The Academy Awards were last weekend, so now is a good time to talk
about movies, right? Both of our kids enjoy movies, but, largely owing
to Lily, movies at our house come in very distinct phases. When Lily was a
toddler, there was a handful of movies that she would watch
interchangeably, and she would also watch period films with me. But
since she was about two, she has fixated on one movie at a time. When
she does this, she immerses herself in it completely: she watches it
over and over again, listens to the songs on her music player and in the
car, reads bedtime books about it, re-enacts it, and dresses up like
its characters. So thorough is her obsession with one at a time that I
can pretty much trace the last few years by which movie she has been
into. It starts with:
Mary Poppins (June 2011-Jan 2012)
Cinderella (Feb -May 2012)
The Sound of Music (June 2012-May 2013)
Cars (June-September 2013)
The Incredibles (October-December 2013)
Frozen (January 2014-present)
Yet while she loves movies and gets thoroughly excited about a new one every four to six months, getting her to the point of trying that new movie is like getting most children to try unflavored medicine. To exemplify the point, she only saw two new movies in the whole of 2013, and both came about, in her words, “by accident.”
The first was Disney/Pixar’s Cars in May. We were down at my parents’ house in Corpus, and for whatever reason, I insisted that we watch something Corin might like. (Cor was a bit young, at the time, to sit through all of The Sound of Music.) At this insistence, Lily pitched a tremendous screaming fit, and I had to take her to the guest bedroom down the hall from the living room for a talk. She maintained that she could not play by herself in that room because she could still hear the movie sounds, but she eventually agreed to come with me to the kitchen, which is open to the living room, but to watch me cook with her back to the TV. Of course, every few seconds, she would glance over her shoulder anyway, and it was not too many minutes before she was on the couch with everybody else watching happily. Then it was nothing but Cars for four months.
Then, in September, we visited my aunt’s house in Houston. They had turned The Incredibles on for my nephew, and it was about 15 minutes in when we arrived. She couldn’t pitch a huge fit because her other cousin was sleeping close by (and anxious though she is, she loves her little cousins), and when we offered to let her run an errand with my mom to get her out of the house, the lure of my uncle’s giant TV had already gotten too much of her attention. He offered to sit with her for the whole movie, and then, of course, we had The Incredibles mania for the next four months. (This was a particularly fun phase because while Lily was Violet, running around casting “safety bubbles” (her term for force fields), Corin was Dash, simply running around for the fun of it.)
By December, though, I had heard of the new Disney movie Frozen, and I thought that it would be fun to take Lily to a movie theatre. I don’t get a lot of time one-on-one with her anymore, and going to a princess movie together seemed like a perfect mommy-daughter date. Except Lily wouldn’t go. “It would be scary!” I tried telling her that it had not one, but two princesses...who were sisters, but she was unmoved. I went to a bookstore and looked through the preschool picture book version to check for scary parts. She was unconvinced by my assurances. I took her to a bookstore with me to see for herself, and she saw the giant snowman and absolutely refused to go. (Since fireworks are her great fear, I figured a snowman was pretty safe.) I thought that it was important for her to get over the fear of going to the movies- not because movies are important but because I want her to learn to get over fears, and here was an opportunity. But I also didn’t want to make it such a big deal that she felt bad about herself or got even more anxious. So I backed off for a while.
At Christmas time, I heard from my parents that Frozen was very entertaining, so Matt and I went to see it ourselves. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I knew that Lily would enjoy most of it, but I also agreed with her that the giant snowman, though he is only a small part, might be too much for her, and I told her so. I wanted her to know that I wouldn’t press her about it anymore. But about a week later, I downloaded one of the movie’s songs (the now famous “Let it Go”) to add to my running playlist, and Lily came in to see what I was listening to. She liked it and wanted to know where it came from. “From that movie that Daddy and I went to see.” (Trying to avoid bringing it up so she wouldn’t feel pressured).
“From Frozen?” (Lily having none of my avoidance.)
“Yes, from Frozen.”
“Who sings it?”
“One of the princesses, who has a superpower.”
“A superpower?”
“Yes. She can make ice and snow with her hands like Frozone.”
“WHAT?!”
This led to us watching a trailer on YouTube. Which led to another trailer. Which led to the realization that Disney Animation had posted “Let it Go” itself. Which led to the declaration: “I WANT TO SEE FROZEN.” She was torn, though, because she was nervous about loud sounds, but a few days and one pair of pink noise-canceling headphones later, Lily, Corin, and I went to a “Baby Days” morning screening of Frozen at Alamo Drafthouse. Lily was so engrossed that she took her headphones off within a few minutes, put them back on for the big snowman, and then basically forgot about them. Corin, meanwhile, provided a highly entertaining commentary in between bites of popcorn and french fries. (“A monstee! A snow monstee! ROAR!”) (“More sing song!”) (or, better yet, at the big- and silent- climax of the film: “Oh no, Anna! SAFETY BUBBLE!”)
So here we are in the Frozen phase, and we are all enjoying it. It will, if all goes to plan, influence a series of several posts in the coming days, but I know that we’ll be due for a new phase some time this Spring or maybe Summer. A storybook app on the iPad has them both in love with Dug the Dog from Up, which Lily informs me- in all seriousness- that she really wants to see...when she’s seven.
Mary Poppins (June 2011-Jan 2012)
The Sound of Music (June 2012-May 2013)
Cars (June-September 2013)
The Incredibles (October-December 2013)
Frozen (January 2014-present)
Yet while she loves movies and gets thoroughly excited about a new one every four to six months, getting her to the point of trying that new movie is like getting most children to try unflavored medicine. To exemplify the point, she only saw two new movies in the whole of 2013, and both came about, in her words, “by accident.”
The first was Disney/Pixar’s Cars in May. We were down at my parents’ house in Corpus, and for whatever reason, I insisted that we watch something Corin might like. (Cor was a bit young, at the time, to sit through all of The Sound of Music.) At this insistence, Lily pitched a tremendous screaming fit, and I had to take her to the guest bedroom down the hall from the living room for a talk. She maintained that she could not play by herself in that room because she could still hear the movie sounds, but she eventually agreed to come with me to the kitchen, which is open to the living room, but to watch me cook with her back to the TV. Of course, every few seconds, she would glance over her shoulder anyway, and it was not too many minutes before she was on the couch with everybody else watching happily. Then it was nothing but Cars for four months.
Then, in September, we visited my aunt’s house in Houston. They had turned The Incredibles on for my nephew, and it was about 15 minutes in when we arrived. She couldn’t pitch a huge fit because her other cousin was sleeping close by (and anxious though she is, she loves her little cousins), and when we offered to let her run an errand with my mom to get her out of the house, the lure of my uncle’s giant TV had already gotten too much of her attention. He offered to sit with her for the whole movie, and then, of course, we had The Incredibles mania for the next four months. (This was a particularly fun phase because while Lily was Violet, running around casting “safety bubbles” (her term for force fields), Corin was Dash, simply running around for the fun of it.)
By December, though, I had heard of the new Disney movie Frozen, and I thought that it would be fun to take Lily to a movie theatre. I don’t get a lot of time one-on-one with her anymore, and going to a princess movie together seemed like a perfect mommy-daughter date. Except Lily wouldn’t go. “It would be scary!” I tried telling her that it had not one, but two princesses...who were sisters, but she was unmoved. I went to a bookstore and looked through the preschool picture book version to check for scary parts. She was unconvinced by my assurances. I took her to a bookstore with me to see for herself, and she saw the giant snowman and absolutely refused to go. (Since fireworks are her great fear, I figured a snowman was pretty safe.) I thought that it was important for her to get over the fear of going to the movies- not because movies are important but because I want her to learn to get over fears, and here was an opportunity. But I also didn’t want to make it such a big deal that she felt bad about herself or got even more anxious. So I backed off for a while.
At Christmas time, I heard from my parents that Frozen was very entertaining, so Matt and I went to see it ourselves. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I knew that Lily would enjoy most of it, but I also agreed with her that the giant snowman, though he is only a small part, might be too much for her, and I told her so. I wanted her to know that I wouldn’t press her about it anymore. But about a week later, I downloaded one of the movie’s songs (the now famous “Let it Go”) to add to my running playlist, and Lily came in to see what I was listening to. She liked it and wanted to know where it came from. “From that movie that Daddy and I went to see.” (Trying to avoid bringing it up so she wouldn’t feel pressured).
“From Frozen?” (Lily having none of my avoidance.)
“Yes, from Frozen.”
“Who sings it?”
“One of the princesses, who has a superpower.”
“A superpower?”
“Yes. She can make ice and snow with her hands like Frozone.”
“WHAT?!”
This led to us watching a trailer on YouTube. Which led to another trailer. Which led to the realization that Disney Animation had posted “Let it Go” itself. Which led to the declaration: “I WANT TO SEE FROZEN.” She was torn, though, because she was nervous about loud sounds, but a few days and one pair of pink noise-canceling headphones later, Lily, Corin, and I went to a “Baby Days” morning screening of Frozen at Alamo Drafthouse. Lily was so engrossed that she took her headphones off within a few minutes, put them back on for the big snowman, and then basically forgot about them. Corin, meanwhile, provided a highly entertaining commentary in between bites of popcorn and french fries. (“A monstee! A snow monstee! ROAR!”) (“More sing song!”) (or, better yet, at the big- and silent- climax of the film: “Oh no, Anna! SAFETY BUBBLE!”)
So here we are in the Frozen phase, and we are all enjoying it. It will, if all goes to plan, influence a series of several posts in the coming days, but I know that we’ll be due for a new phase some time this Spring or maybe Summer. A storybook app on the iPad has them both in love with Dug the Dog from Up, which Lily informs me- in all seriousness- that she really wants to see...when she’s seven.
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