Date Night, part zero

Ok… I know.  There isn’t such thing as a Part Zero, but this is about the things that happened in the weeks leading up to our date night.  When we decided at the end of last year to see the IMAX version of Avatar, we knew quite a few shows would be sold out.  And after looking up the information online, ALL four of the weekend shows (from 12:50 pm  to the last showing at 10:45 pm) were sold out for the next three weeks.  We have a discount pass for IMAX tickets, but it requires us to purchase it at the box office, so it meant a drive down into Seattle with Juliana on Monday (which happened to be MLK Jr. Day). 

There was a good sized line at the box office (at 10:30 am), but Juliana was surprisingly patient.  In the 48 hours between the time I looked up the showings online and the time we purchased the tickets, the Saturday show we originally wanted had already sold out.

Since we were already paid for parking, after we purchased the tickets, I took Juliana over to the Center House where we shared some lunch and watched some performances celebrating diversity of culture.  We saw some choirs singing, some young ladies from the area demonstrating the singing talent that got them to the semi-finals of America’s Got Talent and a performance by the Chinese Youth Orchestra.

After we finished our lunch, we wandered downstairs to the Children’s Museum, which had a Sesame Street exhibit about the human body.  We spent almost as much time in that exhibit as we did in the rest of the museum, but I forgot to take pictures in that area, because I was chasing after Juliana so much.

However, she did enjoy the rest of the museum:

She could not be dragged away from this water table unless nature called.  She got the front of her shirt soaked… twice.  Yes, she came back to this area multiple times.

There was a room dedicated to reading with various areas for settling down with a book.  Juliana was particularly attracted to this spot, and a mesh canopy in the corner with throw pillows underneath.

Jonah? Are you in here? 

Get it?  The whale?  A brother named Jonah?

Sorry… I couldn’t help it.


Oh… and there was THIS cave… which she would not stop climbing in and out of.  Climb in the end at the far right and climb out of one of these two openings, squeal, run back to the entrance, rinse, repeat.   I think she did this for 10 minutes straight.

And she would’ve gone longer if we didn’t need to leave to beat the rush hour traffic home.  Granted, traffic was a little lighter due to the holiday, but after almost 2 hours of chasing her around the museum, I was wondering if I even had the energy to drive home.

Our yearly date

I don't know how it is with you, but since Juliana was born, Derek and I have had very little time for going out and watching movies together.  Sure, we've been to a handful of movies over the last year... but only one (maybe 2) with each other alone.  With the release of Avatar, we decided to make some time to go to watch it in 3D on the IMAX screen. 

Thankfully, Sahm-Yi was willing to make (as far as I know) her first foray into babysitting with Juliana and I kept my fingers crossed that everything would go well.  Well our date was this past Sunday and D and I caught a matinee showing at the Seattle Center and Juliana was dropped off at Sahm-Yi's home with a few toys, books and snacks.

While the plot of the movie was rather predictable, the telling of the story with its cinematography and integration of live action with computer graphics was impressive.  My only gripe about sitting through a 2-1/2 hour 3D movie was that I had a neck ache and a slight headache from having to keep my head very upright throughout the movie.  Wearing those glasses in the theater, any slight tilt of the head makes the image blurry and so I found I had to sit with as little shifting around as possible.  I never quite realized how much I tend to lean against Derek when we watch movies.

Juliana had a great time playing with Sahm-Yi (and Kou-Fu, who stopped by to visit with them).  From all reports, they went to the playground at the mall, ate lunch at Nordstrom and played with her various toys at the house.  She didn't cry once, but asked where Mommy & Daddy were a couple of times.

Hey, Sahm Yi... are you free next year to watch Juliana for our next date?  :-P