Emmett's First Movie Theatre Experience

Emmett saw his first movie in a theatre today. Given that we dressed him up as Kermit for Halloween and (in general) are trying to give him a very muppetational childhood, it's probably obvious that we would choose The Muppets as his first movie.

If I had abundant free time and was willing to wait a week or two, I probably could have taken him to a sparsely-attended showing where I wouldn't have had to be concerned about whether he'd get antsy or loud during the movie, but I really really wanted to see the movie this week, the week that it opened. We went into it all with low expectations of being able to see the whole thing, and while I'm happy to report that we both saw most of it, I don't quite see myself repeating the movie theatre experience real soon (though I do want to see this particular movie again in order to catch anything that I missed).

There were some great little moments, like how he waved at the screen when we first saw Kermit, but it was good that I had an aisle seat because he spent a lot of the time sitting in the aisle or being held while I stood next to my seat. The movie itself was so enjoyable that I really didn't want to get up even when it was advisable to do so.

There were at least two times where we almost lost his right shoe (in the end, we stopped putting it back on him and one of us would just carry it; afterwards, I found out that Adam had thought ahead to bring a small flashlight along) and we had to sneak in goldfish crackers and cheerios to buy some calmness. A lot of Emmett's most attentive moments were wasted on the commercials before the previews; I imagine that he might have made it all the way to the end of the movie if those hadn't been so lengthy. It's clearly been ages since I've gone to a first-run movie at all because I didn't realize we'd be contending with previews and commercials.

I'd joked beforehand that I should bring him to the movie in his Kermit costume, but I'm glad that I didn't attempt this after all because I think he would have been extra-miserable.

Our second Thanksgiving with Emmett

What I remember about Thanksgiving a year ago: Emmett had definitely gotten the memo that the holiday was all about eating. I remember spending a ridiculous amount of the day nursing. I even had to nurse while eating dinner. Somewhere there's a picture of me sitting on the couch with a plate of food balanced on the Boppy while Emmett is latched on.

This year, Thanksgiving started with something that felt like a miracle: Emmett slept until 7 a.m.! He typically first wakes up sometime around 5, and sometimes even earlier than that, so this was unexpected and delightful. How nice to actually wake up after there's daylight!

I'd gotten a head start on cooking the day before (daycare was open but my workplace was closed), and it's a good thing that I did because as soon as I started cooking again, I found myself wondering, "How on Earth did I think I was going to be able to cook with the boy running around the kitchen, playing with the dog's dishes, knocking things over, etc.?" The answer, of course, was to take him out of the house altogether. The weather has been beautiful this week and Adam and I both spent time with Emmett outside while the other person cooked or straightened things up.

I was interested to see what Emmett would eat since many of the Thanksgiving menu items other than potatoes (sweet and mashed) were ones he hadn't had before. I was a little surprised that he didn't get more into the sweet potatoes since that was one of the first foods that he really loved. Whether he likes regular potatoes or not seems to vary from day to day and this was apparently a bit of an off day. He ate a bit of turkey-shaped marinated baked tofu, and while he didn't like the stuffing when I served it to him, he ate a fair amount of it when he was able to gra it off a plate next to his high chair try. Just on a lark, I gave him a bit of Mama Stamberg's cranberry relish, a recipe involving onions, horseradish, cranberries, sour cream, and sugar served in a slightly frozen state and he really surprised me by wanting more. He ate like four or five big spoonfuls of the stuff. A day later, it looks like the stains on his clothes have mostly come out.