Cineaste

Today we took Jarrah to her first movie. Well, she saw the IMAX Under the Sea at the science museum two weeks ago, but I don't count that because it was only 40 minutes long and had Johnny Depp narrating for mischievous barnacles. Today we went to see Pixar's Cars, and that sucker is two hours long!

I am proud to say that Jarrah was a trouper. We had been warned (thanks, Mary and Paul!) to bring her booster seat, and that kept her handily contained while she slurped and snacked and stared at the zooming car races for nearly 20 minutes of "I can't believe how well this is going." Then, quite reasonably, she lifted her hands for the one "baby sign" she knows: "All done!" That cracked me up because it was so sensible, but of course we weren't actually going anywhere for a long time.

There were a couple interludes when David or I walked her around the lobby or into other theatres (at one point she was sitting on my lap in the front row [stadium] of My Super Ex-Girlfriend which gave the audience, if they were interested, a birds-eye view of her falling out of my lap and rolling down the sticky, sloping floor until I could catch up to her, throw her over my shoulder and beat a hasty retreat. Yet another one of those moments when I think I'm going to get reported. ;)

But amazingly, she seemed to grow more engrossed as the movie progressed. She started recognizing some of the star cars and pointing to them, and most painfully adorable of all, she started exclaiming "WHOA!" whenever a car whizzed by. And, for reasons inexplicable but so cute it hurt, she clapped and shouted, "YAY!" when Lightning McQueen "did the right thing" in the big race. I won't tell you what that was in case you plan to see it, but suffice to say the moment pivoted on an ethical dilemma seemingly beyond her ken.

And we even made it through the credits, which, as anyone who knows us knows is deeply important in this family. When you toss that into the mix, I'd have to rate the experience an unqualified success.