Alivia's first movie!

I was flipping through a Parenting magazine and saw an advertisement for the movie Monkey Kingdom. We don't watch TV with the girls and the only movie she knows of is Winnie the Pooh. Once in a while I'll watch a vlog (Itsjudyslife) with her and daddy sometimes puts on Curious George in the morning when he's trying to keep her out of my bedroom so I can get a little more sleep with Juliana. (or as Alivia calls it "George's Monkey") But other than that we choose not to have her watch television, movies, etc.

I looked up Monkey Kingdom and after watching a preview for it I got really excited because I knew Alivia would love to see it and it would make a great first trip to the movie theater! I showed it to Dustin and he agreed.

I made sure to make a big deal about it. About 2 weeks before the movie was set to release I explained to her what a movie theater is; the big screen, the people, the dark room, the movie, the noise. She seems to do best when not just thrown into a new situation. The only thing I forgot to mention was the previews and it was noticeable. She didn't quite understand what the heck was going on and about cried when some animated character was on fire and running through a house...
But leading up to the movie we would tell her we were taking her on a "Movie Date". She was ecstatic. Anytime I mentioned it she'd say "today?". We ended up marking it on the calendar and counting down the days until we went out. She knew that Grandma Susu was coming to watch her baby sister and that it would just be mommy, daddy and Alivia. That day when I put her down for her nap I reminded her that we were going to see the movie when she woke up.

True to fashion these days I ended up being stuck in her room during her entire nap with Juliana sleeping on me. The second she woke up she looked at me and said "MOVIE DATE NOW!".

I still think 2 is very young to be taking a child to a movie theater. Not only does it require a little kid to sit still and be quite for 60+ minutes but most "kids" movies aren't actually geared towards, or appropriate for, toddlers. With that in mind we knew not to expect much. I was fully prepared to watch 30 mins or so before she got tired of it.

She did great! She loves monkeys,..it's the first place she wants to visit when we go to the zoo, she likes walking and sounding like a monkey and we've even called her our "little monkey" since she was a newborn. She's also really into mommy's and babies, daddy's and big sisters. Every time we play any game at all she has to make sure there is a mommy and a baby. If we see an ant crawling across the side walk she has to find it's mommy...so the fact that this movie had monkeys and mommies and babies and a daddy, she was pretty excited.

She certainly didn't sit in her chair the whole time. She would stand, walk, sit on my lap, sit in her chair, tried to stand on her chair and play with the chair in front of her...talk. I had to remind her a couple times that we had to whisper and not play with other people's chairs. She caught on pretty quick. The best part was during the previews (which she didn't understand or like) she saw some people walking in the very front row at the bottom of the theater;
Alivia: "What those things?"
Me: "People...they are walking by the screen"
Alivia: "Alivia want to touch them"

HA! Because of the distance, dark theater and the fact that she's two years old she didn't have the depth perception to understand that they were full grown people walking by. It was also sweet when she would start laughing at the monkeys and she didn't care how loud she was laughing.

It really was a great movie and we had a really good time taking her. Disney did good at keeping it real but also not showing up close scenes that would be disturbing to young children (a monkey fight, a dead monkey, etc). I think Alivia's favorite part was when baby monkey "Kip" would nurse. She actually crawled up on my lap and asked for mommy milk.

After the movie we took a few pictures in front of the theater to document the occasion, she walked around the water fountain and then we grabbed a cupcake. Which turned out to be a big mistake and she had a full on meltdown in the middle of the sidewalk when I tried to take a bite. Apparently she forgot we were sharing it...but who can blame her? She's 2.

 She's just like the monkeys in the movie...always climbing on something.

 It's amazing how long it can take to try and get one good family picture!

 And then the meltdown over the cupcake lol

 You'd think I was trying to take a cupcake away from her...oh wait.

Family Photos

Can I just start off by saying how much I love these photos? Seriously, I love my family so much and I really feel like these really capture us. The feelings are real. We asked our friend to do a photo session for us (for us? really I think it was "with" us. She's really wonderful) and we wanted them to be more photo journalistic. There are posed shots, but for the most part it was just us being silly.

These were initially going to be Newborn Photos. You know the kind; little tiny baby is all bundled up in a swaddle, eyes closed, yawning, parents looking on adoringly. Well, true to my nature, that didn't happen. First of all I never expected us to be in the NICU for 10 days post birth. So that somewhat threw a wrench in things. Then little miss was on oxygen until her 1 month check up and we wanted to wait until that was gone just so it was less cumbersome. Then both my girls came down with a ridiculous bout of cold/stomach flu, which lasted over 2 weeks....we hardly survived that people! Once we were finally over that and red and runny noses were gone...our photographer's little boys came down with a cold. Just like that the newborn stage was gone.

It's incredible how quickly that short little stage leaves our lives. One minute you're 9 months pregnant, can't wait to meet the little tiny person who has been taking up all your lung capacity for the last few months and the next their 3 months old. No...the next minute their 2.5 years old! Seriously how did Alivia get so big already? Although I'm sure if you asked my own mother she'd say "Wait...how are you already having babies of your own? Weren't you just a little tiny baby on my hip yesterday?"

But, that's how it is. And while time just flies past us it's good to stop, take some family photos, and try to capture the "Now". The "Right Now". The "This is how we looked and felt as a family on this day and lets try our best to remember and treasure it". Yes it's a pain in the ass to get everyone ready, coordinate naps, lunches, snacks, baths, diapers, outfit changes, ... more diapers, and yes it's costly. But I really feel that's all worth it. I feel that it's a good investment in our family's history, legacy,...what the hell...I just like looking at my cute babes!

So here they are. Our family photos taken this March when Juliana was just about 2.5 months old and Alivia was 2 years and 3 months and Dustin and I were...ha, no one cares how old we are, we know you're just here to see the babies.

By the way, our photographer and friend is Charisa Reeves. She's amazing and I'm so glad we know her!
https://www.facebook.com/CharisaNicoleDesign