I mean... it was kinda his first movie. He has... TECHNICALLY, been to the movies before. But we choose to not count that time. I mean, as parents we are allowed to do that, right? Make up our own history?
Okay, FINE. It was his SECOND movie. But his first ended in such an epic disaster that it has pretty much been blocked from memory. Back when Cars 2 was in the theater my mother in law thought it would be fun to take him. They went, got a big bag of popcorn and settled in for the show. It was quickly clear that this entire movie theater thing was entirely overwhelming for our boy. He wouldn't sit in his own seat, instead choosing the much safer location of wedged in between my mother in law and the back of her chair. That's right. He used his Nana's body as a shield from the terror that was the big screen. After about fifteen minutes she asked if he wanted to leave and he basically shouted "What? Leaving is an OPTION? LET'S GOOOO!"
So... I guess for posterity's sake we will have to call that his first movie. All fifteen minutes of it's terror.
Needless to say we have been reluctant to try again. I mean, I am a HUGE movie theater fan, but the entire point of the movie is to be fun, not to cause terror. And I was afraid if we tried again too soon it might scar him for life. The only 'scar him for life fear' ... every parents worst nightmare.
Anyway, we finally decided it was time to give it a go. We have been talking about it for awhile, but never actually decided on anything. Then, Saturday I randomly decided THIS IS THE TIME! Mainly because I was bored. But WHATEVER! It's time to conquer fears! LET'S GO TO THE MOVIE!
So we checked the dollar theaters (I mean... come on. I am not paying twenty bucks for the three of us to see fifteen minutes of a movie) and find out that Ice Age 4 and Madagascar 3 are playing. Not the best choices. I think Henry has seen some of one of the Ice Age movies.... how are there four of them? And three Madagascars?? REALLY? So we pick Ice Age and head to a theater across town. We get almost there when we realize that, we (I) totally sucked at calculating time and are WAY too late to see this movie. You can't go in ten minutes late to a dark loud theater with a kid that is terrified of loud dark things. THAT is the scar them for life kinda thing I was worrying about! So, with some grumbling from Nick about my spur of the moment 'LET'S SEE A MOVIE NOW!' announcement and my estimation on travel time to different dollar theaters, we head to the one much closer to our house that is showing Madagascar 3.
I didn't know how it would go. As soon as we walked in he put his hands over his ears. Not a good sign. We weren't in the theater, we were in the LOBBY. So... I guess he remembers the Cars 2 event. As we walked down the dark hallway he turned a little panicky but then we walked into the theater, he looked at the screen, put his hands down and said "Hey, COMMERCIALS!!"
From then on he was fine. And you all, he was so adorable! He laughed HARD at several parts of the movie. Proclaiming loud enough for those around us to hear that "That's REALLY FUNNY!" At the end he got tired, but when we asked if he wanted to leave he said "NO! IT NOT OVER!" So we stayed until the end.
A good thing too. Turns out those Madagascar Movies are really cute. Mama rather enjoyed it herself. If I am being honest, I would say Henry wasn't the only one laughing out loud. Although now I think it has set the bar a little high on what Henry might expect when we go to the circus.... but Whatever! One event at a time! The movie theater was a HIT!
Our big boy after his very first FULL movie in the theater.
No comments:
Post a Comment