We then hopped on the Navy Pier trolly, back to State St., where we picked up the 36, got home, grabbed umbrellas, and hopped back on the bus to head up to get Daughter #2. Fortunately, with the rain, her class was not running around out in the park, so we were able to pretty much swing in, grab her, and swing out. Took them over to BK for some kids meals, and then hopped the LaSalle bus back downtown. I was hoping that we were going to be able to get a mouthguard for #1 (with any luck, she should be getting promoted to her Gold Belt at Dojo this afternoon, at which point she'll be needing sparring gear) at SportMart, but by the time we found where they were supposed to be we had to bolt to make it to the NEXT movie time.
The Wife had suggested that I get The Girls and make the 5:20 show of Finding Nemo, and that she'd catch up with us there, so we were on a pretty tight clock. My timing was pretty good, as we got over to the theater (it was a six-block walk from SportMart) a minute or two ahead of the official start time, which put us into our seats when the previews began (a note on this ... for an early showing of Finding Nemo, was it really such a good idea to run the Pirates of the Caribbean trailer? Both of The Girls were freaked out by that!). On the way in, #2 was very insistant that she wanted coke and popcorn, but I tried to convince her that one of us would duck out for these as soon as Mama got there. Unfortunately, The Wife never arrived, and this began to be an issue with #2 about half way through the movie. Now, one of the "joys" of taking a 3 and 7 year old to the movies with just one adult is that you end up with one of those fox-and-chickens-crossing-the-river problems. The 3-year-old wants to go to the bathroom, wants to go get snacks, wants to search the damn theater complex for Mama ... while the 7-year-old, understandably, pretty much just wants to watch the movie. Thank the gods for the Karate lessons, since I can figure that I can let #1 watch the movie while I wait outside the ladies room for #2 to get done, keeping an eye on both doors ... if anybody started to mess with #1, they'd have a bit of a surprise, and there would be a hell of a lot of noise. Bleh. No fun for Daddy anyway.
I had figured that The Wife might have managed to land in the wrong theater (Nemo was on 4 screens), but she ended up getting there so late that they wouldn't sell her a ticket for our showing, and so she decided to go home rather than wait for us. This was not popular with #2, who was crying all the way home "I want MOMMY", which, of course, aroused suspicions among various BFE/Podunk tourists that I was some child snatcher who was dragging off a 3-year-old with my otherwise-fine 7-year-old accomplice!
I'm only now getting caught up with my LJ reading and my junk mail, since I was AFK for nearly 24 hours ... a real shock to my system. Amazingly, The Girls are off for yet another movie this morning with The Wife ... one of the Mothers at #2's daycare is tied in to one of the theater chains and she gave us a pass for a 10am preview showing of the Wild Thronberrys/Rug Rats new movie this morning ... I am missing it as I have to be up for an orientation for #1's summer program at the same time (and was, frankly, not particulary enthralled with seeing that one anyway).
Anyway, yay me! I actually got to see a movie that I wanted to see ... which only very rarely happens. This summer is going to be frustrating, though, as there look to be about 10 movies that I'd like to go to, but will be lucky if I get to 2 or 3 (I've already missed one, Bulletproof Monk, and Matrix 2 might be gone before I can get to it). I think my next best bet for taking Daughter #1 along would be League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which looks way cool (with Peta Wilson in it too!).