Iron Mom! – Mother’s Day ’08
Linda declined Breakfast-in-Bed, which is a good thing because the one time we did that the kids got all the breakfast (and juice ended up on the stairs). So, I got up with the kids despite insomnia last night and we dutifully waited until 8:30am. 8:30am is what Linda and I call “sleepin’ in late” because our lovely Henry – apple of our eyes – likes to get up between 5am and 6:30am. (Really, he’s lucky to still be alive!) Anyway, here’s our Mom’s Day Adventure:
Linda broke her fast on hashbrowns and my specially seasoned eggs + many cups of coffee. Then we opened the gifts.
Henry and Maggie had roughly ten pages of cards each.
Henry Maggie and I had already converted our green turtle sandbox into an herb garden right across from the side door.
I got her a nice wooden windchime.
We had leftover burgers for lunch and then headed out to the movies. Linda got to pick and she picked Iron Man. I quickly went online and learned that the flick was PG-13. I headed over to Common Sense Media to look at their content review and what I found there seemed ok. Not ideal for my kids ages, but not any worse than movies I saw at their age (Star Wars, Superman, King Kong, etc.,). This isn’t the 70’s or 80’s when any PG movie was likely to have breasts in it. And the special effects these days may be more realistic but come on, that guy-in-an-ape suit in the 1976 version of King Kong blowing on Jessica Lange, and teasingly nudging her clothes off with a giant finger, resulted in some pretty bizarre and strange feelings when I was 5. Crudeness is somehow worse than slickness. Aside from that maybe, I have some very special memories of seeing Star Wars with dad or Raiders of the Lost Ark with family (btw, Iron Man is arguably less scary than Indy’s first romp and certainly tamer than his second). The movie has some intense scenes. Especially for a family where the dad had a heart attack. Henry and Maggie both loved the movie – the fx are sensational and Robert Downey Jr makes the whole film a lot of fun – and afterwards Henry was running around using his “robo-boots” to fly and his hand repulsars to steer.
I’m glad Linda and I took this risk. I’m not recommending it to other parents, but I’m glad we did this. Iron Man earns it’s PG-13 rating. But I know the memories that Henry will have from this day – seeing a “grown-up super hero movie with daddy” (he’s been clamoring for the Spider-Man flicks for years now) and sitting in a part of the theater where we could talk about everything that was happening. We sat in the front area and it wasn’t crowded so we were surrounded by about 20′ of space in either direction. Even a 5-year old is inaudible at that distance when there’s a movie on!
Linda choose the movie. It was still her day. But this Mother’s Day was even more special for the 5-year old kid grinning ear-to-ear in the movie seat – you know, the one sitting next to Henry.
A very warm and sincere Happy Mother’s day to all the GamerMoms, non-GamerMoms, wives and grannies.
-GamerDad
May 11th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Awwwww… 🙂
Sounds like a good day.
May 11th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
I wanted to take my mom out to dinner and a movie (like Speed Racer), but I’ve been sick all weekend, unfortunately. 🙁 She does like her Cross Words DS, though. Been playing it all day. –Cary
May 11th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I was shocked Linda picked Iron Man (I suspect RDJr. and Terrance Howard may have played a role) … I figured I was in for Nim’s Island.
Your mom a Speed Racer fan there Cary?
May 12th, 2008 at 12:07 am
And Amy worked from 8 til 8 🙁
May 12th, 2008 at 3:34 am
No she’s not a Speed Racer fan, but she’s not picky when it comes to movies. –Cary
May 12th, 2008 at 7:19 am
Got my wife a Pink iPod Nano, the kids made her some cool stuff and put on a magic show(they are now at the point of doing actual tricks) … and we spent the entire weekend painting and rearranging furniture and hanging curtains and such …
May 12th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Sounds like you guys had a great time. 😉
No smoke alarm to go with the traditional pancakes this year – I actually kind of missed it.
After that we went to the movies, too. We’d already seen Iron Man twice, so the kids dragged me to Speed Racer. It was actually better than I expected. It was fun – they captured the feeling of the original cartoon very well. For better or worse. They use some of the classic fast-track anime pacing style which can seem a little odd if you don’t know what you’re looking at. Whatever you do, don’t sit near the screen. Remember how visually loud the trailer is? The whole thing is like that or worse. Unintended side effect – My daughters are still swooning over Racer X and the Mach 6. ‘Cause chicks dig the car. :eyeroll: (they said it, not me, on the way out of the theater)
After dinner at a local Chinese place it was back to the house for the cake they made me and presents. They all clubbed up and got me a Sidewinder racing wheel, a new rubber ducky for my collection, and they decorated the living room with balloons and streamers. My son overseas called me. It must have been four in the morning there.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
My wife got breakfast in bed about 30 minutes after she’d gotten up ;-). It was the usual: Cold, sticky oatmeal, sliced apples, burnt toast and herb tea. It was well-received and mostly uneaten (we’ve learned how to distract the kids quickly by opening presents… plus we had to get ready for church).
We also got to see Speed Racer as a pre-Mother’s Day special event (we went on Saturday). I’d previewed it on Friday because I wanted to make sure it was ok for the littlest Kid-aruses and ensure they wouldn’t be bored and… well, ok, so I wanted to see it as soon as I possibly could. I’m a big fan of the cartoons and my 7,3, and 2 year-old have been eating them up for the past few months (Speed Racer has actually replaced Cars as the action imaginations of choice!). It’s a great movie for any kid with a penchant for vehicles of any type… it does get a little slow in between races for the littlest of children, but it is colorful, fast, and funny! And a bonus: My wife loved it, too!!!
And I got an early Father’s Day present out of it (kind of like GamerDad did from Iron-man): My 3-year old hunted me down (I was corraling the 2-year old) one time that Speed Racer won a race and gave me about a 3-minute hug yelling “He won! He won! Speed Racer won the race!!” Fortunately the movie was really loud at that point and the couple of people who were close enough to be bothered by the yelling thought it was just as cute as I did!
May 15th, 2008 at 5:21 am
It was a great day… we had fun and just did what we wanted. The kids were so excited to share their gifts, I even got a million dollar check from Henry! I’m glad that all of the other moms had a good day as well. No smoke alarms here either Colleen! Now…father’s day!
May 15th, 2008 at 6:21 am
OK … so we had smoke alarms 😀
In our new house the smoke alarms are very quick to go and we’re still learning the ins and outs … and my younger son unplugged the toaster half-way through the cycle and then started it again …