Why take him to a 90 minute, 3-D movie, of course!
From the first time he saw the preview a couple weeks ago, Charlie has been entranced by the stampeding cartoon characters. Thrilled at the prospect of another "first" (they're kind of few and far between these days), I decided that we should absolutely, positively take him to The Lion King. Jason, on the other hand, took some convincing, feeling the need to point out that sitting still, being quiet and paying attention to anything movie/tv related were not exactly our son's strengths.
Knowing that the facts were on his side, I chose to just look at him with shock and dismay, as if wondering how he could even consider depriving our son of this once in a lifetime opportunity (it is only in theaters for 2 weeks, after all...). Then when Jason totally busted me and I broke down into laughter, I just begged, and assured him that we would have candy and popcorn to keep Charlie in his seat, everyone is loud at kid movies, and I had absolutely zero expectation of making it through the whole movie.
A bit bemused by the whole idea, Jason agreed and even suggested we go a few days earlier than I'd planned, so we all piled into the truck last night and spent the 25 minute drive to the half-price movie theater on Ladson reminding Charlie how much he wanted to see the movie and explaining to him exactly what a theater is...to be honest, he was more excited about the fact that he got to wear his hooded sweatshirt, but he just didn't know what was coming...
Intent on giving Charlie the complete movie theater experience for this too-early-to-remember-in-the future outing, he and I played Space Invaders and Grand Prix while Daddy spent as much money on the popcorn, sodas and sour patch kids as we'd spent on the tickets!
As soon as we settled into our pre-stadium seating era seats, Jason immediately kicked over our large popcorn and I wandered off to track down a booster. As we waited through the previews, I managed to pour half of our free-refill popcorn into my purse, while Charlie stuffed ice cubes, smarties and popcorn into his container of grapes.
But finally, the movie started and Charlie was enthralled...for about 5 minutes. Of course, the double-vision he was experiencing due to his refusal to wear his 3-D glasses could have been part of the problem...Jason is half-convinced he had a headache.
Just as the hyenas began to taunt Simba and Nala, Charlie loudly demanded to go play with his toys, so we shuffled through the popcorn and out of the theater. As we "recycled" our 3-D glasses in the big box in the lobby, Jason and I discussed the fact that 30 minutes of movie (plus about 15 of previews and commercials) was really pretty good. All in all, we were impressed by the evening.
Well, a manager overheard us and suggested that we return to the box office and get a refund, telling us that they do it all the time with "little ones" who don't make it through their first movie. Feeling a bit guilty since we never expected to make it longer than 30 minutes, Jason and I did just that, and recouped our $21. So not only do we (Jason and I, that is) have a fabulous memory of Charlie's first movie, it only cost us the $20 for "dinner" and the ensuing stomach aches. Hakuna Matata!
Ready for the Show
Zoom-zoom...
Just too cute!
My boys!
