I decided to try and take Ashton to his first movie this weekend. We have waited a very long time to take him because he is a very hyper kid and I really didn't believe he'd sit through an entire movie and not talk. He does lay on the couch downstairs and watch movies by himself quite often and that isn't a problem, but when he sits with us to watch a movie, he can't sit still or stop talking. There's just too much excitement when others are around.
On Friday I decided I would take a shot at this movie theatre thing. I checked what was playing and I thought he might enjoy HOP, the movie about the Easter bunny. I showed him the trailer and asked him if he'd like to go to the movie theater and see this movie. He was very excited about it. I don't think he really knew what a movie theatre was.
The movie was to begin at 1:20 on Saturday afternoon. I figured if we left by 1, that would give us plenty of time because it's only a 2 minute drive to the theatre from our house. I was wrong. It has been so long since I have been to the theatre, I forgot about a few things.
First, I decided to take a different route than I normally would. Thinking I was smart going around the traffic actually became sitting in the traffic. I guess you can't really call it traffic but I wanted to turn north onto 18th street past the theatre and there were a lot of vehicles coming into town. I waited there for what felt like forever!
Once we finally got to the theatre, the office that sells tickets was closed, so I couldn't just go there and say "two for HOP please", instead I had to do the machine that had a lot of different options and I was all worried I'd push the wrong button so I was kind of slow. Once we have our tickets, I look at the line up for the popcorn. Yep, forgot about line ups. I promised Ashton that we'd get popcorn because I wanted to give him the full theatre experience for his first time. When we were kids, we hardly ever had a treat when we went to the theatre, well I shouldn't say we didn't have a treat, we did, we just didn't buy a treat at the theatre. Mom always snuck food in for us. lol Good times. Anyway, we get in line for popcorn and I realize that I drank a lot of water while I was running on the treadmill just before so I figured I'd better go to the bathroom again so the 2 of us left the line and went to the bathroom.
Back to the line up. It didn't take too long but by this time, it was already 1:20. No big deal, there will be lots of previews, we won't miss anything. Guess what else I forgot? We went into the theatre and sure enough the previews were playing and what I forgot is the lights would be out already. This wouldn't have been a big deal if the theatre wasn't already almost full. I scanned the seats to see if I could see 2 seats together anywhere. We went to the top and there were 2 seats but they were right behind the wall that is above the entrance so Ashton couldn't seen over it. I stood there at the top of the theatre, scanning the seats to see what I could find. Finally a lady across from these 2 seats asks me if I would like her to move over one with her daughter, leaving an open seat in the isle for Ashton and there was a seat up behind him as well. I thanked her as it was very nice of her to offer. I'm not sure why everyone is so scared of the people next to them that they think they need to leave a seat in between everyone.
I sat Ashton in that seat, gave him his popcorn, which we were supposed to share and I saved room for after lunch, but would not get any now, and told him I'd be sitting right behind him if he needed anything. He sat so nicely and ate his popcorn watching the previews. Every once and a while I'd see his little arm sneak over and grab his drink. It was so cute. I was really upset that I couldn't sit beside him for his first movie to see his reactions but I guess it's my own fault for being late. I know better for next time.
After the movie started, I decided to sit on the steps next to him for a bit and share his popcorn. I was really hunger and I purposely went to the movies like that so I could have some popcorn. Plus, I didn't really want him to eat that much. lol I finished some of the popcorn, and went back up to my seat. Not long after that, Ashton turned around and came up to my seat. He sat down on my lap. He said he didn't want to sit there anymore because he couldn't see, which he obviously could. He sat on my lap and chatted with me a bit. I reminded him that he couldn't talk at the movies so he sat quietly, on my knee, for the rest of the movie. It wasn't that comfortable but I did understand he didn't want to sit by himself there.
When the movie was over, I discovered something that made me really mad. I was sitting beside 2 little girls, they were probably about 9 or so. Then there was an empty seat beside them and then a man was sitting in the corner by himself. I thought it was weird that this man had come to this movie alone, but to each their own. I realized after the movie, these girls started talking to him. It ended up being their dad. I was really upset at this point because he saw me sitting on the steps to sit with my little 3 year old and then saw this 3 year old sitting on my lap through 3/4 of the movie and he didn't have the decency to ask his girls to move over one seat and sit next to him so Ashton could have a seat?! That is just plain rude. I almost said something to him, if I'd realized he was with them earlier, I would have asked them to move over. I didn't want to make 2 little girls go sit by a strange man they didn't know.
That was an experience. What did I learn? First, Ashton can handle going to a movie, which is great because Jason doesn't like going to movies so now I have someone to go with (and it's an excuse to watch kids movies again lol). Second, go like 45 minutes early so you can get tickets, go pee, get popcorn and sit together
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