Thursday, August 2, 2012

Star Wars 101



Hallie and Chandler possess a magnetic pull toward these books right here:


They're from Elon's childhood, and I can still remember the day he put them on the shelf for our kids to enjoy someday.


And sure enough, Chandler found them first at a young two, and became a huge fan of Darth Vader.  Then, he started having nightmares about him and so I took them and hid them way up high.


And it was a mere few months before Chan's "magnetic pull" pulled him swiftly to their new location.  And down they have stayed.


I, however am not a Star Wars fan, and know very little about it.  Which is why I was so grateful for this page right here that shows who and what these creatures/humans/droids are:
In fact I hesitate to use the word "repulsed" here, so I'll simply say that I'm wired differently.  That George Lucas and I are not from the same mama.  I mean don't get me wrong, I totally respect and am in awe by his work, but there's just something about an intricately designed piece of metal spacecraft moving slowly through a black starry "sky", that sends my attention soaring to far away places....


...like what I'm going to do the next day.


Or what shade of gray to paint the living room as I notice the swatch still securely pinned to the wall by a picture frame.


All of these thoughts are quickly laid to rest as my eyelids get heavy  and eventually slam shut.


Happens every time.


So poor Elon, being the huge Star Wars fan that he is, only gets to watch them when I'm out of town, along with other sets of series that have the same effect on me.  Like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc. (I'm a ton of fun I promise!)


See, when you marry somebody who is the polar opposite of you, you run the chance of having children who are the polar opposite of you too.


Which is why my darling little girl is just about the biggest up and coming Star Wars fan on the planet.  In fact she's the bigger fan at this point.


So after being pelted with nonstop Star Wars questions by my two obsessed fans, and being tired of never knowing the answers, I decided to take it upon myself to give this sci-fi series the time of day.  I started actually reading the heavily texted pages to my two year old who inevitably interrupted me at every fifth word to the point where we just needed to talk about the pictures, or I'd go nuts.


After learning who and what the characters were, and reading snip-its here and there, I actually became a little curious as to what the movie was like (#4 that is), though I'm sure I've seen it before (through shut eyelids).


And I'm sure I sent Elon straight to the twilight zone when I asked him if we had, and could I watch, the very first Star Wars movie that he (and everybody else) had seen in the theater all those years ago...


...because when I came down the stairs that very evening after saying goodnight to the kids, he had the whole thing rigged up and ready to hit play.


And I think there may have been a newfound glisten in his eye.


Unfortunately, this night wasn't much different from other Star Wars nights we experienced early in our marriage.  And fast asleep I did fall ;) - (Yoda)


But I did glean a little more than before. 


Hey I get points for trying right??


I've learned that you can't make something there that isn't....and I just don't have it.  Absolutely NO sic-fi absorbers reside in me.


But, I do love supporting the interests of my family, so I'm still going to indulge my kids in their need to be Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker/Darth Vader. 


Hallie doesn't go many places without her "buns" securely intact,  and her white on white attire.


And I love it.


She seriously goes everywhere with them.

She likes to sport the braid-across-the-head look too.


Here's "Luke":
With his "shovel-esque" light saber.


And here they are together as Darth Vader and Princess Leia.


Can't you tell?


Then Elon went up above our garage and found some of his old Star Wars figures, which we knew these guys would LOVE.


We set them all up on the table, and I stood with camera ready before we called them into the kitchen.


And I was super bummed that my camera wasn't on the right setting to capture that first natural reaction.


Here we go, much better but "first-moment" lost.


I could just see those wheels turning in their little heads.

And we were right, they did love them.


That was until they fought like cats and dogs over them in the hours that followed.


But lets just relish in the love.


As you can see I didn't get very far in the "dressing-of-Chandler" that morning.


It's so fun to find these "guys" laying around the house.  I'd love to know what was going on in Chan's little mind when he put the "snow-suit" Leia in this measuring cup.


And I was crouched with my camera ready to capture these guys on the stool when my little Bat Man zoomed in at precisely the same moment my finger hit the shutter.
That pretty much made my day :)


Somewhere in all of this new Star Wars birth at our house, Hallie chose her dad to read the books aloud before bed.  


And they read every night.


After night...


...after night.


And I'm just as happy about that...I mean look up there at all that text!


He is just the man to do it because I would have no-doubt butchered the name of every planet in there.


Hallie loved the day she found all the dvd's in our dvd chest so she could only dream of watching all of them someday.  She searched the back of every one to see what it was rated.


Here she is doing just that.


And here she is "presenting" one:
We ended up letting her watch #4 and she loved it.  She kept saying, "today's the day, I just can't believe it, I'm actually going to watch STAR WARS!".  I think Chan could handle it just fine too, but we'll see.


Then there's this luscious little girl...
...who somewhere in those glassy greenish, blueish, brownish eyes of hers, is a future Princess Leia wanna-be, just waiting to emerge.
  
And I'll be ready with my camera. :)


Oh, and I love my handsome polar opposite and my darling polar opposite children very much!