Charlotte's Web

Of all the books I read in my childhood, Charlotte's Web was one of my favorites. I often refer to it as the book that made me fall in love with reading. With the movie out, I've been dying to take the kids to see it. I made it happen yesterday.

We went with another family. This family has two boys exactly the same age as La Nina and the Magster. Better yet, the boys rank among the best friends of each girl, so it makes hanging out with their family very easy. It doesn't hurt that I've known their dad since 6th grade, and their Mom since college. So, the parents are old friends to boot.

We met at the movies and it was all good. We bought the tickets, got the kids booster seats, situated ourselves with flawless timing. The Moms were on the end. The five year olds and the three year olds were lined up boy-girl, boy-girl. The lights went out and the fireworks started.

La Nina, who doesn't like loud noises or the dark, was in my lap 5 seconds after the previews started. Once the movie started, she started asking to go home, loudly. Really loudly. Unfortunately, the Magster didn't agree and told her sister to be quiet, which made her sister cry. At that point, La Nina and I left the theatre and I called the Daddy-knight to the rescue of his princess.

He moaned and groaned, not wanting to miss the pre-game of the Superbowl. He even tried to sweet talk the princess into staying. She begged him to come pick her up. There were more tears. At that point, the knight began to charge to her rescue in a shining SUV.

Now, I really wanted to see this movie and we live a good 15 minutes from the theatre. There was no way I was going to miss 15 minutes of the movie for a teary eyed princess, especially when I had another princess inside by herself. So, I put the phone on mute, grabbed La Nina's hand and headed back into the theatre. There was a good deal more whimpering, but she went along. We stood in the hallway of the theatre where I could keep an eye on the Magster, who was riveted and happily eating a cookie, but also make an escape when my cell phone buzzed. About 5 minutes into the wait, 'M.J.', La Nina's buddy, joined us in the breeze way.

"La Nina," he asked. "What's wrong? Are you scared?"

Through her tears, La Nina nodded.

Tenderly, 'M.J.' said, "But you can sit next to me, you don't have to be scared."

At which point, she dropped my hand and trotted into the theatre after her buddy.

All the parental persuasion in the world couldn't accomplish the request of a friend. Then, I went through several moments of disbelief, followed by an overwhelming feeling of doom. Peer pressure starts young. Very young. With nothing left to do, I followed them back to my seat and sent a text message to the Knight in the Shining SUV that the princess had a new prince.

The Daddy-knight went to the superbowl party as planned, just a little early, and we watched the rest of the movie. I wept when Charlotte "languished" just as I did when I was a kid, and I enjoyed every minute of the movie. The Magster ended up falling asleep in my lap, but she liked it too. Especially the cookies. And La Nina? She claimed it was the best movie ever.