Expanding Our Comfort Zone

Our local movie house runs a series of free children's movies in the summer. Today they were showing The Junglebook. I had been showing Sami clips from the movie on YouTube and so Nik thought it would fun if I took both boys there to see the movie. All 78 minutes of it. I wasn't so sure. Oliver doesn't have a long span of attention and he really isn't much into tv or movies lately. But, for Sami, I thought I'd give it a try. Last night I laid awake wondering if maybe I should find someone to go along with us. I was worried that Oliver would want to leave and Sami would be really disappointed. But there really isn't anyone else here who I could get to sit with Sami while I walked around town with Oliver. So on the way to the theatre I explained to Sami that if we needed to leave I would find the movie at a store later and bring it home with him -- or download it from Netflix. He seemed OK with that.

Both boys were super excited to be in the theater and especially liked the big, comfy red chairs that rock a bit back and forth. Oliver sat all the way inside his chair and squished himself between the seat and the back. He also made occasional loud humming noises. But he is really good now at checking himself when he sees me put my finger to my lips to gesture (Shhh). My other mistake was to seat him directly below the stream of projection -- he desperately wanted to touch the particles of light streaming above his head. Luckily he was distracted enough by the movie that he seemed to forget about it after awhile.

But what really surprised me was how long Oliver lasted. We were in there more than 60 minutes and only missed the very end of the show. We went out to the concession stand one time for a little break and I think that helped. Throughout the movie I kept asking him if he wanted to go home and he always responded: "No. Stay here." This alone tickled me to no end. But when he was ready to go he pretty much just stood up and bolted for the door. Actually, he tried to run down the isle but I pushed him for the door, instead -- so maybe he could have watched the whole thing. But the funny thing was that even though it went so well, I was still so stressed out the entire time with the anticipation of things not going well. So after an hour I was more than ready to leave!

The other really nice thing to see was that Oliver really laughed at all the right places. There are some goofy, slapstick kind of things in the movie and he really thought they were funny. I don't think I've ever heard him laugh out loud at a movie before.

Anyway, when we really did have to leave, Sami was fine, Oliver was happy, I felt successful and we still had half a Hershey bar to share in the atrium. We had to wait outside until the film let out though because somehow Oliver managed to lose one of his shoes! I have no idea how that happened but another patron found it and brought it out for us.

I'm so glad we decided to give the movie thing a try. If it weren't for Sami, I probably never would have considered taking Oliver. But I guess it is good to try things outside our comfort zone every now and then.