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I Lilah has always really liked the Shrek movies, so when I saw that Puss in Boots was getting his own spin-off origins film, I thought I'd she'd really like to go see it.

But she'd never been to a movie in a theater before.

In order to see how she would do in a "big, dark, scary room with no talking" situation, I thought about taking her last summer to the free movies they have on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but you have to get there super early AND be stuck in the theater with a million kids because daycare centers bring all the kids from the lower 48 states to see one of two offered movies.

I mentioned the idea to Ben, and it was decided that she most definitely had the attention span to handle a movie - she can sit through The Wizard of Oz - and so I decided we'd hit up the opening day matinee of Puss in Boots.

She is fully responsible for the jelly shoes and socks she's rocking.  No amount of pleading would get her to change shoes.

The day ended up being perfect for catching a movie - it was cold as ice cubes and overcast, so it wasn't like we could be outside doing anything fun or productive.   So when we left work/school, we headed on over to Sam's for a cheese pizza lunch and then hopped over to the theater for the film. 

I thought about buying the tickets online at Fandango beforehand, but I'm so glad I didn't!   When we got to the ticket counter, I was told that children up to age 3 get into the movies for free!  No wonder you see so many people bringing their screaming infants into action films - don't have to pay to get them in, and you don't have to pay a sitter!

I wanted her to get the full-on movie experience, so we saddled up to the snack counter for a soda and some popcorn.  I was disappointed that they didn't offer a kid's pack, which was what I was hoping for, but we settled for the gallon of Sprite and 4lb bag of popcorn for $300.  And if you have been to a movie lately, you know I'm only sort of joking about that.  After having to pay only the adult matinee price of $7.50 to get in, I thought we were going to get out of this whole "First Movie Experience" thing on the cheap.  Oh well. 

Off we went with our snacks and took a seat.  We had gotten there about 5 minutes to show time, and sadly, I forgot that that usually means 15 minutes of previews.  Every time a  new preview came on, Lilah would say, "Is this the movie now?"  But she was good; eating popcorn and drinking her gallons of soda (she never gets soda, so she was taking FULL advantage of the situation) and watching the smarter, more experienced parents come in later as the movie was about to start.

She did so great.  The theater was pretty full for 2:00 on a Friday, and the crowd of kids seemed to average a little older than Lilah, maybe the 4-6 age range.  When she did ask a question, it was always kind of funny and got chuckles from the family behind us.  When the movie took a serious turn, she got terribly upset, crawled into my lap and started to cry, saying she didn't want this movie anymore.  The dear has a sweet, sweet empathetic heart and feels very strongly for others, and Puss' trials and tribulations were working her nerves.  I reassured her that within the next 10 minutes, everything would be just fine.

Funny she had that reaction, because I still remember sitting in the theater with my dad watching ET and sobbing uncontrollably when ET died, and him having to tell me to be quiet or he was going to take me out of the theater.  And I was five. LOL

Somehow along the way, Lilah got it in her head that the movie is called "Captain Boots" and it has now become Puss' official name.  So every time she asked a question it was, "Where's Captain Boots going?  Who is that with Captain Boots?  Is they gonna hurt Captain Boots?  HA HA!  Captain Boots is dancing!!" etc. etc.

Lilah crack corn, and I don't care...

After the movie was over, I noticed on the way out that there were kid's packs of popcorn and drinks left behind which irritated me a) because how hard is it to walk that crap to the trash can that sits at the door on the way out? and b) because I had asked if they had a small popcorn deal for Lilah and was told the smallest combo they had was the heart-attack for two size.  So I simply decided I was going to go talk to customer service and see if I could just get reimbursed for the difference since it wasn't on their menu board and I wasn't given it when I asked about it.

I told the Customer Service agent how this was her very first movie, and what a great experience it was and how she had a great time, but that I was disappointed that I hadn't been offered the kid's combo when I asked for something small for her and was there anything she could do, since when I didn't see it on the menu board I assumed they didn't have one?  So she apologized and instead of just reimbursing the difference in cost - which would have been about $5, she just gave me two free movie passes instead.

Have I mentioned that I like a free movie?

So, kiddos, not only does it pay to have a nice kid under the age of 3 who can get into movies for free, but it pays to ask nicely if someone will do you a solid when you don't get the service you should have been given.  Looks like if we find the right movies, both Mommy and Lilah will be getting in to see our next two movies for free!