Tap tap tap, tapedy tap!

So, two movies in three days for me. I took Declan to see Happy Feet yesterday while Bryan took a well-deserved nap after battling all the interior Christmas decorations solo (the exterior ones will have to wait until the big melt in… probably… I’d say… March). At 4.25 years old, this was Declan very first in-the-theater, with-previews-and-popcorn, major movie going experience!

And he loved it.

We held off for so long because, frankly – even many G movies have been way too intense for him until just recently – Cars being the first one to really break through his wall of terror and intimidation. Even Curious George was overwhelming for him just 6 months ago; he was over the top anxious, wondering, will George be OK, will George be OK??? (Gee, I wonder where he gets that from). And on top of Declan’s own feelings on the subject of movies, I am seriously amazed at the movies that parents bring their children to. I mean, I remember reading on a mom’s board once that someone saw nothing wrong with bringing their 2 year old to see Spider-Man. S-P-I-D-E-R-M-A-N. At the time, Declan was getting no more than an half hour a day of Blue’s Clues and this lady wondered why her son was such a fucking maniac all the time.

And of course, our other reasons include all the usual stuff like, the theaters are too loud, he won’t sit still for an hour and half, yadda yadda yadda. But when you have sat inside your house for a month with the white stuff weighing down on you – desperate times call for desperate measures. And in fact, Bryan has always been more against a movie-going trip than I – so springing the idea on him when he was exhausted and tangled up in tinsel produced the desired results.

Off. We. Went.

And the movie was awesome. Both Declan and I loved it.

I had heard there was one scary scene with a seal trying to eat the penguins, so I borrowed a line from a friend of Danielle’s to explain this: “There are no McDonald’s in the wilderness… so animals have to eat each other. It’s the way animals survive when they don’t live in cities like we do.” Of course, in the movie, there was actually more like 3 or 4 downright scary scenes and Declan ended up in my lap for a good part of the movie – but that’s OK. When Mumble was dancing and when the penguins where singing, that kid was nearly up in the aisles and finding a heartsong of his own.

The message of the movie was welcome, too. Declan and I talked the whole way home about how people sometimes start taking food from areas that have always been just for the animals and how that can hurt the animals. The way Declan was talking about it, I could tell he totally got it. The WWF would be so proud.

When he woke up this morning, the very first thing he talked about was Happy Feet. Good sign.

Not that I think Lightening McQueen or Greg Wiggle are going to be replaced any time soon, but to have another choice of things to talk about in this household besides Cars and the Wiggles will definitely, definitely be a welcome change.

This article has 5 comments

  1. Builder Mama

    WTG Declan! I’m glad y’all had such a good time – it looks like a very cute movie.

    I think Monkey Man’s first movie was Over the Hedge, which remains one of his favorites. Strangely enough, Joey was dead-set against ever taking him to the movies (we’ve never been big movie-goers anyway, mostly due to the fact that the movies that I pick royally suck) but I took MM anyway and he was a total champ.

  2. schloobie

    Ever, as in never-ever? How did he propose to pull that one off? We always figured 4 or 5 would be when it would happen. Or when I would cave. Obviously I was right.

  3. Anonymous

    Hawkins’ first movie was Chicken Little (kinda scary actually, but he did well) and Emerson’s was Piglet’s first movie. She was 2 and I think he must have been 3. The last one we saw was Charlotte’s Web, where Hawkins fell asleep and Emerson and I cried of course…

  4. Rebel Girl

    Very cool! We’re actually planning to go tomorrow if the kiddos are feeling well enough. We were planning on seeing it right after it came out but something kept coming up.

    The kids have not seen many movies compared to most kids their age… We’ve seen a Pooh movie, Chicken Little, Cars and Over the Hedge… and N didn’t make it all the way through the first two. Over the Hedge was the first movie both kids watched from start to finish.

  5. Danielle

    I could tell last night Declan loved his first movie experience! Thanks for dinner – it was awesome!

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