Early on the movie, there is a scene in which the Nuns in a convent discuss Maria, the singing Nun, star of the movie. When Benjamin saw them on screen, with their black-and-white attire, he very matter-of-factly interrupted: That's a cow!
Mommy and I exploded in laughter.
From way up high in the clouds, design observers declare the recent movie The Incredibles to be the crown achievement of movie making, the must-see, the superior alternative to such contrasting garbage as The Polar Express.
About 30-40 minutes into the movie, he had had enough. He was telling the kid on the seat next to him about The Polar Express, you know what, is a train!
, then announcing a passage from the Baby Mozart video: in a few minutes the dragon will say "Blah!"
. While Mommy and I could have continued watching, we realized that this movie had not really captured our attention or imagination thus far, and leaving it unfinished wasn't really that bad. We'll get the video when it comes out.
Benjamin has spoken! So designers, shut up and listen.
She made me really work for it--very much like her brother back in the day--by laughing just when I made some rather hard physical contortions and noises. It was all worth it.
BTW, Benjamin says we live in Silly Island.
He's been tested for hearing and diverse allergies. His hearing is fine and no allergies that could cause this recurring problem were found.
This procedure is the most common surgery performed in North America on children under 4:
Still, the procedure is considered controversial and there's little consensus among doctors on whether it's really necessary. Studies have shown that some children who've had recurrent ear infections are a little behind when it comes to school readiness. But somewhere between ages 2 and 5 the connection between chronic ear infections and decreased school readiness disappears... Children with chronic ear infections eventually perform on par with their peers who didn't battle ear troubles in the first few years.
As for the use of ear plugs:
...there was a fascinating study a few years ago where children with ear tubes were monitored for ear infections with swimming...On average, wearing the earplugs doesn't seem to make a difference.
I was a little worried about several things: some mildly scary scenes, the movie is 92 minutes long, the uncanny valley theory (after reading the stupidest review of the movie), and last but not least, the incredibly high volume of loudspeakers in today's movie theaters.
Benjamin loved every minute of it. He was in awe and his eyes glued to the screen, and he was still talking about it before he went to bed. Now we know that he'll enjoy the book, and eventually the DVD.
We had a false start on Friday evening due to car trouble, and ended up coming back home that night. But we were not going to let that stop us, so we rented a car online, picked it up first thing the next morning and headed out for a fun day that we knew Benjamin would be very excited about. He had a blast.
For Sarah, this was her first trip if I'm not mistaken. She doesn't really care for steam engines and trains and all of that, but she really loves being outside and about, so she had a good time too.
The next day we were in Mystic, where we visited the beautiful Aquarium with the baby beluga. After lunch we went to the Seaport to walk around, get on board of a whaling ship and just enjoy the nice weather. Before heading back, we confirmed that there is indeed a Mystic Pizza, although we didn't have time to stop and eat there.
We needed this time out with our kids. It's incredible how notorious a positive effect it has on Benjamin's mood. He is definitely happiest when the four of us are having fun together. We leave you with a collection of photos of the last couple of weeks, including Halloween and our CT outing.