The Movies

Before Jude was born, we spent copious amounts of time at the movie theater. There was one point where we would undoubtedly see a movie a week. If there were no movies that sparked our interest... we'd see a movie we couldn't care less about... for the sake of going. Then of course, Jude came along. While we have managed to hold onto our previous life style in a number of ways, going to the movies weekly is just not as possible as it was.

There were a number of times when Jude was a bitty baby and I was home with him that he and I would go to the movies together. I'd find the sappiest girly movie out, pick a show time that I figured would correspond with nap time, sit somewhere inconspicuous and nurse Jude to sleep during the previews - thus giving me about an hour and a half of him slumbering away while I bawled my eyes out.... and then the final 30 minutes or so after he woke up shushing him to see the all-to-predictable-ending. But none of these counted as Jude's first movie, of course. These were mommy movies.

Then today I decided to take Jude to his first movie. You see, he was poking around on my iPhone this morning and happened to stumble upon my "Fandango" Application. Through clicking a series of buttons (none of which he did 'intentionally') he came across the listing for 'Rango" and clicked on "watch trailer". He was in awe. He doesn't watch much TV to begin with, so any kind of animated-something typically grabs his attention. He must have made me replay the trailer about five times before I decided that we'd be taking a rainy-day trip to the movies.

Simply put, he loved it.

We got to the theater just in time for the show to start. I didn't want him getting too antsy watching all of the pre-preview stuff, so I timed it accordingly. We got there, got our tickets, our popcorn (and of course, mommy's nachos) and headed to our seat. We grabbed seats that didn't have tall chairs in front of them, and I put extra weight on Jude's seat so that it wouldn't fold back into him and I set the popcorn down. Just as we got comfortable, the lights dimmed and the previews began. He was immediately transfixed. He seemed to know JUST what to do... how to balance popcorn eating with movie watching and did the "ohhhhs and ahhhhs" at just the right time.

When the all too familiar Rango character from this morning came on screen, the look of shear joy that came across his face, simply put, made my day.

I fully expected to get through about half of the movie, have him lose interest and leave satisfied that we made it any length of time sitting in one place, but we didn't have to. With about 30 minutes left in the movie, he seemed to be tired of sitting on the edge of his seat, one hand in the popcorn bucket, the other holding his bottle of water and he decided to curl up in my lap where he remained for most of the rest of the movie. As the movie began to hit it's climax he stood up on the floor in front of his seat, staring in wonder as the water began shooting out from the ground (you'd understand if you saw the movie) and pointing and "wow"-ing and hooting over how fascinating it all was. And then it ended.

As if he knew the cue and that this is when all movies end, he began his exit. He waved good bye to the screen, put on his hat and we left.