An Exercise in Bowling

I think I mentioned that we took the girls bowling on New Year’s Eve. We got there just about when the alley opened, around 1:00pm, thinking we needed to get there early to be sure we didn’t have to wait for a lane.

Ha. Hahahahaha. There was one other group of four people bowling. The lady behind the counter asked us if we had a specific lane we wanted.

I managed to not laugh and said instead, “This is her first time bowling. Like, ever.”

I pointed to Alyssa, who is currently four feet, eleven and a half inches tall. She’ll be ten next week and she’s aching to be five feet tall.

The bowling alley lady asked if we wanted bumpers.

Tom said he didn’t think Alyssa needed them.

I disagreed. I mean, remember that point I made about her never having bowled before?

The lady put us on a lane that has bumpers but didn’t put them up for the first game.

Olivia couldn’t hold the four pound ball in her tiny, weak little hands so she just drank a fruit punch and ran around in her socks, declaring often that she was quite glad that her socks had ‘grippies’ so she didn’t fall on the slippery, slidy floor.

Alyssa’s first game of bowling ever ended with a score of 21. Let’s remember that was without bumpers. She was actually pretty happy with that score. I was proud of her.

Tom went up and asked that the bumpers be put up for her. And okay, for me too. My score that first game? A paltry 98. I know. I was ashamed of myself. So close to 100 but…not quite.

Let’s not talk about Tom’s score. I’ll just say that his increased from game one to game two, as did mine and Alyssa. Alas, Tom didn’t actually need the bumpers to help in that endeavor.

Alyssa’s second game ended with a score of 54. She’s awesome that girl. Though, she did manage to bowl a couple of gutter balls even with the bumpers in place. She was so proud of herself for more than doubling her first score.

She wanted to play a third game but we stopped at two. My thumb was starting to hurt and I knew that since we didn’t do this very often (ever?) I’d probably feel the pain brought on by different yet repetitious movement the next day. All that and Olivia’s fruit punch was gone.

The next morning, Alyssa rolled out of bed with a groan. She said her calves hurt. And then she walked around the house like a ninety year old woman for the rest of the day.

I laughed as I told Tom that she’s not used to sore muscles. When you’re not quite ten but usually very, very active, you don’t tend to get sore muscles all that often. But bowling apparently used muscles in her legs that don’t often get a workout. Poor kid. I gave her some Tylenol and told her to walk it off.

I, on the other hand, managed to avoid any muscle soreness. I know, funny, huh?

We all had so much fun bowling that I hope we’ll make it a family tradition to go bowling on New Year’s Eve. I can just see us dragging a mopey 17 year old Alyssa with us, her grumbling the entire way about how lame it is to have to spend a couple of hours with her stupid, OLD parents and her annoying little sister.

I also hope that next year, when she’s SEVEN, Olivia’s hands (and arms..and legs?) will be strong enough for her to roll a four pound ball down the lane. It could totally happen.