Our Big Balloon Adventure in Hollywood

Yesterday I hauled myself, my son and my mom down to Hollywood in the early hours, praying to the work traffic gods we weren’t in or didn’t see an accident.

Two hours later, I felt as touristy as I always do when I hit that point on the freeway where I can see the Hollywood sign. I’m never down there enough.

As in true me fashion I ended up in a parking garage stealing someone’s Beauty and the Beast parking post while I quickly changed into not-having-eaten-breakfast-in-the-car clothes and mom taking Wonder Boy out of his jammies while the valet waited to move my car because the lot where I was going was too full.

All in a Tuesday, right?

I was there to attend a roundtable discussion and screening for a movie- and it would be Wonder Boy’s first ever In A Movie Theatre.

Obligatory photo opp. Don’t let go of that balloon!

I knew I had to say yes to this because it offered him a chance to do something I knew he’d try anyway- singing and dancing along in the aisles.

On purpose.

I’ve taken him to a couple musical performances locally, and the last one had me carrying him out, screaming that he indeed had been quiet instead of dancing and talking loudly in the aisles as three guys played Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor”.

I hadn’t taken him to a movie yet, worried about the shushing in the background as he cheered on a favorite character and worried about the loud noises that sometimes come with kid’s movies (Hello, Cars 2) that could scare him and affect his relationship with the movie.

And so, before most people are chugging to work, we were chugging to meet the Oogie Loves.

And this is what happened.

Wonder Boy made a craft- his first ever experience with glue, which he happily drizzled all over his Oogie Loves lunch bag. I left him in the care of the counselors and my mom- aka ‘the caregiver’- and appeared later to see him happily showing off a mishmash of bright feathers and silver glitter. Since he never gets glitter or markers I’m sure it was an amazing time for him.

This was very popular with the kids, including all of the usual territotialness that comes with being The One Who Pushes The Button. This was my son’s turn.

Then the kids, counselors, and caregivers went off to learn some fun dance moves and get familiar with the movie’s characters, while we moms sat in a roundtable discussion featuring producer Kenn Viselman and Amy Gruberg, marketing consultant for the movie.

It has been tooo long since I did one of those. I love roundtable discussions because someone always asks the question I seem to not come up with until later that night. And I got to pound away on my iPad, taking notes like nobody’s business.

How I miss my reporting days.

The rest of the story? Is for another day. maybe in ‘Oogust’. Don’t worry, it will be sparkliciousness.

While I won’t be putting up a review of the movie for a while, it will be an ongoing topic here on the blog as I dive more into his reaction, my impressions and the concept of active involvement in a movie theater setting.

So I’ll leave you with the obligatory tired kid photo- happily clutching his movie popcorn- and a link to http://oogieloves.com.