Today we went to Jett's first real kid-birthday party. I say it's his first real one because he knew about it ahead of time and was excited to go. He picked out the present for his friend. All of the kids were old enough to sit on grown-up size chairs and eat their cake with forks. Also, it was at a bowling alley. A Rock and Bowl alley, to be exact. In fact, a Rock and Bowl alley with bumpers on the gutters. That's my kind of bowling.
We arrived at the bowling alley 15 minutes early, to give Jett time to "warm up" to the place before all of the kids arrived. But he was so excited to see his friend's mom (the mom of the birthday boy), that when she waved at him through the double glass doors, he turned around and looked outside and pretended that no one was talking to him. Then he stood in between the first set of the doors and the second set of doors for a full 10 minutes. He would have stayed out there longer if Charlie hadn't dragged him in kicking and screaming. But he settled right down after that. In fact, after another 10 minutes, he even let us take off his coat.
By the time we got organized enough to go get his bowling shoes from the desk, he was ready to go. He looked so cute in those size eights! I don't have a picture, because I knew between managing Jett at a birthday party with new kids, at a bowling alley, and taking care of Kai, we'd have our hands full - too full for a camera. I was right. But it was great.
The kids just bowled and bowled and bowled. They finished each other's frames, and were so proud when they figured out that they could carry their own 6 pound balls (although most parents stooped and tottered behind their kid, keeping one of their hands floating under the ball until the ball was on the ground). The bowling alley had this great ramp that the kids could set the ball on top of. Then all they had to do was give the ball a push, and it would roll down the ramp and on to the lane.
When the pizza arrived, all of the kids swarmed the round table closest to the lane. But of course, not Jett. Nope, we sat (by ourselves, off and on) at the back table. We ate, we observed, and we drank a lot of lemonade. It was fine though, I get it. Making small talk takes a lot of energy. Might as well save that energy for bowling. And for eating cake.
By the time Jett was done eating, he was really ready to go. He played with the kids. He gave hugs. He hopped around, ran in to things, cracked himself up, just like every other kid. Then when it was time to go, he refused to leave.
He sat down and wouldn't budge. Even when all of the other guests left. Even after I took Kai to the car. Charlie finally had to pick him up and carry him, kicking and screaming, out the double doors he had refused to enter two hours earlier. When we got the to car, he said he wanted to take a walk with Mom. He said he wanted to hold my hand. Now how would you respond to that?
You would hold his hand and take a walk around the parking lot, which is just what we did. I picked him up so he could see the river, or canal, or whatever body of water that was. We looked at the seagulls on the water. We talked about the rain that was hitting our heads. I guess he just needed time to decompress, because after that he climbed in to the car and sat in his seat just as he was supposed to. Of course he also talked his way in to getting a piece of candy, and he knew that was coming.
It was a great afternoon.
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