Well Behaved Kids

Today we took Alyce and Luke to the movies. We saw The Gruffalo. A short movie based on a book of the same name.


We also went with a lot of neighbors from the neighborhood with their kids. All the kids behaved fairly well. About as good as you would expect 5 year olds to behave. But Alyce and Luke both are perfect. They didn't get up, make noise, Or need to be disciplined. In almost any situation in public our kids are the best behaved.

I have no idea why they are so good. We don't raise them very strictly or let them get away with everything. Maybe being in the middle plus them being predisposed to be good is all we need. In any case I was real proud of them.

So Maybe This Wasn't a Good Idea

Tonight the family decided to save a few dollars and stay in rather than go out to eat.  As part of the evening we decided to watch a movie with Alyce after we put Luke to bed.

The movie we watched was Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. The movie was pretty good and Alyce seemed to be enjoying herself up until the end. Then a combination of peril in the movie and her being overtired put Alyce in tears. She was worried about what was going to happen to the main character. We tried to reassure her that everything was going to be ok but it took until the of the movie for her to be convinced.

Following the movie it was close to 9:45 and Alyce was so tired that she couldn't keep herself together and the smallest infraction would lead to tears.  Luckily I coaxed her into to bed and was able to cut off her ramblings so she'd finally roll over and go to sleep.

Maybe we shouldn't have let her stay up that late. Next time we'll get the movie started earlier and with a bit less peril.

Father's Day

This year I had a great Father's Day.  Not that the ones I've had in previous years were bad but this one was pretty cool.  Mom let me sleep in and the day started off very stress free.  Later in the afternoon Mom, Alyce, Grams, and I all went to go see the Disney Pixar movie Toy Story 3.  The Toy Story line of movies holds a special place for me.  The first movie came out in 1995 so completely blew me away with what you could do with a computer that it helped push me towards a career with computers.

Alyce going to the movies and sitting through an entire film is nothing new.  I think this might have been the first time she has done it while out of diapers.  Alyce seemed to enjoy the film but more than the movie she loved the popcorn.  As long as her cup was full and her juice box was nearby she was in heaven.

After the movies we met up with Papa, Onermark Grams, and Luke for dinner at the Macaroni Grill.

Stress free morning, movie, and dinner with the family;  Sign me up for next year.

Night at the Movies

Yesterday right after work Mom and I took Alyce to the movies.  We went to the AMC to see the re-release of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3-D.  Each movie is just under 1 1/2 hours with a 10 minute intermission between the two.  All together that makes for 3 hours in the movie theater.  Earlier this summer Alyce saw the movie UP and passed with flying colors so we were pretty sure she wouldn't have any problems with this.

There was a first for Alyce at this picture.  It was the first time she ever had popcorn.  She was a bit leery at first and only took a single piece.  When finished she was immediately hooked as she grabbed for piece after piece.  During the movie she would even speak up asking for more "pacorn".

Towards the end of the first film Alyce started to get a bit antsy or maybe tired.  She got out of her seat and the climbed into my lap.  The seats are nice in this theater in that the armrests lift up and you can recline across two seats.  I did just that and Alyce snuggled up into me, laying her head on my chest, and watching the rest of the movie.

When the feature was over it was nearly 8:00 and Alyce was tuckered out.  The evidence for this was that she threw herself on the ground in a crying heap when we tried to put her coat on to go home.  She was asleep in the car before we got home.