We took the kids to see “Zathura” today, and I’m waiting for them to wake up screaming. It was really cool — a great space-based adventure story based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg, who also wrote “The Polar Express” and “Jumanji.”
But it’s fairly intense, what with flesh-eating Zorgons and homicidal robots. Both the kids ended up in our laps. Camille’s sleeve was wet up to the elbow. “What happened?” I whispered. “I spilled some water on it,” she said.
After the movie, I got the real story. She had been chewing on it.
“Honey, why were you chewing on your sleeve?”
“That movie was really freaking me out, Mommy,” she said as we walked to the car.
Once we got home, Herb and I asked them what they learned from the movie — hoping they got the message about how siblings should love and protect each other rather than fighting constantly. This was a message near and dear to my heart, since I’d been the sole referee all day for an ongoing sister-to-sister smackdown.
“Oh, right,” Abby said, once we’d reinforced the point.
Somehow, I think the Zorgons are going to stick with her longer….