Aidan Goes to the Movies

Pixar Animation Studios/Walt Disney Pictures

Aidan goes to the movies take one
A couple weeks ago Amy was going to a wedding and she planned on taking Ella, leaving Aidan with me to hang out. I thought it would be fun to take him to see Kung Fu Panda for a little father-son bonding. Amy and I started talking to him about going to the "Panda Movie" with daddy for the week leading up to the big day. He was all excited. He would ask to go see the "Panda Movie" all the time. When the day came we got all ready to go and...

We made it as far as the garage. We had moved his car seat to my car but he would not get in. He threw a fit and simply would not get into "daddy's car" and kept screaming for "Mommy's car. Take mommy's car." For ten minutes I tried to talk him into the car and I failed with everything I tried. Amy even tried talking to him and she couldn't get him to go. We were 0 for 1 taking Aidan to the movie theater.

Aidan goes to the movies take two
I took a day off work today and thought it would be nice to try and take Aidan to the movies again. Since we both love all of the Pixar movies we decided to go see Wall-E (The Robot Movie as Aidan calls it). I don't like to see movies opening weekend because of the crowds, but hey, this was for Aidan and it was a matinée show so I thought it wouldn't be a problem.

I'm an idiot. Matinée and children's movie on opening weekend= super crazy crowd. We got there 20 minutes before the 1:40 show and when I got to the window it was single seating only. Not an option with a two year old. Luckily the next show was at 2:10. Lucky for an adult maybe, but very risky for a two year old. Should I scrap the whole idea? I was worried getting there 20 minutes early. What was I going to do with Aidan for an hour?

I decided to risk it. Amy, being the super mom she always is, had prepared an aid package for me with toys, pen and paper, snacks and a drink for Aidan. The worst case I would have burned $12 on tickets, but it wouldn't be my fault we didn't get to see the movie. I could blame it on Aidan. I bought the tickets and found a bench in the lobby to sit on. It's best to let Aidan go his own pace and not force a schedule so we sat there for about 10 minutes. Aidan just soaked it all in and seemed to have fun watching all the people in line for snacks.

We then went into the theater and were among the first people there. We sat in the second row of the stadium seating. He loved the fold down part of the chairs and kept moving them up and down. I got out a couple of his miniature dinosaurs and he was content. A little later I gave him some animals crackers to keep him occupied. We talked about all the people there to see the movie and the big screen. He acted perfectly. During all the previews he kept saying "Robot movie coming. Robot movie coming."

About halfway through he fell asleep. After sitting in the theater for 30 minutes and then through 20 minutes of previews (at least they were previews and not commercials), I thought about nodding off myself. He woke up in time to see Wall-E save the day (I hope I didn't give away the ending). As soon as it was over he asked to "Watch Robot Movie again" just like he does at home. On the way out he got a Wall-E watch and thinks its the coolest thing in the world.

I think he had a good time and I certainly did. I love to see him experience new things. I am glad I am the one that had the fun job of taking him to his first movie.