Dinner and a Movie

We did it. We finally braved a movie as a family. We went to see Walle.
The last movie we attempted was Happy Feet. Holden liked it, but as soon as Oliver was finished with his popcorn he was done. We had to split up so Oliver could go home. This time I knew to ask for our money back on the way out. I had no idea that movie theaters would really give your money back if the movie fails with your kid. But if you only make it through previews and then leave they will give you your money back. File that under " Good to Know".
I had not known about that when we tried to take them to see Wallace and Grommit. That was an expensive night at the movies considering we never even saw a movie.

Life with 4, and special needs to boot, generally makes everything complicated. To say the least. I've resigned myself to living life as a shut in. I get used to the isolation. However, every now and again the yearning to witness life as others see it takes over. I lose my mind and think it will be " fun" to have a family adventure. So we risk one.
I had one of those moments on Sunday.

I decided we should try to take the kids to a movie. Holden has been wanting to see Walle forever. People take 2 year olds to movies, Walle should be kid friendly, so Oliver is the lone wild card.

We drove to the theater and I realized way too late that I had not prepped Oliver at all for what was to come. I quickly talked about seeing a movie, watching, the dark theater... and hoped for the best. There was no line which always works out well for us so we got our tickets and went straight for the concession stand. Remembering the popcorn problem with the last movie we opted for the limitless tubs. We got 2 of them because holding the tubs is an issue for everyone.

The theater wasn't very crowded and we settled into our seats. I nervously watched Oliver as the theater began to darken. So far so good. Previews...and we're OK. Popcorn helps everyone. Oliver needed to hold his bucket, but he was fine with sharing.

The animated short began. A Magician and a rabbit. Oliver didn't like it. Oliver didn't like it AT ALL. The magician was scary. He whimpered, he screamed , " oooooh NNNNOOOOOO!"

I whispered that this was not the movie. Walle would start soon. Everything is OK.

" Go home. Odiber need to get in car. Time to go home" Oliver whimpered.

" Its OK, we're going to watch a movie soon. You are OK, you are with mommy". I whispered, hoping to make it until the movie actually began.

Finally the scary magician and his rabbit short ended and Walle began. Hmmm , I didn't realize Walle would be quite so dark. I didn't know there would be quite so many explosions and changes from light to dark.

Oliver sat on my lap, eating popcorn, nervously eyeing the screen. I was nervously eyeing the screen too. I sure hope this gets a little lighter.

Oliver relaxed as Walle found the plant. Oliver likes plants.

Meanwhile Laurel jumped on my lap, off my lap, on her seat, off her seat, tried to eat popcorn off of the floor. She ran down the aisle to be close to Jeff, ran back to me, hopped on me, hopped off of me, hopped onto her seat, giggled. She glanced at the screen to see the cockroach and shrieked " ACK A 'PIDER! OH NO A 'PIDER! YUCKY!"

Each time the animated cockroach appeared the theater was treated to a chorus of " ACK OH NO! A 'PIDER!"

Walle remained full of destruction, desolation, and doom for longer than I'd hoped. Oliver whimpered in his seat.
" All done. Time to go home. Time to get in the car. Goodbye to Walle"

" No, honey, we're watching a movie"

" " Odiber go home. OK, all done"

" No honey, this is Walle. We're watching Walle now"

" Watching Walle."

He wasn't that happy about it, but he did quietly sit back down. The people behind us shushed him. I turned and smiled at them as though I thought they understood. Confusing angry people can be fun.

The inevitable happened. Oliver ran out of popcorn. I braced myself for a show of horror. But it didn't happen.
" Odiber need more popcorn. Odiber need more popcorn please".

I asked Jeff to get the refill ( thank god we got the large free refill tub) since leaving Oliver would be a disaster and taking him with me would indicate to him that we were leaving.

Everyone busied themselves with more popcorn. Laurel thought it was hilarious to stuff as much as she could into her mouth, inevitably dribbling out all of the excess. Then she tried to eat the bits she'd dropped on the floor and screamed when I knocked them back out of her hands. I try to limit the eating off the floor like wild animals to the privacy of our own wild home.
The people behind us made impatient shushing sounds again, but I didn't bother to turn around.

As Walle lightened up a bit Oliver relaxed into his seat a little more. He even started getting involved :
" Oh no, very bad. You say sorry to him".

Meanwhile Griffin and Laurel started getting more and more fidgety. Griffin began slamming his arm rest up and down. Then he realized Laurel was running amok in the row and that sure seemed like a good idea. So Griffin hopped of of his seat and came down to my end of the row. He hopped into Laurel's seat.

Hi Mommy.

Hi Griffin, whisper honey.

whisper: hi mommy

hi griffin

Laurel realized Griffin sat in her seat.

NNNOOOOO! THATS MINE! THATS MY SEAT! LAUREL'S SEAT! MIIIIIINNNNNNEEEEE"

That inspired some more shushing from our fans.

NOOOOOO! DADDY! MOMMY! HELP! MIIIIIIINNNEEEE!

Jeff took Griffin back to his seat

NOOOOO! MOOOOMMMMMMMYY!

More shushing.

Eve came onto the screen.

Laurel lost interest in the seat altercation.
Ooooh, so pretty.

How does she know its a girl robot? What makes Eve pretty and how did a 2 year old recognize this? Is it because Eve is white and therefore clean and female? Walle is dirty and therefore a boy? But this assessment is coming from a girl whose hair often looks like Nick Nolte's in his infamous mug shot.
Interesting.

We made it through the rest of the movie. Holden remained entranced. Oliver was somewhat intrigued, Laurel and Griffin ran amok and annoyed our fellow patrons. But we did it. We made it through a whole movie. Its a first for us! The shushing people didn't share our enthusiasm so lucky for them we didn't ask them to join us for dinner.

We decided to go from the movie to dinner, because if something works why not push it until it fails, right?
So we went from sitting for an hour and a half, to sitting. Great idea. Kids love sitting still. Holden was fine. Oliver was clearly in need of a bribe since he got out of his seat and announced that it was time to leave, before we had even been served water. Griffin screamed and yelled.

I ordered 6 apple juices. Jeff looked at me, clearly wondering why I was ordering 6 when we had 4 kids. Two are emergency back up , I explained before he asked.

The juice arrived and that was yet another highlight for Holden. Movie! Juice! What could happen next?
Oliver guzzled his juice. As he guzzled I topped it off with water to extend the life of the glass. I put 3 straws in his glass which he found hilarious. That kept him entertained all through dinner.
3 straws in one glass! Sooo funny!

We had to get highchairs for Laurel and Griffin. Anyone who is hard gets locked away. Laurel was OK with it. She was happy to plunge her hands into her juice to extract ice cubes. Griffin screamed.

Holden liked the lazy susan on the table. The lazy susan did not stop moving. I started to dislike the lazy susan.
Does anyone want tea? I can give it to you? Does anyone want a spoon? I can give it to you? I can put my straw wrapper on this thing and make it go to you, OK?

Griffin screamed some more. I asked if they had crackers, bread, anything to shut him up. No, they had fortune cookies. Oh what a perfect appetizer. Cookies. They are sure to eat dinner if we start them off with cookies. But I started to care less and less. Fine, eat a fortune cookie. But stop yelling.
Can we have the check with our entrees?

Well, we're never the family that people want to be around but we managed to be in public, as a family for about 3 hours. We didn't have to abort any part of the plan.

Dinner and a movie. We had a family night. I feel sort of proud.