I stayed home from church today with a pathetic sickly Wanda. She’s got a snuffly nose, a cough, a rattle and a roll. She can’t sleep without a binky but she can’t breathe WITH a binky so we are at an impasse. There is a lot of crying and snarfling going on.
I’m just getting over something similar to what she has, although I looked a lot less cute when it was my turn so I tried to nap in between rescuing her from the suffocating bink and alternately calming her with it.
When I woke up from my nap, the kids were watching a movie, something we don’t do much of on Sundays and Dan and I decided it wasn’t a great Sabbath day movie choice. I’m not sure that there’s anything religiously wrong with Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus, although the male/female relations are somewhat of an archetypal muddle. I think we decided it wasn’t a great Sunday movie because it sucks.
So we let them watch a movie that does not suck. According to my Grandpa, who saw it around one hundred times in the theatre when it was released, it’s about the un-suckingest movie that has ever and will ever be made. The hills are alive with it. You guessed it. We watched The Sound of Music.
I cried when they sang about the problem with a certain young novitiate named Maria. I cried when she had confidence in sunshine. I bawled my eyes out when she taught the children how to verbalize Solfège and don’t get me started on Maria’s favorite things. It is too much. I love that movie. It’s in my blood.
I love it because it reminds me of how happy my childhood was, even though my sister made me be Rolf when we danced along with “Sixteen Going on Seventeen.” It was a charmed childhood. Tonight I proclaimed that when Dan and I dress up as Rolf and Liesel for Halloween, I get to be the girl, all pretty in pink and he can be the pre-Nazi messenger boy.
Laylee was enthralled, talking about what an amazing governess Maria was. As I child I liked Maria, but I don’t remember thinking she was all that amazing. Weren’t all moms kind of like that? She very much reminded me of my own mom but with shorter hair and a guitar.
The best comment of the night came when the nuns were singing about Maria at the beginning of the movie and Magoo sat with a disgusted look on his face and said, “Why do they just go on and ON and ON and ON about it?”
We stopped for bed just as the Von Trapp family singers were climbing trees, about 5 minutes pre-firing, about 7 minutes pre-Edelweiss, somewhere near 20 minutes pre-most-romantic-dance-scene-ever.
So far my kids think it’s a happy movie with lots of singing and too many nun parts. But wait. It gets better. Tomorrow we get to finish up with icky romantic love and Nazis. Maybe we should just watch the first half again.
P.S. “Favorite Things” is still not a Christmas song.
Sounds like Magoo and my husband have about the same opinions of this movie… his comments are essentially the same.
Hahaha wonderful movie night altogether 🙂
I’m so glad you are making this a part of your kids childhood…as it was part of yours… and mine. There is so much in there. Maybe that’s why we can watch it again and again and again and still enjoy it.
BTW – I am so with you. Favorite things is a fun, sweet and lovely little song, but definitely not Christmas (although many of my favorite things do occur at that time of year. Still that’s too big of a stretch for my little mind.)
We watched “Anne of Green Gables” at my house a week or so ago. I warned my boys (7 and 5) that it’s a girl movie and if they didn’t like it they could just go away, but my children are suckers for the moving picture box. Anyway, partway through my five-year-old said “I think this is a pretty good movie, actually.” And my seven-year-old responded, “there isn’t anything good about it!”
Of course, two nights later, when we finished it, both of them wept hysterically when Matthew died. It was priceless.
That is awesome!!!
My husband would never admit it publicly but he was forced to watch Anne as a child and now loves it too.
My husband loves it too. He cried more than I did at the end of Anne of Avonlea. Ha! It’s awesome because someday he is going to take me to Prince Edward Island, and it’ll be fun for both of us. Ha!
Will you be Liesel before or after a good soaking? Soaking wet would be all kinds of funny. But I guess impractical in October.
Maybe next time I’m out there I should bring out my pictures from when we did the play in Highschool. I bet Oscar would freak to see me in a nun’s habit.
I love Sound of Music too, but that’s not what I wanted to tell you about…..one time I had a horrible cold and decided to sleep on the couch with my chest coated in Vicks. Then my baby couldn’t sleep and was stuff too…..she was too young to put Vicks on. But she wasn’t too young to sleep in my arms reaping the benefits of MY Vicks. We both slept for the first night in ages! If you get desperate enough you’ll try it! 🙂
That’s still what I cite as my favorite movie ever. I’m not sure anything will ever de-throne it. 🙂 Yes, best dance scene of all time. PERIOD. I don’t remember anymore…. You’re face is all red. Is it?
I wholeheartedly agree about the Christmas song thing. I have always scratched my head about that; who the heck decided it was Christmas-y?
A few things:
1) Sound of Music is definitely one of the least sucky movies EVER. I adore it. I wanted to be Gretl until I was about 16 and realized it was probably time to move on.
2) That dance is, without doubt, the most romantic thing ever filmed. I adore that dance.
3) My Favorite Things is definitely NOT a Christmas song. As much as I love it, it’s not a Christmas song.
4) Sound of Music is totally a good “couldn’t go to church today” substitution. I approve, for whatever it’s worth.
I have fond memories of Sound of Music too. I put Doh-A-Deer, Favorite Things, So long farewell, and Lonely Goatherd on a few mix CDs so our kids know all the words.
When our oldest was 2, we started watching just the song videos in the movie as if they were MTV worthy. and just last month we watched the whole movie with our 5 year old and he loved it. We explained the Nazis are like Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers and he got it – kinda.