I have wanted David to start spending one on one time with the kids, as I think they both need it. I also really would love the opportunity. So we agreed to try to start a new family tradition. Once a month we will swap kids and spend some time doing something special with them individually. We agreed to try it this saturday since Ellie didn't have dance. First up - Mommy and Ellie would spend the day together, while Daddy and Max had a boy's day.
Ellie quickly settled on the activity we have done togehter a few times -she wanted to go see a movie. This is something we've done a few times together. So after a bit of watching movie trailers, we decided on seeing the new Disney movie Chimpanzee. But first, we would visit Fairhaven to take Great Grandpa some birthday cookies.
I must say that Ellie was very excited about this idea, which is quite flattering to me. I can only hope she likes the idea of spending the day with her mother half this much when she's a teenager. The first sign was Ellie waking me up at 6:30 am to ask if she could get into her dress (often on a week day I can find Ellie still sleeping at 7:30 or after). I may have squashed her enthusiasm a bit with my lack of gusto about being wakened so early on a saturday, but I do not believe it damped the day for her.
We first made the cookies and had some breakfast. Ellie was my faithful decorator. She did a fantastic job. Around 10:30 we packed up and left for Fairhaven. We missed Great Grandpa but we did enjoy a nice visit with Great Grandma. She enjoyed seeing Ellie in her pink little dress. She liked talking to her and even showed great interest in the drawing that Ellie gave her. I was impressed she was able to form a few sentences as she tried to speak to Ellie asking her to tell her about the picture. Ellie played with a puzzel for a bit and then passed it along to Grandma to play with. Grandma tried for a while and then had us put it back together for her. I remember lots of time working on puzzels at Grandma's house when I was a child.
After our visit, we high tailed it to the movie theater up the road. My grand plan for some sandwiches before the movie failed, but luckily the menu at the local is expanding quite heavily. We ended up sharing a cheese pizza and some raisinnettes during the movie. Ellie was thrilled with that option and it all worked out nicely. She was so excited to be in the movie theater again. The little smile on her face was highlighted by the red pizza sauce around the edges of her mouth as she laughed at the previews and got excited about seeing the Disney princess castle. She was a happy girl.
The movie was pretty good for her age. There were a couple scenes that begged questions I didn't really want to discuss - such as the Chimpanzees hunt (and supper) of a monkey, and when baby Oscar lost his Mommy to the Leapords. These were both topics of sadness for Ellie and I both. However the movie was amazing. The footage was fantastic and there were very cool images and scenes of the jungle plants and insects to watch. All in all we both really enjoyed the experience.
Ellie was quite tired on the way home and is having a nap on the couch while I do exercises and type a few blog updates. I thought this was an important one to capture. We will hope this continues. Next month would be Mommy and Max day. I hear Daddy and Max had a nice morning at the park, hardware store and the plant farm. We'll see what Max has to say when he wakes from his nap.
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