Full of Beans

Ever been to those Movies for Mommies, AKA Stars and Strollers, AKA Reel Babies? Great program. Love love love that these things are in place for parents. It lets parents get out and see movies at the theatre without having to find a babysitter or get the hairy eyeball for being "that one who brought the $#@& baby". One can tune out the crying and diaper-changing in the background and enjoy a movie with a friend. My son's first movie was "No Strings Attached". I saw "The Hangover 2" and "Bridesmaids" with him too. Parenting is off to a great start.

Well, I thought my days of Stars and Strollers were over when a friend and I went recently. Unlike his newborn days where he'd sleep through the whole movie, little tyke was full of beans and not about to sit on my lap for 2 hours (I know, go figure, eh?), and I spent the whole time standing him up, walking with him and letting him play with my empty cup and the lights on the side of the seats. The good news is, the movie was "Moneyball" (we got the theatre wrong); if ever I was to miss a movie, let it be that one. SNORE!

I tried again the next week-- am I a glutton for punishment? Well, I like to try to see how many activities I can adapt for us so my increasingly active baby and I can still get out there. So this time we sat in the front row of the stadium section and laid a blanket and some toys on the floor in front of us. The babies' time on our laps was interspersed with rolling around on the blanket together, and I got to enjoy "50/50" (much better than "Moneyball", incidentally). Ha! I can still have a bit of a social life, yet!

So on a related note, in a few days I'll be taking kiddo home to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to visit my folks for a week.

How is this related? Well, my movie experience makes me semi-dread the plane ride; two hours on my lap, which is about the same as a feature-length film, and no possibility of getting to crawl around and explore might just cause my 8-month-old to spontaneously combust. Unless I do first.

Fun Fact: I did not draw all eight panels separately. I drew the first and created duplicate layers for the next three. Then I did the same with the seats in the second row (including the baby seat) so I didn't have to draw them four times. Photoshop is awesome!