A Night at the Museum

Man... Blogger.com went and got Googlefied, and they've changed their interface. Between that and Amy's laptop being on the fritz, we're a little technically challenged at the moment; my apologies.
I've been putzin' around the computer today, and came across my old blog back on Radio Userland; I did a Google search on "burrhaz" to find it. Reading the posts made me want to write something, which I clearly haven't done in quite some time. Today seems as good a day as any to post an entry, though.
We took the boys to go and see "Night at the Museum," the new, family-friendly Ben Stiller flick; we (Amy and I) have been looking forward to it since seeing the previews a few months ago, and we were not disappointed. The movie is really well done, and it has a positive message (a few actually) as well, with the core message being a variation on a line from Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night":

Be not afraid of greatness...some are born great...some achieve greatness...and some have greatness thrust upon them.

It is paraphrased a number of times by "Teddy" Roosevelt (played by Robin Williams, who did an excellent job reining in his usually manic acting) in the film as: some are born great, while others have greatness thrust upon them. In any case, the movie goes on to illustrate this idea by taking a common man, putting him in an uncommon situation, and having him rise to greatness in mastering the situation. So, good flick, good message, with plenty of humor, as well.

We've become increasingly courageous in our outings with the kids; taking them to the movies would have been unthinkable in the past, but Ben's old enough to sit through a movie from start to finish, and Josh almost is, as well. Joseph does an okay job, but the movie's only half the entertainment for him. The other half consists of:

- Upturning his bag of popcorn so that it spills all over him, his chair, and the floor
- Removing the lid from his soda, so that he can reach in to play with the ice (and soda) and get his sleeve and pants wet
- Moving from a seat next to daddy, to a seat two away from daddy, to a seat three away from daddy, etc. until he's sitting one seat away from the moviegoers at the end of the row

That's okay. We can manage that. It's better than what he threatens to do during the pre-show, when he gleefully imitates every sound on-screen:

Pre-show: blah-blah-blah-woof!
Joseph: WOOF! WOOF!
Daddy: (whispering) shhh... we don't talk out loud in the movie theater
Pre-show: blah-blah-blah-meow!
Joseph: MEOW! MEOW! MEOW!
Daddy: (whispering) Okay...(panicked)...hah...hah... now during the movie you need to be quiet
etc.

Finally, as the lights dim, he quiets down, and we can all enjoy the movie.

In any case, we had a great time with our three great boys.