Showtime!

I am not sure at what age the typical American child first goes to the movie theater, but I am guessing that it is usually younger than 5. Elise has never been to the movies. This is not because I am being over protective or cheap (though I am those things), it is because Elise is a scaredy-cat. She is literally afraid of any kind of movie or tv show with anything even remotely scary or even one with a bad guy/antagonist, so pretty much anything with a plot. Certain bad guys like Swiper are somewhat tolerable (because sometimes he's also Dora's friend) but she really hates it when people are mean in any way and really doesn't like anything even remotely scary, such as violence of any kind, being chased, dark/cloudy scenes, etc.

We have movie night every Friday and for a long time we typically just watched episodes of Calliou or Angelina Ballerina because actual movies were just too terrifying for her. But over the past year she has gotten a little less scared of things. Last summer she started being able to watch Cinderella without having to fast forward past all the parts with Lucifer the cat in it. And she has watched a few other Disney movies without running out of the room crying more than once (Snow White and Cars). Recently we watched Beauty and the Beast and Tangled and while she didn't exactly love them she did not cry hysterically or have nightmares. This is a move in the right direction!

Of course I am not in any real rush for my kid to watch movies. She will eventually not be so scared and for now I actually kind of like that she only really likes watching things that have 15 minute episodes. Sure, I was kind of sick of watching pretty much only Cinderella every single Friday night for months at a time, but at least Cinderella is a fine movie.

But over the holidays pretty much everyone in her class at school went to see the Muppet movie in the movie theater. Everyone was talking about it and boy was she itching to be a part of that. I love going to the movies and was excited to take her for the first time, but I just wasn't sure that she would enjoy it just yet. Especially a movie like the Muppets which is live action (she has never seen a non-cartoon movie) and it was rated PG, not G so it probably had some scary parts in it - or at least a mean bad guy.

So when I heard that they were re-releasing Beauty and the Beast into the movie theater in 3-D I was very excited. This is a movie that she has seen a few times before - and one that I have seen - so we would both know what to expect. This seemed like a great way for her to have her first theater experience without the potential of traumatizing her for life.

On MLK Day I got home from work early and the two of us went out for a movie date. We got popcorn (of course!) and our 3D glasses and headed into the theater. We only got seated about 5 minutes before the movie was supposed to start but it felt like forever to my eager little girl who kept leaning back in her movie theater seat, which kept collapsing on her!

When the lights finally dimmed, the previews began. One after another, with Elise repeatedly saying "is this the movie? when is the movie going to start?" After at least 15 minutes of previews (the typical amount of time she usually has an attention span for tv) started the Rapunzel short film. She did like it, but was very confused as to why we were watching Rapunzel and not Belle.

FINALLY, about 40 minutes after we first sat in the theater, Beauty and the Beast started. The 3D glasses freaked her out a little, but she was a good sport about keeping them on even though she really didn't want to. I also had to keep reminding her to sit down because she isn't one to sit for long periods of time so the movie theater was actually sort of a form of torture - sit in one seat - no standing - and stay there for hours!? Are you kidding me?! Eventually she crawled into my lap and stayed relatively still.

At the end of the movie (which may I remind you, we have seen at least two times before) she did do something odd. When **SPOILER ALERT* the Beast died, Elise acted as though 1) she had no idea this was going to happen 2) she had no idea that he was going to come back to life 3) this was the single saddest most horrible thing she'd ever seen in her entire life.

She SOBBED. Loudly. Borderline hysterically. Movie-goers were definitely staring. I quickly reassured her that he was going to be ok and luckily that scene isn't too terribly long but when the movie (happily) ended I think she was completely emotionally drained.

So the first movie experience was somewhat of a success. She really, really enjoyed the popcorn eating aspect of the movie - that's a definite. And when I asked her if she liked going to the movie theater she said "I really liked spending time with just you and me" which - while incredibly sweet - is not exactly a resounding affirmation. We'll have to wait to see how it goes next time - whenever she feels like she's ready...which could definitely be a while!

Winter Beach Trip

As has become our post-Christmas tradition, the Molloy and Wolfe families spent part of the week after Christmas hanging out together in Ocean City, Maryland. This year the group was a little smaller - as Aaron, Kate and Eamon had an amazing adventure at Disney World scheduled during this time - and while we certainly missed the young Wolfes, we had a lovely time spending some quality time with Oma and Opa for a few days.

Last year our family trip happened to coincide with a huge blizzard, tons of snow and freezing temperatures, which prevented us from leaving our hotel to take advantage of the local activities. This year the weather was beautiful - in the upper 40's and low 50's most of the time - and we got to experience tons of fun things in the area.


Ocean City has a winter festival of lights that is absolutely amazing and was a huge hit with the kids (and the adults!), as was indoor mini golf, and of course the indoor pool in the hotel.


The other awesome thing about our hotel is the ice skating rink in the lobby. For the past two years, this has been a big highlight for Elise who fell in love with ice skating here. This year, Lucas was old enough to have his first ice skating adventure.

I wasn't sure he would even be interested in doing it, but not only was he eager to try it, he was actually really good! Lucas had zero fear of the ice (in fact, he pretty much just skated out there and then kept telling Marty to go away and leave him alone) and pushed the trainer around like he's been skating his whole life. After about 10 minutes on the ice he was pushing the trainer away and then skating over to it by himself! Unfortunately his attention span is small so while he did really enjoy skating, he really only enjoyed it for about 15-20 minutes and then was ready to move on to the next activity.

Elise, who has only ice skated a handful of times in her life but has done so during this trip the past two years, was frustrated that she was not Debbie Fleming the second she skated onto the ice. She is very coordinated and she was good at it (and she is very used to being good at things which require coordination), but she didn't like that there were some kids on the ice who were doing better than she was. She did end up having a good time once she relaxed a little and stopped pressuring herself to be the best skater in the world. She did, however, ask for ice skating lessons so that she can eventually become the best skater in the world.

The kids took several long walks on the beach with Oma and Opa, collecting seashells and writing their names in the sand big enough for us to see it from the balcony of our hotel room. Another fun surprise that we could see from the balcony of our room was a bunch of whales in the ocean! There were a surprising number of whales swimming around not too far off the coast throughout the week and tracking them as they popped up out of the water kept us endlessly entertained.

We had a relaxing and fun trip - it was a great way to decompress after the craziness of the holidays. Thanks Oma and Opa!