Stars and Strollers

Today was a big day for Owen and me. After mulling it over for several weeks now, I decided that today was the day I would try and take Owen to the movies for the first time. My baby, while being the absolute love of my life, has not been the most adaptable kid in the world, so I was nervous about taking him before he was ready, even though I've heard of other moms taking part in Stars and Strollers regularly with no trouble by this age (5 months). But, I know my boy, and I needed to wait until I felt confident (confident and less petrified are synonyms, right?) that we stood a chance at getting through 2 hours being in the same place, without crying - much. The potential was certainly there for it to be truly awful for both of us, not to mention the other poor movie-goers, so I took my time psyching myself up for this day.

I timed it all out last night. His feedings and naps had to be scheduled in just so in order for this to work. I needed to get him to the theatre a little on the hungry side, so I could give him a bottle during the movie, thus occupying approx. 20-25 minutes where I was guaranteed a happy fella. He also had to be a little on the sleepy side, so that I could get him to nap after his bottle. However, he couldn't be too sleepy, otherwise the grumps come out, it makes it really hard for him to calmly drift off, not to mention just making him cranky in general.  Anyway, so we started off well. He watched the previews happily and took his bottle like a champ. He continued watching the movie for a bit, and started to show signs of tiredness. The drifting off to sleep part, however, didn't quite go the way I hoped. He wanted to sleep; the poor guy was rubbing his eyes and would look at me as if to say, "Mama, why is it so loud? I can't sleep like this." I felt for him. It didn't last long before he gave up trying, and he proceeded to throw a bit of a tantrum. Not wanting to make a scene (despite the whole nature of the Stars and Strollers supposedly being inclusive of babies' ways), we stepped outside to work it out. After some coaxing he relaxed and fell asleep in my arms, so we ventured back inside, this time going way up to the back corner of the theatre where it was considerably quieter. 

This is when I made note of my one mistake: I picked an action movie, instead of a dialogue-heavy drama. During the quieter scenes Owen was able to sleep well, but then the guns and tanks come out, the music swells, the soldiers and sidekicks start screaming... and well, you get the idea. Not good. In my defense, though, there were only 2 options for the baby show, Sex and the City, and Indiana Jones 4 (you can guess where I was). The thing is that I'm going to see SATC with my girlfriends on Friday, and I didn't want to ruin the excitement of that, so it was Indy or nothing. I suppose I had been hoping that when the website info claimed "reduced volume" at these screenings that they really meant it. They didn't. Not enough for babies to stand much of a chance to sleep through anyway. *shrug* Anyway, I'll know for next time. In the end, Owen woke up with 15 minutes to go in the movie, so I turned him to face the screen and he made it to the end without another peep. Then I packed him up and when we got home he immediately passed out.

All-in-all a good experience, I'd say. We will definitely do this again - maybe even next week! And the best part is I now have this romantic vision of Owen looking back on his childhood with fond memories of movie dates with his Mama, starting all the way back when he was only 5 months old. As I head off to bed, that's better than warm milk, I tell ya. 

Good night. :)