Jami, Eddie, The Husband and Elephant with a Flower

Yesterday Eddie went to his first movie. Technically, I should point out, that when he was an infant, we did take him to the drive-in and rock him to sleep at the beginning of the first movie, so it's not that he's never been there, but, well, you get what I'm saying. The plan: see Horton Hears a Who at the drive in. Our thinking was that the drive-in on a school night would be less crowded, he could run around basically up until the movie started, so as not have to sit and wait, and if he got really nuts, we could just throw him in the car. First, we went to IHOP. This has nothing to do with the movie, but we wanted to get out there since it's Pittsburgh's first IHOP and it's near the drive-in. Eddie got a pancake with a banana-slice smile and strawberry eyes, which he ate a good bit of, along with 1 slice of my bacon and 2 of the Husband's sausages. But anyway . .. We got to the drive-in about 15 minutes before the movie was scheduled to begin and we were the only car at that screen!! Totally empty!! We pulled into the best spot and Eddie spent the next 15 minutes running from one end of the lot to the other (while we took turns chasing him since we're all full of pancakes, remember?). It got dark, the movie started and we watched the movie. He moved back and forth between his own seat, our laps, and the blanket we'd laid out. He ate snacks and sometimes asked "what happened?" or, when Horton wasn't on-screen "Where's the elephant?" But he really did watch the movie. Laughed at the slapstick. Cheered at the ending! My baby went to the movies! After Horton, we changed him into his jammies and climbed into the car in the cooling night to watch Nim's Island. As expected, Eddie fell asleep before the end of the opening credits, and the Husband and I sat holding hands and cradling our fuzzy-pj'd son, all alone in a big empty field under a starry sky. Before Eddie was born, we used to go to the drive-in all the time. That last pre-baby summer, I remember so clearly thinking of how it would be when we had him home and we'd all go as a family. Know what? It was even better than I'd imagined. Sweeter than sweet.