Abby and the Polar Express
I took this week off from work and have been spending time taking the kids on various activities--we met my friend Kristi and her son Alex at the Woodland Mall indoor playground yesterday. Today I took Abby to see The Polar Express, while Becca stayed with Jim. Abby assured me that she knew about the Polar Express as they'd read the book in daycare. Abby was quite excited to see a movie about a train. The movie scenery was beautiful and, being from Grand Rapids, where the main character lives, it was a lot of fun to see the scene with the old Herpolsheimer's department store (though the building that once housed Herpolsheimer's is now the Grand Rapids Police Department and the Secretary of State's downtown location). Looking at the outdoor neighborhood scenery, it looked as if it were lifted straight out of somewhere around Garfield Park. I could swear I had run through that neighborhood depicted on screen while training for the Chicago Marathon this past summer. I realize that the drawings of the homes most likely aren't an exact replica from any particular street, but the artwork does effectively capture a neighborhood of older homes in Grand Rapids. That being said, Abby overall enjoyed the picture, although the intensity of the crisis-laden train ride to the North Pole may have been a little scary for her as I turned around to see her cowering in her seat with tears on her face. I held her for the rest of the movie and then she did fine. It was her first time watching a movie in a movie theater.

Abby does really well in most situations where she needs to sit still for long periods of time, as long as there's something interesting to watch. (This cannot be said for going to the grocery store, where she will ask to get in and out of the cart, and will run all over the store given half a chance.) I took her to the Grand Rapids Ballet production of The Nutcracker a few weeks ago and she sat still for nearly the whole duration. It's great when one does not have to spend time telling a child to sit still in a performance or a movie.



- posted by Kristen @ 12/22/2004 09:54:00 PM