Simple Saturday: my boys and The Lion King

I had good intentions of writing something of substance today, but I doubt it’s going to happen. Today was one of those days where I had semi-grand plans that never came to fruition. I spent the better part of the afternoon trying to convince the boys we should go outside to play, but it’s pretty terrible for everyone involved if I have to force them to get dressed and put on their shoes.

I had finally convinced Joshua to get dressed, and two minutes later he was asleep. We’re at a point that he naps less days then he actually naps, so it’s beginning to fall off my radar that the most likely culprit of a difficult afternoon is that he’s just plain tired. Since daylight saving time ends tonight, and he’s gotten up around 6am a couple of times this week, I’m very glad that he took a nice nap this afternoon. It pretty much ensures that he’ll be up late tonight and will sleep later in the morning.

Whenever only one of my kids is awake or I run an errand with only one of them, I kind of marvel at how easy only one child is. I never did convince Gabriel to go outside, even after Joshua fell asleep, instead he was my perfectly helpful little side kick. We read together, made dinner, and loaded the dish washer. Then he just played quietly by himself and hung out with JR.

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It’s later now, and Gabriel is watching The Lion King with JR. The Lion King is JR’s absolute favorite Disney movie ever, so they have been waiting for this day for years. JR has watched this movie so many times that he is kind of annoying to watch it with because he can quote every line. Even Gabriel asked him to stop.

One of the clearest early memories that I have of JR is from when I went to see The Lion King in the theater with my family when it was originally released (I was in about fourth grade). Apparently JR’s family had tried to go to an earlier showing that was sold out, so they were the first in line at this particular showing. JR, who was normally quite shy as a child, bounded over to tell my brothers and I about his pre-movie adventures and how excited he was. Aside from that line being the longest that I had ever seen at a theater up to that point in my life, the conversation with JR is the only thing that sticks out in my mind from that day. JR doesn’t remember the incident, and is surprised that he even spoke to me that day since it would have been very Uncharacteristic of him. Since my brothers also remember the incident (they have recounted it without prompting), and it’s the most reasonable explanation of how I would have known about the circumstances of the day when he first saw The Lion King, he admits that it must have happened. Occasionally, when the opportunity presents itself, he likes to tell people about how we “saw The Lion King together” for the first time, back when we were kids.