First Movie Experience

Elsa and I met Kate and James at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History this afternoon to take in an IMAX movie. This was Elsa's first time in a movie theater of any sort, so I wasn't sure what to expect from her, especially since IMAX movies are certain to be even more overwhelming than your average cinema experience. Through this Sunday, Fernbank is recycling your old cell phone in exchange for a free ticket to Wild Ocean and a free reusable shopping bag. Knowing that this was free (children under two are always free) helped in that I felt there was no loss in at least giving it a try. I went prepared with a snack for Elsa and took an aisle seat, knowing it was highly likely that I would have to leave at some point.

Elsa did not disappoint my expectations. She started making rather loud, fairly fussy noises before the movie even started. Of course it did not help that she had a terrible time going down for her nap for the second day in a row, and then was only able to sleep 40 minutes before we needed to run out the door. The snack distracted her some, as did one of the preview screens advertising birthday celebrations at Fernbank, a dinosaur caricature holding balloons being the distracting factor. Of course, she soon grew tired of the snack and signed for "more" when the advertisement disappeared, and we were up out of our seats soon after, trying to escape what I felt were about ten pairs of annoyed glances boring into the back and side of my head.

Elsa and I were in the back of the theater, behind the seats, when the movie started, and could only see about the top half of the screen from that vantage point, but Elsa enjoyed especially seeing the underwater scenes of the sardines, sharks, seals, and dolphins. Once she seemed a bit more relaxed and interested in the movie, we moved back out to the side by the seats, but continued to stand. She continued to make noises off and on, but only noises of interest (and the occasional "up, up" when she saw some stairs she wanted to climb) rather than fussiness, which was -- at least I think -- a bit more tolerable. She was not scared of the huge floor-to-ceiling screen or the loud noises at all -- a definite plus. And she stayed fairly interested in the movie with the help of my more simplistic soundtrack:

"Ooo... look at all of those fish [sign for fish; Elsa signs back]!"

"Elsa -- dolphins!"

"A boat! Do you see the fisherman trying to catch a fish?"

You get the idea. It worked for the most part, and I actually was able to enjoy most of the movie, which was nice. I don't know if we will attempt it again any time soon, but, then again, maybe we will. I definitely would like to take advantage of the fact that she is not scared of it at this point. And, hey, it was good exercise holding Elsa in my arms and dancing in place to the music for 45 minutes.