A Movie Date With Oona-Pooh :)

One fine Saturday morning, October 29 to be exact, Oona had her very own Movie House Day with Mom and Dad at Greenbelt. Courtesy of Yehey! and Lactum-Mead Johnson, I was given three tickets to the Winnie the Pooh movie special screening. It was the perfect surprise for Oona who’s really growing up so fast! Olly stayed home with Lola because she had the sniffles, but also because this was Oona’s Day, we had really planned to only take Oona and spend some quality time centered on her!

Oona was so excited! The night before, she picked out her outfit (her favorite Spongbob shirt which she picked out herself from the store too…), her favorite warm jacket (cos I told her it might get cold) and she slept early so she could wake up bright and early on THE DAY. She actually woke me up to tell me it’s time to get dressed because we might be late. She even reminded me to pack the chocolate-filled kiddie cookie treat she’d been saving for a special occasion (like this one).

Oona's Movie House Day with Winnie the Pooh, Mom and Dad!

I thought we would have an easy time making it to the 1:15PM screening since it was a Saturday. Little did we anticipate the horror of traffic coming from QC going to Makati. EDSA was choked with travellers going out of Manila to celebrate a long weekend out of town. Buses, cars and all sorts of vehicles filled up the streets and spilled over into the inner roads we tried to avoid getting stuck. Finally, after New Manila and passing through side streets in San Juan, we were able to make it to Makati alive. We had eaten through our stash of snacks in the car, drank through our travel water supply and had Oona fall asleep on my lap. BUT WE MADE IT WITH A FEW MINUTES TO SPARE!

RF dropped us off at the entrance to hustle up to the cinemas while he parked the car, but he surprised us by catching up on the escalator because he said there were a lot of available parking spaces. Apparently everyone wanted out of the metro and very few went malling! Lucky us, Daddy didn’t have to find us inside the dark cinema and we could all enter together!

At the entrance to the premiere, we were greeted by a photowall (picture to follow!) where we had a family picture and a goody bag for Oona with fun stuff inside! She was also given a milk drink, for which I was so happy for because I knew she was thirsty. I forgot to bring her a tumbler of her favorite Lactum chocolate drink (the only chocolate drink I allow her to have) so thanks to the universe for providing!

Oona's score! Thanks to Daddy who hunted for a winning honeypot among the movie chairs:)

Before the movie started, we were treated to a short program and welcomed by Lactum’s host and Lactum Ambassador Judy Ann Santos. Looking around, we saw lots of kids came in costume. I was afraid Oona would be sad she wasn’t wearing a costume but I was relieved when all she was concerned about was if the movie was going to start soon. (Kids will surprise us!) When the host announced that there was a honeypot hunt, Daddy went into action as only a Daddy can! RF combed all the aisles of the upper seats and triumphantly returned with a sticker that says Oona won a stuffed doll! WOOT!

Finally, the lights dimmed and the short bonus feature, The Ballad of Nessie by Walt Disney, rolled. RF and I found it really nice and watching Oona enjoy it was even nicer. Then Winnie the Pooh came on and Oona was delighted because she was watching another movie when she was only expecting one! We were amused by the reactions of the adults in our row as well, laughing with Oona as she found Pooh and his friends endearingly funny as they went around the Hundred Acre Wood on their adventures — er, mis-adventures. She was so engrossed with the movie that she forgot to eat her snack!

As the credits rolled, that was the only time she asked us to open her snack box and as she munched on her treat, she checked out how big the screen really was. Outside, we were able to join Judy Ann for a photo-op, drank more milk and claimed her doll Since they ran out of Tiggers, she got Pooh. She was asking the lady for a doll for Olly too but understood that we only had one sticker for one doll. So we said, she can share with Olly and she agreed that Olly will be okay with sharing the doll Still, it was so sweet of her to think of her little sister! She said she couldn’t wait to show Olly everything in the bag and play Pooh with her!

We had lunch at a chinese resto on the way home, since she had a craving for congee with egg. Afterwards, we headed on home to wrap up a long, but happy day!