summer entertainment

This is the time of year I make it a priority to get out and see movies. Back in 'the old days' -- pre-kids, I suppose that means, and especially during the summers I wasn't dating anyone, or the boyfriend lived in a different town, or whatever ... I would go see a lot of art-house movies by myself. But these days, I have time and freedom for only so many a year, and frankly, my brain is mush. And I also can't take the morally ambiguous, pathos-heavy ones any more, be they ever so well done. So it's big blockbustery stuff for me.

Thus far this summer, I've seen three -- I thought I'd give you Kate's perspective.

First, Iron Man. If I haven't already said so, this movie ROCKS. For so many reasons. Pretty much, you just have to see it. I'm betting it will be the best of the summer. (I have some hope, but not too much, for The Dark Knight - the first Batman movie was awesome, but Heath Ledger as the Joker is NOT doing it for me in the previews. But perhaps I'll be surprised. I'll also add that Hancock is starting to look rather interesting, as well. These movies both come out on or after my due date, though, which means I don't know how long it'll be before I can make it to them. Unless I take an infant, to a matinee. Hmmmm...)
I'd never even heard of Iron Man, the superhero, before the hype machine cranked up for this movie. I'm no Marvel Comics addict. Though there's nothing at all wrong with that. Low expectations do tend to help. Though this movie would meet high expectations, as well.

Second: Prince Caspian. Now, no one loves the Narnia books more than I do. Really. Not possible. And I'm not one of these purist types who flies into a million pieces if a moviemaker deviates from the book by a smidge (I'm looking at you, Potter fans). I recognize this sometimes makes for more compelling viewing, as opposed to reading. And I liked the first movie.
However ... this one didn't quite do it for me. It's hard to say why. One likely reason -- it was my least favorite book. Just not all that. The Pevensies go back to Narnia. And there are a few compelling thoughts about faith and God sprinkled here and there. That's it. The end. Well, and the revelation that there are other 'ways into Narnia,' which I don't quite know what to do with. But if you want killer Middle Earth-style battle scenes, and special effects, it begins and ends with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This series suffers greatly from having come after that one. I do realize that it's possible/probable that the only reason the movies were green-lighted (green-lit?) was the smashing success of LotR. The next book/movie (Voyage of the Dawn Treader) will be either utterly killer, or hopelessly cheesy. I'm crossing my fingers for the former. I like the casting of the younger Pevensies best, so I won't be sad to see the eldest two go. It's already got that going for it. No White Witch, though (I don't think). Tilda Swinton absolutely rocks.

I just got back from the latest Indiana Jones movie. Disappointing. It's even worse than you think a movie about a 'Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' will be, believe it or not. Well, it's not terrible -- none of these movies was terrible -- but so not Indy at his finest. It's actually not even interesting enough to be terrible, come to think of it. I mean, the second movie was what I'd consider terrible, and those images of eating baby snakes and monkey brains, and still-beating hearts ripped out of chests, and the sheer horror that is Kate Capshaw, is forever burned into my brain. This latest one, surprisingly, was less than stellar not because Harrison Ford has one foot in the grave. That all played just fine. And they do some cool stuff with the new addition -- Shia LaBeouf. Who is my personal favorite 'far-younger-than-me actor that I secretly love for some random reason.' Though my mother in law thoroughly cured me of that recently by remarking, when I told her that he reminded me a lot of Matt: "Oh, really? I've always thought he looked just like Nick" (her other son). Yeah. No more Shia lust for me. Done. Bleeaaahhh.
But I still can enjoy the actor -- he does his slightly goofy, comedic, sometimes black sheep thing very well. And he did it well here. They had the usual cute little comedic touches that Indy movies do so well. I also adore Cate Blanchett, but they didn't ask a whole lot of her. But the storyline? oh MY. I don't want to spoil anyone, but I will say that if I wanted sci-fi, I'd watch one of my Star Trek DVDs. For pity's sake, people.
George Lucas, I'd love to say you have failed me for the last time, but you have your finger in so many cinematic pies, you're a hard one to avoid.

I dunno about this place sometimes

I am never up this early!
Why am I up this early today? Well, I wanted to MAKE SURE Lizzy got registered for a swim class at the local rec center.
I wouldn't have even dreamed of the necessity of getting up at 5 a.m. for this task. But stumbling upon the registration site a week or two after the first day of registration didn't work so well last time. Actually, it did -- I got her on a wait list, and our name came up, but she decided that the second-level class sounded too scary. Given her tendency toward shyness in new (especially slightly scary, to her) situations, it was probably for the best that we gave up that spot.
But, she'll be 6 in November, and this level 1 class was only good through age 5. So, with Matt's agreement to escort her to class -- they begin four weeks before my due date, and last for eight weeks -- I planned to sign her up for a summer course that starts in June.
Amusingly enough, the one thing that got me stuck on rising early for this task was Fairfax County's "Don't worry! Don't lose sleep over registering your kid -- HA! Actually, everything but the aquatics classes remains open for registration after the first day. By the way -- did you know we start registration AT 5 A.M.?!!?!
Heck. Pregnant people can't sleep, anyway.* So I found myself awake and staring at the clock at 5:13, and thought, what the hey.
By the time the computer graciously allowed me access to a registration page, it was about 5:20, and I was sweating a little. Just the fact that the site seemed to be crashing due to high volume was blowing my mind. Or was it our computer?
Nope. It's the site. When I got in, NINE of the class' TWELVE spots had been spoken for. Are you SERIOUS??? By the time I paid and logged out, it was 10. And I don't think the 10th was Lizzy. Granted, it's a Saturday morning class, the only time we (and probably many others) could make it.
Well, we're in now, boy! And the lesson is reinforced; if the game is competition, or getting your kid in a program of some sort, don't mess with the parents in Fairfax County. Yowzah.

* This has to be God's/the body's slightly harsh way of preparing us for those sleepless nights. Seems like SLEEP is my ideal preparation for months of sleeplessness, but hey. Not up to me, apparently.

still my baby

Overall, this pregnancy's been okay. I'm still not yet feeling like I've been pregnant forever, and will be pregnant forever; instead of thoroughly bemoaning my beefy self, I'm mostly just averting my eyes; tiredness has not been a big problem. (I can remember with Lizzy, there were days at work I just wanted to crawl under my desk and take a nap. I think I even tried it, one time.)

There are things I miss, though. Now that the 'hint of summer' season is upon us -- at least, occasionally -- I could really go for a margarita. I'm much more of a summer alcoholic drink kind of person. But it's not that big a deal.

I miss doing active things, not that I have much opportunity for them these days anyway. It's a bummer, though -- recently, Lizzy's gotten into actual sports! Not in an organized fashion yet, but she's got a little pink baseball mitt, and she enjoys playing catch. She's always had a good little arm on her; now we're working on the catching part. She's getting the hang of it. And our neighbors have a (lowered) basketball hoop in the street, which she likes to try using sometimes. She tells me she made one a couple of weekends ago. I'm so proud just to see her try and try, and not get too frustrated. I wish I could lift her up and help her make one up high, as she'd like me to do. But I've explained that I'm not supposed to lift her these days, and she understands. She's been very good about it.

I didn't realize what I'd miss the most, though. Those times of picking her up and holding her are like nice, long cuddle-hugs. She still gives me hugs, of course, but when I'm kneeling down (no easy feat in itself these days) and she's all wiggly and ready to go onto the next thing, it's definitely not the same.

I carried her into the house a couple of weeks ago from the car. I know I shouldn't have, but she'd fallen asleep, and Matt was busy with something else, and I wanted to try. I got her upstairs without too much drama. It just felt so good to have her in my arms, her holding onto me, trusting me completely.

I'd never before really appreciated the power of touch. I remember occasionally missing that after a relationship would end -- that I didn't have anyone with that comfort factor any more. No one to hold hands with and whatnot. I'm really dreading the age -- coming soon -- when Lizzy is too big a girl to want to be tickled and held and hugged a lot. I remember lots of times, my mom wanted me to come sit on her lap, and she attempted a little cuddle, while I inwardly rolled my eyes and put up with it for a few seconds. I don't remember how old I was -- is Lizzy there yet?

Thank goodness that another hapless little babe is on the way for me to torture in similar manner. I'm not ready to let go of those years quite yet.