Today we went bowling

My son's third birthday (or 3th as the misprint on the cake said) was this past Wednesday. Today we went out and celebrated his birthday by taking him bowling for the first time.

He has a little plastic bowling ball and pin set at home. So he was already familiar with the basic mechanics. And I think he has seen a bowling alley before on Handy Manny or one of the other kid shows he watches. I figured it would be a cute thing that he would get a kick out of. Though I have to admit, I was a little worried that he might not be big enough to roll the ball hard enough to actually knock over any pins when the ball finally finished its long slow crawl down to the end of the lane.

Have you ever had a moment that was just so awesome and so super-charged with positive emotion that you wanted to crystallize it, to somehow freeze that moment in time, so that you could carry it around with you all the time? Well I got nearly an hour of that today.

It is generally accepted by those that know me well that I am an accomplished wordsmith. But in this case, I must admit, I find myself without a way to adequately express what I observed happening with him. I was totally unprepared for the level of enthusiasm that he showed for pretty much the whole hour that we were bowling. He didn't really understand a lot of the finer points like whose turn was when or which ball he was supposed to use. And he really didn't care.

By the metrics used by any serious bowler he did terrible. We all did. But every time he went up and took his turn to roll the ball down the lane, it was like every good thing in the world imaginable was happening all at once. If he knocked down even one pin he was jumping up and down, clapping, shouting hooray and giving high fives. He was even celebrating when he missed completely.

The expressions on his face and the waves of positive energy literally pouring off of him were simply mind blowing. I truly wish I could have bottled the experience to savor and  sample at various times in the future. Alas, the memory will have to do.

Taking him bowling was completely a flippant decision on my part. I am tremendously glad that we ended up doing it and was a bit sad when it was time to go. We will definitely be bowling more in the future.

Just think. Bowling is a simple maybe even boring thing to most people. But, through the eyes of my son and in fact anyone for anyone who has never done it before and is truly open to new experiences, it is a wild new adventure where anything can happen.

Yes, I am aware that eventually the "new" will wear off, but I can't wait to find something else new that he flips out over in a similar way. I love being a dad.