Jaden's First Movie

Before Elijah was born, we decided it would be important to occasionally take Jaden out, just the "three of us" so that he is sure to still feel like he is a very important part of our family. Today was our first day out, just the three of us, and we decided to take Jaden to see the new Disney movie "Earth." He hadn't been to a movie at the the theater before, so we were not sure at all how he would do. We prepped him a little bit ahead of time by talking about where we were going and what it would be like, and Sam showed him a trailor of the movie on the computer. He seemed very excited because he LOVES animals and the thought of seeing a movie on a "BIG TV" really excited him.

We had to wake Jaden up from his nap so that we wouldn't miss the movie. Nana and Papa came over to watch Elijah and Jaden didn't understand why they weren't coming with us. We kept building up the fact that it was just going to be the three of us: him, mommy, and daddy!! I'm not sure who was more excited, us or him! Sam and I haven't been to a movie in sooooo long, I think it was probably us!

On the way to the theater, I asked Jaden where we were going, and he said "to see animals." I'm afraid he thought we were going to see real animals...oops. Should have explained that a little better. I also told him that there would be a lot of people there watching the movie and if he wanted to talk, he would have to whisper; so we practiced whispering. Haha. Even his whisper is not quiet. But I wasn't too worried. Sam and I had decided ahead of time that if Jaden lost interest, or it just wasn't working out having a 2-year-old at the movie theater, we would just leave - no big deal.

Once we got there, the excitement began when Jaden got to get a kid's movie pack, which included a drink, popcorn and a candy (as much as I hated this, I wanted him to have the whole movie experience)! He was thrilled. We purposely got there a little bit late so that we would miss the previews, so when we walked into the theater, it was dark and Jaden was aprehensive. He did not want to walk down the steps, so we just sat at the very top row. I was pleased to see that there were only about 10 other people in the theater. And as soon as Jaden sat down, he was so excited to see the animals. He kept saying "Hey, look at that!" while naming each of the animals that appeared on the screen. Although not in a whisper, it was very cute. He totally didn't get why he needed to whisper in the first place. I had forgotten how much he talks until we were in this quiet movie theater. He asked tons of questions, named all the animals, commented on how pretty the flowers were...And I have to admit that although it would have been nice if he had done that all in a quieter voice, I was very pleased with all that he knew and with the questions that he asked because he is very curious and constantly learning! He was very well behaved, sat on his little booster seat the whole time, and when I complimented the times that he did use a quiet voice, he said "high five mom!" It was great fun and definitely something we will do again!