Oy.

Today I took Lucy to see her first movie in a movie theater. I think she is probably one of her last friends to do so, but it is tough to gauge when kids can really handle sitting in one place for over an hour. Watching a movie at home is different - you can pause for a bathroom break, a chance to play with a toy, a snack, etc.

We saw Madagascar 3 which looked like a solid movie that Lucy could enjoy without ever having seen the first or second movie of the trilogy. Everything went well to begin with - we got there in plenty of time, we bought some fruit snacks to eat, we had a bathroom break before the movie, and Lucy was very entertained by the previews. When the movie started it was very loud. I noticed it immediately and there were many times that Lucy covered her ears.

Then came a point very late in the movie when the main characters have to make a tough decision which makes many of the other characters very sad. It was then that I looked down and saw the Lucy was crying quite a bit. There was soon a change of heart for the main characters and of course there was a happy ending and Lucy seemed to be over it. The credits started rolling and I informed Lucy that we needed to leave the theater. She said that they were going to show a different movie afterward, but I quickly convinced her that the show was over.

We were fine until we hit the parking lot when she started sobbing. And I mean SOBBING. She wouldn't stop. I figured she was still a little upset by the plot but when I asked her why she was crying she said, "I miss Cookie and Grumps and Nana and Yoinkie and all of the other people I don't get to see." She wouldn't stop crying. So I drove home and she cried the whole way. Then she said her stomach hurt. Then it was her neck. And then she finally she just sputtered between tears, "I ... don't ... know!"

When we finally got home, Lucy refused to get out of the car. So she sat in the back seat and cried for another 10 minutes before finally joining the rest of us inside.

I'm not really sure what to make of the trip. She said she like the movie. She said she liked going to the theater. She said it wasn't the movie that made her sad.

I'm confused.

I feel like there are going to be a lot of these moments to come in parenthood, especially when we are the parents of two teenage girls. There will be a lot of these times when we think we have totally understood our daughters' reactions and then we will find out that we are wrong. Dead wrong.