I've got those hap-, hap-, happy feet!

After several aborted attempts to take Mags to see a) see more penguins in the movie 'Happy Feet', and b) give Mags her first theater experience, we were invited to join Whizz and her son yesterday afternoon on a movie-going outing. Mags was totally down with getting dressed to go see the dancing penguins, and was ready in record time, bike helmet and all (mind you, we walked.) The four of us hoofed it over to the downtown theaters, got our $15 bag of popcorn, and were in our seats by the middle of the first preview. I'd wondered how this would go with a two-and-a-half year old, but I figured the chances of success would be fairly high with a movie about penguins, as 'March of the Penguins' is still in regular circulation around our house.

The first half of the movie-viewing experience went smoothly. As expected, Mags sat in her seat, transfixed by the film, mindlessly eating popcorn and still wearing her bike helmet. But after a while, she either grew tired of sitting or just badly wanted to dance along to the music, and crawled over me to get to the isle. As we were near the handicap platform and there were all of 6 people in the theater, I figured a little dancing wouln't be a problem. And it wasn't, until the dancing turned into climbing on the railings all over the place. Oh dear. I had to peel her off the railings and return her to her seat once, twice...aaand third time's the charm. At that point I had to carry a wailing Mags out into the lobby to follow through with my dire warning that if she did it again, we were going to go home. After a long talk in the lobby, however, she agreed to behave and we went back in and actually made it with minimal fussing to the end of the film. Hooray! At which point Mags immediately demanded to see it again. (twitch, twitch)

All in all, and as badly as I was ready to deposit her in the trash recepticle on the way out, it went pretty well. She *is* only two, it was her first time, and it was a less kid-friendly movie than I had expected**. And I got to eat a hot dog (burp.) Plus, she got excercise walking to and from the theater -- well, except for the part where I had to carry her home -- so which is always good. Yeah, I'd do it again, I think. But it makes me glad our attempt to go to the movies with two other toddlers while in WI fell through.

Many thanks to Whizz for inviting us to the movies, and to Milo for actually holding Mags' hand part of the way home, as much as it pained him. :)

**I guess I'd been expecting something a little more light-hearted, a little less preachy, and definitely less musical numbers. But there were a lot of funny bits, and baby penguins! Really, you can't go wrong with baby penguins. Mostly.