Hopping to the movies

You know how some activities are a bit out of reach when you have babies and small children? Like uneventful trips to the supermarket, or a car trip without the side-of-the-road wee-wees, or going to someone else's house without at least one child needing to do the most heinous thing in their nappy the world has ever seen (or smelled?)?

Personally, I think one of the most impossible things to do after having a child, is go to see a movie. Even if you leave the baby / babies / toddler / pre-schooler with a babysitter, going to a movie when you need to juggle feeding times and nap times and tanty times can be all a bit too much. I remember my first attempt at leaving Jack to see a film. He would have been a few months old, I left enough expressed milk to feed a hungry orphanage, and we timed it to the minute. Even still, I made Christian do a burnout out of the carpark because I was so desperate to get home to my breast pump (you miss one feed, ONE! And they become weapons of mammary destruction) and my (blessedly always hungry) baby. And I couldn't even tell you what the movie was, because I think I may have dozed off for a little while there in the middle...

Anyhow, the only thing more difficult than going to a movie with your husband / partner / another grown-up, is going to the movies with your children. If you recall, after one peculiarly successful visit to the movies when Mais was just a little tacker, I tried it again...with laughable results. So when my mum offered to look after the Mouse for us this arvo so we could take the big kids to the flicks, we had some serious words with them before we made the commitment.

"Now, Jack and Phoebs, last time we went to the movies, Jack lasted half an hour. If we take you today, it's for the whole movie. You sit still, there's no chatting, and we watch the whole movie, ok?" Jack sat up straight and solemnly replied in his best five-year-old-responsible voice, "I'll be good, Mumma, I promise. I won't talk and I'll sit still in my chair." Phoebalina piped up, "I'll be good, too Mumma! I's a good girl, I'll sit still, and I won't say poo-bum!" Um, that's great Phoebs. I hope you don't say that anyway?

So we left a deliriously happy Mouse with Narnie and Pa and headed off to the cinema. The kids were so excited it was ridiculous - even queueing for the tickets gave them reason to skip and kick up their heels. We took them to see 'Hop', the story of the Easter Bunny. I must say, it was really funny and a great story...and it is entirely possible that I could listen to Russell Brand being an Easter bunny all day. True to their word, the kids behaved beautifully, and asked breathlessly at the rolling of the credits if we could watch it again. Since we had seen a funny trailer for the Smurf movie which is coming out in June, I suggested we might be able to go to that during the next school holidays. "The Sniff Murphy?" chirped Phoebalina. "Yay! I want to see that!" Jack just rolled his grown-up eyes and laughed. "No, Phoebs, it's the Smoofy", he said. I think by this point Christian was lucky to be driving on the correct side of the road, he was laughing so hard.

Maisie Mouse had been on a walk in the pram with Narnie and Pa, and had promptly fallen asleep on Narnie's lap on their return home. It was a bit gorgeous to arrive back at the house to see my bubba fast asleep on my mum. Although it felt very strange to leave the house without my littlest girl (and the family felt quite depleted!), our trip to the flicks was so much simpler without a nappy bag in tow! Even better was the knowledge that our Mouse had a lovely afternoon with her grandparents, and didn't notice our absence at all. So with that in mind, I wonder how long it would be before we can nick off again?? Perhaps to something not rated G???