let's go to the movies

I've been waiting for this day for 3 1/2 years, (and we threw an extra day in there for good measure)...the day that I would take Elijah to the theatre for the first time.
It's no secret that both Jonathan and I love the movies. Going to the theatre is a real treat. I still remember the first movie I saw in the theatre when I was little. My Dad took me to the Muppet Movie and I was enchanted.
Yesterday was supposed to be the day we went. We got to the theatre, I prepped him on what we were doing and what it would be like (very important when you have a highly sensitive pre-schooler)...he was excited, he was ready, his eyes lit up when he saw the poster on the board outside and then the news I was not expecting...the show was sold out. You try to gently explain that to Elijah with better success than I did. Big Tears. "Don't make my movie be sold out"...I managed to calm him down and then we got home...more big tears as soon as he saw his dad..."Daddy, my movie was sold out"...fortunately, we have a plethora of DVD's...one of which saved the day.
So today, I managed to successfully pry him away from the church (no small feat in itself, by the way) with plenty of time to spare for the earlier matinee than we shot for yesterday (I figured, if the 1:30 show was sold out, we could get tickets then and there for the 4:00 one), this time, I was able to give Jonathan the thumbs up signal as he waited in the parking lot just in case...and Elijah and I were off to see The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, A Veggie Tales Movie.
We got our popcorn and orange pop (usually I go for a diet coke, but it was for Elijah), gave the ticket taker our tickets and headed into cinema 3...Elijah took one look inside and almost did a 180 back out again. "I'm scared...I don't want to go to a movie" (I had anticipated this might happen) We found a seat and started to talk about why he was scared and I began to explain all about going to the movies. We went back out to the entrance and found a booster seat that velcroed to the seat (great idea by the way)...when we went back into cinema 3 I let Elijah do a little exploring. He found us new seats (at the top of the stairs very last row...also a great idea, because you don't bother anyone if you have to get up). I showed him where the projection window was and peaked at the machine, explaining how it worked.
He was still a little nervous, right up until the movie started...in fact he spent a good deal of the time waiting with his head burried in my shoulder. Once he saw the picture on screen he was riveted and smilling. Elijah opted to keep his hat on for the duration of the movie (the ear flaps dulled the noise a bit for him) and chatted a little bit...but as I quickly found out, going to a kid's show matinee is not the quietest bit of cinema there is. I especially loved his repeated comment every time something bad happened, "that's not very good". He spent the last part of the movie sitting in my lap, which was nice...since we had Jeremy last year, I don't get to spend an awful lot of alone time with Elijah, so I'm glad we had something special for just the two of us. I know Jonathan wanted to take him to his first movie too, but he did get to take him to his first hockey game...this kind of evens it out a bit.
Overall, I think he liked it. When I asked him to tell Daddy about the movie, he said, "It's a secret, if you want to know, you have to go see it yourself"...I don't know if that's a hint, he'd like to see it again, or not, it's pretty cute either way.