Saturday 2/21....The First Half....

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This was the scene in the living room on Saturday morning...





In other news, Gage had another first this weekend: bowling, 2/21/9.
Well, let me back up.
We TRIED to take him bowling on Friday night. What out-of-the-loop-losers we are (apparently)....who knew---Friday night is major bowling-league-night.
So, we show up at the Bowling Alley (after we googled to find one...), and we wouldn't be able to get a lane until 9:30 that night. Ugh. But, at least they pointed out that they'd be open until 2am. Yes, sure, great. Because, our 3 year old will be up until 2 in the morning bowling. Right.

Anyway....Saturday morning, Gage was very ready to go "Balling." (...bowling...)

Got our shoes on!


Picking out the perfect balls...


(why, yes, they are both standing there, left hand tucked neatly in their pocket...completely unaware that the other is standing the exact same way....)



So, bowling was fun....for a while.
But then...it went down hill, pretty fast.
First---what's the #1 thing that parents would be afraid of at the bowling alley? That those tiny little curious fingers would get smushed in the ball return thing. Well, that didn't happen....but right behind the ball return thing, there's a step down...which Gage missed....while holding his bowling ball....which then fell, and he fell, and bonked his eyebrow/forehead on the ball. So, the tears started flowing. Poor buddy!

When he got over that, he needed to go potty. We've been doing VERY well staying dry on outings...so...I wasn't surprised that he needed to potty.

So, this grown man bowling alley employee tells us and escorts us over to the restroom; the men's restroom, and then says to me, "Oh, I'll take him in there."
"Oh no you won't."
Are you kidding me, grown man who is a stranger???? You want to take my 3 year old son into the bathroom just because there are sticker letters on the door that are somehow supposed to keep me out? You want to escort a stranger's kid into the restroom while he goes to the bathroom?
No. That's weird.
I'll take him to the ladies room with me, thank you very much.
[and might I say here---I'm not saying that the man had malicious intent---I am saying that his offering to do that made me feel all creepy weird, and I think it's not in any grown man's best interest to offer to escort random children to the bathroom. I'm just sayin'!]

So...we get into the ladies restroom.
Hubby told me that it's really easy in public restrooms to just lift Gage & let him stand on the toilet seat to go potty. Okay...I tried that.
Potty Training Lesson I Learned 2/21/9: little boy's "junk" can um...stick to their leg or all stick together, and even if you are leaning the child forward as if to aim at the bowl---well, the urine may just flow straight down one of the legs, soaking the undies, soaking the pants, soaking the socks, and soaking the $4 RENTED SHOES.
2nd Potty Training Lesson I Learned 2/21/9: asking a 3 year old to stop going mid-stream is just...well, it's just not going to happen, or it's just impossible. Whatever.

So, there I am, without a change of clothes for my child. No papertowels in the whole bathroom. The hand dryer on the wall doesn't work. All I had to work with was toilet paper. Great. Shoes so full I could POUR out the wetness. Socks so wet that I just had to take them off & put them in my sweater pockets. Gage was so afraid that people out in the bowling alley would know that he had wet his clothes. He was just so pitiful and worried about the whole thing. I used toilet paper to squeeze & absorb the wet spots on his little clothes (save the socks...) & it really wasn't too bad in the end, but clearly, it was just time to go.

So....that was the first half of our Saturday....
...I'll post the other half soon!