A night at the movies

Jeff was working tonight, so I decided to take Biscuit on a date.

We started with dinner. It involved chicken nuggets, fries and chocolate milk, so my boy was a wee bit excited. Then we headed to the movies. The new "Winnie the Pooh" movie is out, and it's only about an hour long, so I figured it was short enough to fit within his attention span.

We sat through about 15 minutes of previews and commercials. Remember that short attention span I was talking about? I was worried that Biscuit would be done and ready to go before the movie even started.

One of the previews was a movie about chimpanzees. Biscuit went nuts! "Look, Mom! Goriwahs! Goriwahs! We like goriwahs!"

Between the previews and Pooh, they showed a cartoon short film about the Loch Ness monster. It was really cute, and Biscuit liked it. Although, he did keep referring to Nessie as "that dragon."

"That dragon finally find a home, Mom," he said. "That dragon and his duck finally find a home."

The theater we went to is a bit older. It doesn't have stadium seating, so it's not usually as crowded as the other theaters. One thing I didn't consider, though, was the seats. They're the kind that flip down and stay down from your weight. Guess who doesn't weigh enough to keep one down?!?

I had meant to grab a booster seat, but I had popcorn, a drink, my pocketbook, Biscuit's racecars (that I forgot to make him leave in the car) and our ticket stubs.

As we walked down the hall, I told Biscuit we were looking for the No. 9 theater. "Let's look for a door with a No. 9 on it," I told him. He seemed to enjoy the hunt.

We made it to our theater, and I sat down and put all my stuff in the seat to my left. I lifted Biscuit into the seat on my right. I let him go, and he started folding up like a pocket knife.

"MOM! MAMA! MAMA!!!" he yelled.

The booster seats were all the way back in the lobby, which would've meant me scooping up all my stuff, along with Biscuit and heading out of the theater, down the hall and into the lobby. I figured I'd just put him back in the seat and prop my leg on the edge to hold it down.

Nope. The armrests were fixed, so that wouldn't work, either.

I sat Biscuit up on my lap, but he wanted to lean back. And if he leaned back, he wasn't tall enough to see over the seat in front of us.

So I put my arm on the armrest and propped him up there. Then my hand went to sleep.

Needless to say, I couldn't reach my popcorn or drink in any of these scenarios. And I had a really light dinner because I love movie popcorn.

I don't know if I can exactly explain how we worked out the seating. Biscuit was sitting partially on the armrest and partially on my arm, leaning on my shoulder and chest. That lasted through about half the movie, then we did the same positioning on the other side.

Finally, the Pooh movie started.

I think overall, Biscuit enjoyed the experience. He did say twice during the Pooh movie, "I'm done with this bear movie, Mom." I told him we'd stay for just a little while longer, and both times, it was just long enough for him to get interested in the movie again.

I enjoyed my date night with Biscuit, but I think I'll make it a three-person date next time ... Biscuit, me AND Jeff.