Over this past weekend Timber and I voluntarily did probably the craziest thing either of us have ever done. We were not sure what to expect. We took her two and a half year old nephew, Dio, to the Ratatoui at the movie theater. With little kids you never know when they are going to freak out which kind of makes bringing a small child anywhere in public like handling dynamite. We picked him up, made sure that his diaper had been changed so he was fresh and ready to go, set up the car seat in her car, took him out of the house, put him in the car, and off we went. He was pretty good for the car ride. Once we got to the mall we parked and then had him walk with us to the movie theater. Timber's idea was to have him walk with us to the movie theater instead of carry him so that it might tire him out a little bit and he would be less likely to run around and "freak out". After we got our tickets (kids under 3 years old are free for obvious reasons) we took him up the escalator, which he found very interesting. Once we got into the main hall for the movie theater (where they had tables for people to sit at, concession stands, and two gateways to the actual theaters) you could see from the look on his face that he found it all very fascinating. Once we made it to the actual theater where we were going to watch Ratatouie I opened the door and he walked in with Timber. Immediately we were immersed in the surround sound, a huge screen showing movie previews, and the smell of popcorn. Again I could tell from the look on his face that this was just awesome. After we got seated I went to get some snacks (popcorn, soda, and a hotdog) and then brought them back. After the movie started his attention was glued on it and he seemed to really enjoy it. Timber and I took turns feeding him pieces of hot dog and popcorn. After about an hour we noticed that he started to get restless. We were sure that we would have to leave the movie early. He wanted to stand up and move around. So Timber put him in her lap for a while and then put him back in his seat. To our suprise he made it all the way through the movie without freaking out. There would be no major problems on this day. Overall the experience of taking him to his first movie was a good one. I really enjoyed seeing the look of wonder on his face as he walked into the movie theater. Kids are awesome like that. Now we are making a list of other cool places to take him, but I'm pretty sure we won't be as lucky next time.
Posted by troutm8 at September 13, 2007 05:26 PM