Let's Go to the Movies!

So Violet and I were both having a cranky afternoon today. Erik was off to the Bruins game, and Violet and I were missing Daddy and being pouty. So I thought, "How about a movie?" Violet is 16 months old and very active- she doesn't get to watch too much TV, but when she does she (surprisingly) enjoys it, and it really calms her down. So I thought that it would be an enlightening experience, if nothing else, to take my cranky baby to a movie. We chose a post-nap showing of _Slightly Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs_.

We arrived right before the _Where the Wild Things Are_ preview, and sat near the exit (just in case). Violet was enthralled and possibly overwhelmed by the big screen, but immediately started signing "cat" and pointing to the monsters on the screen. Then she started saying "woof woof", clearly trying to decide what kind of animals were on screen. She then proceeded to sign throughout the whole movie! Since she's 16 months, she's also an emerging talker and used a lot of verbal words to describe what she was seeing. The most wonderful point of the whole movie came about a third of the way through... Violet started fidgeting and I figured that we had reached the end of her attention span and would have to leave. Then she turned around, looked me in the eye, and signed "milk". That was all she wanted, and she didn't have to cry to get it. It was wonderful for me because it showed me that she understands how to "use her words" and ask for what she wants. She is really understanding communication. I wonder if we would have had a positive experience if Violet was not a baby signer?