his biggest fans. Are there bowling scholarships??