Really big movie

A few posts ago, I mentioned that WCK and I were re-living fun summer days from my childhood, and the only thing missing was the red Kool-Aid. I was wrong. Another thing was missing: Sitting in a severely air-conditioned movie theater in the middle of the day.

I love going to movies. I still remember my mom taking me to my first movies when I was about WCK's age, maybe a little bit older. The first movies I remember were Lady and the Tramp and Mary Poppins. These are two of my favorite movies to this day. I ask all of you to re-watch Lady and the Tramp, though. Does Tramp get Lady pregnant on their first date??!? Watch it again. He TOTALLY does.

And I remember my babysitter taking me to see E.T. Afterwards, she took me to the arcade at the mall and taught me how to play Pac Man. I wonder if that all really happened in one day, or if I'm just condensing all of the early '80s into one memory.

Anyway. I love going to movies. Back before we had WCK, Jay and I would go to a movie almost every week, sometimes more often. We loved going to the brand-new Disney and Pixar movies, although we were always the only adults in the audience who were there without kids. We'd always say, "We need to have a baby so we can come to Pixar movies without looking creepy." That was the main reason we had WCK. Well, that and the fact that we thought we were getting too much sleep and our house was too clean.

I wanted WCK to share in my love of movies, and I couldn't wait for her to be old enough to come to the movies with us. One year ago, if you'll remember, I tried taking her to Curious George. It was a little too intense, and we had to flee the theater in terror not long after the opening credits. I kept her away from theaters until this morning, when I thought we would try again. We went to the $2 kids' movie and saw Clifford's Really Big Movie:



The plot was pretty bland (Clifford runs away from home to perform in a talent show so he can win free dog food), but WCK was enthralled! She sat through the entire movie, staring up at the screen in amazement the whole time. Part of it could have been the fact that I let her have some movie popcorn. For $3, you can get a "kiddie combo", which includes a teeny bit of popcorn, a tiny package of candy, and a teeny pop. (Well, "teeny" and "tiny" for movie theater sizes. They'd actually be normal sizes out in the real world.) I slipped the candy into my bag, drank the pop by myself, and shared the popcorn with WCK. It was the perfect amount of movie food. I think I'll order the kiddie combo for myself every time I go to the movies.

I'm very excited about this no-longer-afraid-of-movies development. Once we conquer the fear of vacuums, I might be able to lead a semi-normal life.