7.14.2008

Mommy Learns a Lesson

This morning went really well. I was expecting melt-downs after the weekend, and with Lee going back to work Monday morning. Nope. Of course, our morning was not strenuous in the least. They finished up the movie "Little Women", and we headed to the playground. Their play was pretty lack-luster... I chased them around the equipment again. We talked about the fire truck and the fire men we saw. (The park is near a fire station.)

There was a park district guy there dressed in shorts, tank top, rubber boots that went up to his knees, and a big clear face mask. He was hosing down the pavilion with a pressure hose. That was HIGH ENTERTAINMENT for a certain 2 children. They just stood staring, and he looked up from his work. I said "They've never seen anything like that." He gave us a little demonstration of the hose on the pavement. Neat. Then Habtamu starts miming (he's REALLY good at getting his ideas across) about how the hose is not to be used on people. Later I found out that he'd seen a hose like that at Zac's and he'd explained it.

I decided the park was a bust, so we went to the library for the 1st time. My card had expired (I'm a sporadic patron at best... I borrow from friends a lot... especially Anna.) so I got it renewed and paid the $1.20 fine. Doh. I can't remember the last time I'd checked out a book, so who knows how long that was sitting out there. Got the kids cards, and we checked out several randomly picked books. They were kind of swarming (as well as 2 can be a swarm), so I grabbed a few books from the Easy Reader section and got out of there.

We also checked out the DVDs. We got 2 dog movies. I'm getting to the point of the title now. No, I did not let them get Old Yeller! They did pick it up though, and I said "Um, no." I made it clear they were to pick from the ones labeled G, not PG, not PG-13, not R. We ended up with Homeward Bound and AirBud. We watched Homeward Bound before lunch. OK. So. I probably should have watched the movie ahead of time. *****SPOILER ALERT*****STOP READING IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE PLOT OF H.B.*********** Anyway, there's a part in it where the cat goes over a waterfall, and the 2 dogs couldn't save her. The kids made a cry of dismay "OOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooh Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo." And I thought "Oh, crap. I THINK she's ok, but I can't remember." So I kept reassuring them that I THINK she's ok.... please let her be ok. She was. Then there's a bear and a mountain lion, and the old dog falls down a shaft and can't get out. And I think "Oh, crap. It's not one of those horrible 'no, no, you go on' movies, is it? Where the old dog gives his life for the others?!" High drama here. And no, it wasn't.... he lives, but you don't know that until the very end.

Habtamu LOVED this movie. He totally got what was going on, and was so into the characters, and was moved in the right spots... in short, this movie played his emotions like a fiddle. At the end, when the old dog comes limping over the hill, he stood up and cheered. When Lee got home, he got the full re-enactment. When Lee looked confused, H would look at me and say "Shaba shaba shay" (which is his "tell him in English" request. It doesn't mean anything, it's his imitation of what English sounds like to him.)

SO... any suggestions for G movies that have a little suspense, but not MORE than Homeward Bound? Also, H.B. may have played MY emotions like a fiddle, since I was crying within seconds when the old faithful dog was playing with his boy.

Lee's Addendum:
This is totally off topic, but it's worth noting that yesterday (after all the hubbub) H said that he wanted smaller portions at meals, after miming his stomach exploding, of course. We were glad it was his idea. 'Food issues' is one of those things the books say will eventually work itself out. Hallelujah, let the self-regulation begin!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Finding Nemo - My kids love it. It's animated though, so I'm not sure how yall feel about that. It's not a bad watch for the parents either. It's comical both for the children and the adults because everyone gets things on different levels.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Flipper- This is really cute, my kids love it but it would probably play with the emotions.
Freaky Friday (the old one)
The Parent Trap (the old one)
Swiss Family Robinson
The Wizard of Oz
Willy Wonka (the old one)
Veggie Tales- These are great (yes more anamation!) but they have really cute songs the kids can learn and great morals. Plus they get to learn about christianity!

kidsinmind.com <-This is a great website to go and look up movie ratings/reviews. They tell you EVERYTHING you will encounter in the movie. For PG-13 movies they even count how many times they say cuss words, that's how detailed it is. It of course has spoilers, but you know exactly what your kids will see/hear.

Apryl said...

My kids just watched homeward bound the other day :) There's a sequel--I can't remember how that one works but the kids like it. Milo and Otis
Davey and Goliath--claymation produced by the Lutheran church ages ago (I personally can't bear to watch these, but again, the kids like them). Good when you need just a half an hour of 'filler' and don't want a full length feature.
My oldest likes Wilderness Family (some drama involved there-but it all turns out fine).
Babe? I'm trying to think of animal movies that would be easy to follow--that's all that Salomae can bear to watch since she can't understand English very well. That said she can only watch about 20 minutes of anything.

I'd be careful about some Disney animated movies--they are just weird sometimes (like Brother Bear) or kill off one of the parents. It only takes one disaster movie viewing to learn the lesson of checking online before showing it to your kids. We let Everett watch Tarzan when he was little, about 15 minutes into the movie he started screaming "Turn it off!" Thankfully, we've desensitized him since then...

apryl

Anonymous said...

More animated suggestions:
The Emperor's New Groove (hilarious for both kids and parents)
Lady and the Tramp
101 Dalmations (the old animated one, NOT the live action newer ones)
Monsters, Inc.
Toy Story 1 & 2

Live action:
Milo and Otis (another animal adventure story)

A couple notes: in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang--when my girls were little the "kid catcher" in it really scared them, as did those flying monkeys in Wizard of Oz. Kids are all different, though--maybe mine were extra sensitive.

Anonymous said...

About 1/2 of my DVD collection is animation, so if you just want me to crank out copies...not a problem.

FYI - check this out, very informative!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_mothers

Melissa Juvinall said...

I was going to say Milo and Otis as well. Popular selection! To add to what others have said:
Cars
Mary Poppins
An American Tail

My son LOVES Peter Pan because he loves pirates. There is one strange scene, but the rest is fun for him.
Melissa Juvinall

ctadhankins said...

Homeward Bound is a good one, that's Addie's "fall asleep for a nap" drug. I usually end up watching at least half of it, but the scenery and music knock me unconscious too.
I'm a fan of the Disney movies, both live and animated, but as with most stories there's usually a "bad guy" or something like that.. I know a few of those people (grown ups) in real life too! Ahhh, life imitating art.
I'm just now checking in after a 2-week hiatus, hope all is well at Chateau Gardner.