Last week John found out that our favorite theater is hosting a free summer movie each week. We decided it would be fun to introduce Rordan to the movie going experience. Sadly, the movies are only showing on Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, in the morning, so John couldn't attend. I was a bit nervous but mostly excited, since watching movies has been one of our favorite pastimes since John and I first started dating, back in high school. I couldn't count how many movies we've seen together over the years. Obviously that slowed down when we became parents, so the thought of having a cooperative movie going baby was pretty exciting.
Since the movie started at 10, we had to move through our morning routine pretty quickly. Rordan ate breakfast, Momma didn't. When all was said and done, we were out of the house by 9:15, and in line outside waiting for tickets a little before 9:30. Rordan wanted to stand instead of being held, so I let him down and held his hand. It took a few reminders that he had to hold Momma's hand, but overall he did well in that situation. I mean, if you don't count trying to put car keys in the little girl's pink shoes, who was standing in line in front of us. Luckily I don't think she, or her parents noticed.
The line started to move, and I could see two employees handing tickets to the parties in line. I was hoping that the line wouldn't be cut off before us. Lucky for us, the movie was being shown in two theaters so we made it in. I was pretty hungry at this point, so I headed to the concession stand. As I stood in line behind at least five little kids, each paying for their own refreshments, I decided a better seat was worth more to me than food, so I left the line and headed towards the theater. When I got in, as expected, the top section was pretty full of kids and parents hopping around the aisle, so I did something I never do. I went to the second row of seating and got aisle seats. Who am I? What has motherhood done to me? I can't stand looking up at the screen and trying to focus my eyes to make out what's going on due to the distortion, but again, it meant more to me that I was able to move about in the theater, without disturbing the crowd, so there we sat. A nice lady and her children soon joined us, and we spoke about her baby. Her kids were well behaved and the baby didn't make a peep the entire time it was awake. I found that to be pretty rare, from my experiences.
Rordan was enjoying sitting in his own seat, row 2, seat 2, to be exact. He seemed to find the folding seat a bit annoying since he isn't heavy enough to keep it all the way down, but other than that he was pleased to sit in his own chair. Actually, I scoot over to sit half way on his seat, to help hold it down, but he pushed me off and back onto my own seat. Silly Bug! We sat for about 20 minuites waiting for the movie to start. Oh yeah, the movie they were showing was The Croods. We've seen it at home before so we figured it wouldn't be a loss if we didn't make it through. Rordan was doing so good. He drank a bit of water and set his cup in the cup holder, but he got angry about that soon after for some reason, so I gave it to him to hold in his lap. He did for a few minuites and then handed it back to me. I figured with all the snacking going on around us he might be hungry so I gave him his "baba" since he would normally want one about that time. I guess that wasn't what he wanted so after a few sips he gave that back to me as well. I ended up giving him some "crunchies" to eat, and that satisfied him. He snacked on those for a while. Yay! We found something!
I tried to take pictures, but my camera wasn't really cooperating, since it was just the camera on my phone, and the lights were already turned down, so I got a lot of blurry pictures, and a lot of dark pictures. We had fun trying though, and I sent John a couple of pictures so he wouldn't feel left out. I enjoy doing things as a family, so I really missed him. A few minuites before the movie started my hunger got the best of me, so I asked the nice lady sitting next to us if she would hold our seats. She happily agreed to, so off to the concession stand we went. I got popcorn, Peanut M&M's, and a soda. I was crazy! I had to juggle holding the diaper bag, Rordan, popcorn, and a drink, back to the theater. The M&M's went in the diaper bag, in case you were wondering. Silly Momma! Well we made it back just in time for the previews to start. Rordan was AMAZED with the screen. It was a breath taking moment for me, as a mother, to see such awe and wonderment on my child's face. Quickly though, that amazement switched to something I can only describe as avoidance. He burried his head into the seat and scoot as close to me as he could. I could tell he wanted me to hold him so I picked him up and he wrapped his arms around my neck and lay his head on my shoulder, just like he used to when napping when he was smaller. I have to say, even though I was concerned, I enjoyed the snuggle. I wasn't sure if he was watching or not, so after about 10-15 minuites, I flipped him around and had him sit on my lap facing the screen. He lay back and started to watch. He had a good laugh at a few scenes, though I'm not sure what he was laughing at, as they weren't necessarily funny moments, but something amused him, and that's alright. He ate some raisins while I snacked on my popcorn, and for the next 30 minuites we sat quietly watching the movie. That's when it happened. He started to fidget. He wanted to look at the aisle, and the people behind us, and the popcorn on the ground. He was very concerned with the popcorn on the ground. He motioned for me to pick it up, and I quietly explained why I wouldn't. Well wouldn't you know, a man and his son happened to walk by, and to my amazement the little boy swooped down, picked up the popcorn, and ate it! His dad groaned at him for doing it, and I could tell it wasn't the first time he had done it. Well that was it for Rordan. He wanted down. He wanted to explore! I tried to keep him in my lap, but I soon found that wasn't going to happen. So, I called it quits. Out of all the kids in the theater, mine was the only one screaming, so far. I'm sure many more meltdowns followed Rordan's. I felt bad though, so I gathered our belonging. By the way, that's not an easy thing to do when you have a 20 month old trying to run away from you, but I got it done. We left the theater, and while walking to the car, I told Rordan that he did a great job, but that we don't run around in the theater. I'm not sure if he even cared about what I was saying to him at that point, but that's okay. We got to the car and called John to give him the news. We ended up making plans to have lunch with him. Overall, it was a great day. I'm pretty impressed we made it through as much of the movie as we did, so for us, John and I agree, it was a successful experience.
So that's the story of Rordan's first movie going experience. Here are the best of the worst pictures I've ever taken in my life. They are still wonderful to have for memory sake though!
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