Date Night

The other afternoon I was feeling quite bored and ready to get out of the house. I considered going to a movie by myself but didn't really want to be by myself. Hubby was going to be working late and the 10 yr old was sitting beside me working on a felt owl.

I looked over at her and realized we could both use some one-to-one time.

I asked her if she wanted to go on a "date" with me: grab some dinner, visit my brother in the hospital and see a movie? She jumped on the chance of leaving her little sister at home!

I told her that I didn't want to see a cartoon movie, those make me fall asleep. I really wanted to see Beastly, so we watched the trailer for it. Ick, a little too much teenage mean-spirited drama and half naked boy. We also looked at the trailers for I Am Number Four (which has the half-naked boy from Beastly) and Red Riding Hood. All three of these were PG-13. Now, she is 10 but we shelter her from a lot ...but how do I put it into words? We shelter her from the teen angst, drama, mean-spirited, talking-back, getting into mischief, sexy time kinda shows. No Hannah Montanna, No boy-twins that live on a boat and run amuck, no Magic Family that makes-out with vampires, No Bratz dolls, etc.. And it is hard because there are so many shows these days that are based on one or all of those concepts. So Beastly was out.

The other two had more violence, magic, scariness to them. B does not get scared. She doesn't have bad dreams. She isn't afraid of anything. Ever. I was not worried about a blood-thirsty wolf scaring her or teen aliens fighting an unknown force scaring her.

We finally decided on Red Riding Hood.

B and I got to have some good conversation which is usually hard with Z in the car. Z talks all the time, and talks loudly, and finishes B's thoughts. B gets very frustrated with her. But B told me what was happening at school and with the kids in the neighborhood. It was very cool how I could talk to her more on an adult level about her feelings and thoughts.

We visited my brother (he's fine now) and I answered her many question about hospitals and illness. We ate Japanese and answered her many questions about life. We made it to the mall with time to kill so we went in Claire's.

When it was time we headed into the theater. It was full of older teens and adults, quite packed really. I was a little nervous about my decision in  light of NO KIDS in the audience.

The trailers before the movie were a little risque. Yikes. Can't even remember what movies they were selling cause I was wearing my "mom-filter" and freaking out about what she was seeing and hearing.

I won't break down the movie except to say that save for one part with Red and her Man-Hunk kiss, he picks her up and lays her on a bed of hay for more kissing. Eeek! When that more passionate kissing started I told B to close her eyes, which she fought but this has been our habit at home if something inappropriate surprises us from a tv show or movie. Otherwise, there was intensity, some gore, and some scariness in the movie but she wasn't bothered by that. B liked the movie and so did I (I really wanted Red's cape- so pretty), we talked about it after; about what everything meant, symbolism, meaning, etc. She said again the next day that she really liked it. I really liked getting some one-on-one time with her.

Next up: Soul Surfer with both girls...