Friday bowling and other stuff

I am glad Simon picked bowling today as it is raining on and off and my dream of going to the zoo just wouldn't have worked out. The bowling alley in the next city over opened at 11 am and had bumper bowling! Yay! Gwen was a bit apprehensive at first and didn't want to play until halfway through the first game, but then decided bowling might be fun after all. Of course, her throw wasn't very strong so we had to call someone over to get her ball as it would get stuck halfway down the lane very often.

We played two games and Simon's high score was 82, Gwen's was 14 (I didn't know you could still get gutter balls when you played bumper bowling--but apparently Gwen just couldn't get enough force on the ball to hit the pins before the thingy would come down and swoop the pins and her ball away.) My score, you ask? Oh, I managed an 86 this time but before you are all impressed with my huge improvement...um...well...if the bumpers hadn't been there I think my score would have been closer to Gwen's final score.

The hardest part today was convincing Simon that is was O.K. for Gwen and I to use the same ball to play (his insistence that she use one particular ball and I the other led to one meltdown from Simon where he actually threw a ball down on the floor--not cool and I let him know that). The second hardest part was convincing Gwen to part with her snazzy bowling shoes we rented from the place. This I am shocked by as the those ugly shoes were a plain brown and she is so freaking picky about what shoes she wears that I never thought I'd get her to wear them in the first place. After some negotiations, she let me return the shoes and we went home. But the kids had fun, I was a bit frazzled afterwards, but happy no one else was there while we played as I had to chase them around a bit and convince them that dancing on the lanes wasn't allowed. I would do it again if it wasn't for the price, so this might be a once-every-six-months-or-so kind of special treat.

Gwen surprised me today with a shocker--she asked me to pee on the potty when her diaper was dry. Skeptical, I took her to pee and after about 5 minutes of sitting she actually went!! Woo hoo!! I know this in itself isn't that big of a deal, nor am I naive enough to think this will last, however, she asked to go again an hour later and sure enough, she peed on the potty--twice in one day!! And, btw, this is the absolute first time she has EVER done this for me. E.V.E.R. She once did this for Hawksbill, but that was months ago. I told Gwen we would get twizzlers and pringles if she would keep this up, to which Simon commented, "I pooped yesterday. Do I get twizzlers and pringles, too?" Ha ha hahahahaha....I told him my deal to him was that every time Gwen went, he would get the same treats she did, but he had to help convince her that using the toilet was cool.

Normally I wouldn't try to bribe my kids to do something, but honestly, it worked when potty training Simon, and after a couple of weeks he was over the twizzlers and pringles and just used the bathroom when he needed without any special treat or prize. But I am still a realist. If this is the start of some type of actual potty training, I will be extremely happy--but if it is just some kind of fluke, I will survive...Simon was almost 4 when he was fully trained, and maybe that sounds old to the general population, but I don't freaking care :)