It's all fun and games until someone has to lose

Tonight was movie night at J's school - free movie, pizza for a dollar a slice, drinks and snacks for 50 cents each. I love that his school does things like this. It's inexpensive entertainment, and it gives us a chance to get away from the TV and get out and do things. (Yes, I know, movie, TV, both involve watching something on a screen - but a movie with a cafeteria full of elementary school kids is definitely not a sedentary activity!)

J must have been hungry - he ate FIVE pieces of pizza when I was there, and the woman who works with the after-school program said he had three pieces of pizza between the time school ended and the time I got there. *eek* I'm thinking growth spurt. That, or lunch today wasn't quite what he was hoping for and he didn't eat. We got our food and put our blankets out in what we thought was a good spot, but had to move to be closer to some of J's friends. The movie started at 7:00, and the feature this evening was to be The Santa Clause 3. Not having seen 1 or 2, I worried that we wouldn't be able to follow the plot, but it was fine. It was actually a pretty cute movie, or at least the parts I got to watch were. J decided that mama made a great pillow, and laid down on my back. Have you ever had a 50-something pound boy lying on your back while you're lying on a tile floor? One word: ouch. Hard to concentrate like that, that's for sure.

But anyway, we watched the movie and stuffed ourselves full of pizza, and J got to play with some of his friends. And at the end of the evening, there was a drawing for door prizes, one of which was a copy of the movie we'd just watched. J waited anxiously for the number to be called...and was crushed when it wasn't his. He sobbed and cried that he'd wanted to win, he didn't win anything, everyone was supposed to win a prize. I explained to him that no, everyone didn't get a prize, there were only three prizes, and way more people than that. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. He was pretty well inconsolable all the way out to the car, until I thought to tell him that who knew, Santa might leave that movie in his Christmas stocking. And you never know, stranger things have happened.

He sacked out sometime after 10:00 tonight, and I'm going to get myself to bed here in a minute. Just because he was up late doesn't mean he'll sleep late - never has. And we've got lots to do tomorrow!

Day Out With Thomas

We went to see Thomas the Tank Engine yesterday - Day Out With Thomas was at the Grapevine Vintage Railroad. We did get a decent parking space, and free, no less - in the public parking lot, not the pay lot. No sobbing (we tried to go in 2005, and J was screaming and trying to run for the car before we ever saw Thomas - still not sure what set that off), although he had a couple of moments - when we first got on the train, he started wigging and telling me he couldn't ride the train. I think the loud sounds and all the people freaked him out a bit. So I just let him sit in my lap for a couple minutes and after a while he was fine. Every so often he'd want me to hold him for a minute or two, and then he'd go right on.

He really doesn't like lots of people. He has a particular fondness for bouncy houses - he'd jump all day if he could. Well, there were other kids in there, and he kept saying they'd all go home in a minute so he could jump. He flat wouldn't get in there with other kids he didn't know. So we put our shoes back on and gave the bouncy house a miss. But overall, we had big fun. We played with toys (the gift shop had more Thomas toys than you can even imagine - I'm going to start saving now for next year!) and watched videos and ate things that were bad for us and had a fun time. We did get an official pic taken - that's it at the top of this post. We got there about 11:30 and by about 2:15 or so he was ready to go. The last thing we did was stop off for our picture, and when we'd paid for it, he said, "Well, I'm glad that's over. Let's go home." LOLOLOL We ate a late lunch at David's Seafood Grill in Cedar Hill - J loves the shrimp martini, and he decided on that. And then we came home. I'm pooped!