Laughing at Life

Sometimes you just have to laugh – not that it is always easy to manage.

Today I was trying to run a little ahead of schedule. I had agreed to help out at Braeden’s school with Friday activities and take a bunch of kids bowling. I needed to get out the door, drop Thane off, and then go right to Riley.

Thane had other ideas. He had to have blue pants. He was not going to wear the brown ones in my hand. He needed round crackers in his snack, no rectangles. The mess I made while digging for denim overalls is unreal – and I ended up getting them out of the laundry! He wouldn’t wear his rain boots either. If I tried to force the issue he would have been puddle so it just wasn’t worth it.

Dropping him off at school went fine – he was happy to be there and ran in and hugged the first teacher he saw.

I went over to Riley and waited. The teacher told me it might be a little later than 12:45 – it was closer to 1 p.m. I think there actually were kids filling then entire age span of 4 years to 14 years. They all behaved very nicely – the older ones helping the younger ones and such.

I ran out toward the end to get Thane from school and then back to the bowling alley to take kids back to Riley. It was overwhelming for Thane, but he was very cute. He was jumping and flapping. He saw his big brother and shouted “Bwaden” at the top of his lungs. Thane got hugs from Braeden and one of his buddies, and then they tried to show Thane how to bowl. I should have had my camera!

It turns out that Thane is the perfect bowling partner – he doesn’t get in the way at all. He thinks the balls should be rolled right down the gutter, so he didn’t even really need his own turn. Every time he released a gutter ball he would jump up and down, flap a bit, and then clap his hands for himself. He was cheering the other kids too saying things like “Way to go!” It’s always interesting to me when he goes from a bear in the morning to a complete charmer later in the day.

What started out as a pretty crazy day was actually rather fun. It was nice to spend some time with kids from Braeden’s school – especially since I got some extra time with him! And it was nice to see that Thane handled being over-stimulated pretty well. When he is so happy and bouncy, he can make pretty much even the grumpiest grouch smile. He protested at first when we told him it was all done, but since all the other kids were getting their shoes on, he just grabbed my hand and headed for the door – calling for Braeden and his friends to come too. I wish it was always so easy . . . or at least predictable as to when it will be easy and when it won’t be!