Ska-doosh!

Friday night was an unusual night for our family: we went to see a movie! We don't take the kids very often because Lear is afraid of anything remotely scary, and Ella is just too little still. The last movie we went to see together was the Veggie Tales movie about a year ago, and Lear was terrified of the scene in the cave - I could say that he was traumatized without exaggerating much at all. We've been trying to get him to agree to see Wall-e, but the previews alone scare him, and Cory at one point even offered to bribe him with a toy lightsaber if he went to see it. (Lear is afraid of the Star Wars movies, but he likes the toys - just like Transformers. We went to see a home on the Parade of Homes in Salt Lake, and it had Transformers on in the home theater. Lear started whimpering immediately and ran out of the room with his hands over his ears, but he loves Transformers toys. His favorite toy right now is a Transformer that came in a Happy Meal - he gets upset when he loses it, and he's very excited when he finds it again.) Lear is just a very sensitive boy, I guess. Aladdin terrifies him. The Incredibles is reason for abject fear. Sleeping Beauty gives him nightmares. He will run upstairs screaming if Beauty and the Beast is on.

So, we kind of had to trick him into going to Kung Fu Panda. We didn't really tell him where we were going when we left, and when he figured it out, we promised to leave if he got too scared. I had to take him to the potty in the middle when he got a little nervous, but he actually did very well - I even heard him laughing a couple times. Ella is the one who got scared toward the end. She wanted to leave during the last fight scene, but once I turned her around to hug me, she was ok - she even eventually got interested in the movie again and turned around. All in all it was a success. We asked Lear if he liked it, and he said yes. We asked if we should buy it, and he said no. When we asked him if we should see it again, we got an emphatic no. So he liked it, but he doesn't ever want to see it again. How can anyone understand the logic of a four-year old? 

Lear quote: "Mommy, I love to watch you do your cross-ting." (Cross-ting is cross stitching. I don't know why he calls it that.)

Ella quote: "I 'cawe! I wa' my daddy! I wa' go home now!" (Translation: I'm scared, I want my daddy, and I want to go home now. Said while at the movie.)