Utter Disappointment

Poor Ethan!!! He has been so excited to see Wall-E ever since he saw a preview on the Playhouse Disney website. He has been asking to go see it for months, trying to save money, reminding us it was almost time, etc...

So, finally, the family loads in the car and drives to a local theatre. We fork out $30 for matinee tickets, a small popcorn and a drink. Of course the line is huge, but Ethan is so excited he can hardly sit still. We get seats and sit through some previews.

Next up, the short film. We laughed the whole way through, as it is one of the best short films I've seen from pixar. Ethan was laughing so hard we almost needed to shush him.

Then Wall-E starts. Ethan was a little confused by the setting, but got to see all of his favorite parts within the first 20 minutes of the movie. Then wham, the political message hit and continued through the rest of the show. Ethan was not very interested in the show anymore and asked repeatedly to go home.

I can't blame him one bit. Most of the humor is adult humor. Little kids don't pick up on the small nuances in love and attraction. While animated, it is not meant for small children, even less so than Ratatouille. But even Ethan couldn't miss that Earth was messed up, and wrong.

That brings me to the political statement. Okay, obviously I should have done a little more research about what the show was about. But I hate, repeat, hate being force fed a political message, whether or not I agree with it, especially after spending $30 of my own money to do so. We wanted to be entertained, not preached to.

We left with a bad taste in our mouths, and it wasn't from the popcorn. We all agreed that it was one pixar show that we would not be buying.

I feel especially bad for my poor four year old boy. This is one of the largest disappointments he has had to face and survived it with just a few minor meltdowns. Next time we will have to read all the reviews and spoilers to be sure that we don't waste our time, money or disappoint our little ones.

Power Outage Blues

Luckily, we live far enough east that we are not getting the full force of the vicious storms raging through the midwest. But, we do get some pretty big storms all the same. Our area has had 4 major power outages in the last 3 weeks.

One of these power outages lasted several days during 100 degree weather. Luckily we had a friend whose home did not lose power and they had an extra room. We got to escape the heat. Ethan enjoyed getting out of the heat but was a little more enthusiastic about the visit than I thought.

The latest of these power outages was earlier this week. The power had been out for over 20 hours and we left to run errands. When we returned, we were lucky enough to have power restored. I was excited to have air conditioning and a working refrigerator. Ethan was less than enthusiastic.

Ethan, aren't you glad that we have power again.

No, I wanted to go to Heather's house.

Lawyer in the making?

Ethan has been developing his negotion skills quite well. As most children do, he tries to manipulate the situation to his liking. His latest venture has been with items that we use as rewards and incentives.

Rather than just asking if he can play on the game cube or have a piece of candy, he's learned to phrase it in a way that sets him in the advantage.

"Mom, have I been good enough to get a peanut butter candy?"

"Mom, I helped you do laundry, can I play on the TV (game cube).

"Dad, I helped in the yard, can I play on the computer."

When he actually has been good, it is extremely difficult to tell him no.