A New Hope

Andy decided one day last week, while he was off work and Sonya was off school, that he really wanted to watch Star Wars with her.  The REAL Star Wars that is.  Not those other three "movies" Lucas made a few years back. You know, the ones everyone was so excited for and then became so disappointed about.  No, I'm talking about the GOOD ones with Luke, Leia and Han.  The ones that we grew up on.  Three of my favorite movies of all time.  Of course I wanted Sonya to watch these too, but when he suggested this I  gave him that "have you met our daughter" look.  Granted I was about her age when I watched the first Star Wars.  However, Sonya is the kid who STILL won't watch Aladdin, because she's scared of the Cave of Wonders.  ALADDIN!  A Disney cartoon.  A rated G movie. I had no idea how he was going to get her to watch Star Wars.  Especially since a couple years back she had already formed her own opinion of the movies before watching them.  Still, I figured if anyone could convince her to watch it, it would be Daddy.


So, this past Sunday was a very rainy day here in Los Angeles.  As it has been a lot for the past two months.  (When did L.A. become Seattle??) I had been out running errands and came home to find Andy getting Star Wars out of the DVD closet.  He announced to Sonya that we were going to watch it, since the little girls were sleeping.  Except only Georgia was sleeping and Lana was protesting her nap, which she's been doing more of lately.  Sonya immediately started to cry.  She said she didn't want to watch it and she was scared.  Andy and I tried to convince her that it wasn't scary and she was going to love it.  There was a princess in it!  She didn't care.  She just continued to cry for about ten minutes.  Andy even tried the guilt trip on her saying how he would be going back to work soon and wouldn't be able to spend this time with her.  He wanted to watch it together before he couldn't anymore.  No dice.  Still crying.  This went on for about five more minutes.  Finally we called it quits.  There was no convincing her.  Except then when we told her forget it, and she didn't have to watch it, she cried harder.  She did want to watch it.  Or more likely she didn't want to disappoint us.  We tried telling her it was fine, we weren't mad, and maybe we could do it some other time, but nope.  Still crying.  Damn!  Girls are EMOTIONAL!  Why on earth do I have THREE??  I wasn't possibly this bad was I?  Please don't answer that mom and dad.


Meanwhile, in Sonya's bedroom, I had Lana who was crying as well, because she did not want to nap. The only quiet one was GG, fast asleep in her room.  Thank goodness.  I went to calm Lana down, while Andy continued to work on Sonya.  I managed to get Lana to stop crying and told her to rest in the bed until she was all done with her tantrum.  I was hoping if I left her there calm, she would quickly fall asleep, even though I did tell her she could come out of the bedroom when she was done.


I walked back out to the living room to find Star Wars playing and Sonya post tears sitting next to Andy.


"So we're watching it now?" I kinda asked Andy out of the side of my mouth.


He just shrugged his shoulders, eyes on the screen.  I left it alone and  sat down next to Sonya. I silently prayed nothing scared her to much so that we would have to turn it off.  She might never try and watch it again.  About three minutes into the movie, Lana came out of the bedroom, blankie in her mouth staring at the screen.  It was almost 2:30 at this point so there was no way I was going to try and make her take a nap.  I also saw no way that SHE was going to watch Star Wars.  Even though Sonya is still scared of some movies, Lana is far worse right now.  We couldn't even get through the Rudolf special this year, because she freaked out when the Abominable Snowman came on the screen.  How on earth would she handle Chewbacca?  We even tried watching Despicable Me earlier in the week and she got off the couch and ran to the kitchen during parts of that movie.  That one was not scary at all.


I let her watch for a few minutes to see what she was going to do.  Then I asked her to come sit with me, figuring she would say  no and want to go play.  To my surprise she hopped up on the couch.  She and Sonya sat there mesmerized and watched the ENTIRE movie.  They didn't try to leave, they didn't get scared.  Sonya asked questions about the characters and who everyone was.  At one point she said to me,


"Is that Luke Skywalker?"


"Yup."


Then with all seriousness said, "Why isn't he walking on the sky?"  They just take things so literally at this age.





About twenty minutes before it was over, I noticed Sonya sitting on the edge of the couch, holding herself, doing a little dance.


"Um...Sonya, what are you doing?" I asked.


"I have to pee real bad, but I don't want to stop the movie," she replied.


"You know, we can pause it and finish it when you get back if you want," I told her.


She agreed and ran off to the bathroom.  I couldn't let her watch the most critical part in having to pee pain.  I've been there for MANY a movie myself.  Not fun.  I was just so happy that she didn't want to leave and wanted to watch it that badly.  She came back from the bathroom and we all watched as Luke blew up the Death Star, then went off to celebrate his victory with his friends.  Well, his friend and his sister, but we haven't quite gotten there yet, have we.  


The movie ended.  I seriously felt like I was going to cry.  I had just watched Star Wars for the first time with my kids.  See that's where the emotional thing comes from. My genes.  Who cries over stuff like that?  Andy and I proceeded to ask them  how they liked it.  They both loved it.  I asked Sonya who were her favorite in the movie.


"Princess Liea (duh) and R2D2," she replied.


I don't think any little girl can watch that movie and NOT want to be Princess Liea.  I went as her for Halloween at least once, maybe twice when I was a kid.  I also used to make my mom do my hair in the braid buns on the side of my head for school.  I was always a little upset that my hair was blond though.  I wanted to be a brunette like her so badly.  Well because of her and Daisy Duke.  Not sure SHE she was the best role model, but oh well.


Yup, we managed to show Sonya (and Lana) Star Wars and further pique her interest.  She was so excited to go to school the next day to tell her friend Gwen, who has already seen most of the movies, that she had watched it.  I'm so happy she finally let go of her fear a little and trusted us to show her something she might really like.  I've seen these movies so many times in my life, but watching them with my kids is a whole new fun experience.  I can't wait to watch the next two!  And if she asks about the "others", they don't exist.  Okay, maybe when she's a teenager and knows the first three forwards and backwards.  Then she can be disappointed by the prequels like the rest of us, and appreciate the originals even more.