Secret weapon.

After our dinner stop it was time to get SS into her comfy footie pajamas, and choose a movie. But SS's lady bug DVD case was nowhere to be found. We knew that we had it, because when I was doing the last sweep before leaving home I saw it on the sofa, and made sure SS took it with her. We did not use it at all because SS had her rentals on the drive south, and she only watches DVDs on long trips. As P was frantically checking and rechecking every bag I sneaked back into the truck stop store. I was willing to be ripped off in order to provide entertainment for SS.Not a single kid movie among their vast selection.

We decided to distract SS with music. I have 10 hours of music in my phone, so we routed it to the van radio and hoped for the best. SS was OK for about half an hour, then became restless. We were worried, because we had a good eight hours to go, and SS had taken a one hour and forty five minute nap. She was not going to sleep any time soon. We have previously discussed how SS is a tad backwards regarding what she perceives as scary. Skulls and bones, and skeletons are beyond cool and perfectly harmless. Pumpkins in a pumpkin patch are scary. When we play a movie for SS we make sure that we are close in case she has a meltdown. When she watched The L*on K*ng and Be@ty and the Beast something scared the daylights out of her. We were close by to turn off the offending images swiftly. It's not only images that can scare her. I have the F@ntasmic and Electrical Parade soundtrack. Not a big D*sney fan but I LOVE them. I can no longer listen to F@antasmic in the car, because SS is scared of the music in a very short segment. I tried just muting it during that part, but no, SS is now afraid of the whole thing. With such a hypersensitive child, our movie choices are very limited.

When SS started to get restless we knew we had to do something, and do it fast. Post SS, P and I do not bring movies along, we know we won't have time for them. I have no idea how or why, but we brought several this time. I suggested that we could introduce SS to St@r W@ars. She is familiar with R2D2, finds him cute, and is totally into the light sabers. The opening scene of the first movie is something that would make SS flip (shooting and rebels dropping). I told P that if SS made it through that first scene she would be OK. P agreed because we were desperate, in the middle of nowhere, not a Redb0x available. We heard SS squeal in delight, like a preteen at a Just*n Be@ver concert. She then said in a dreamy way "STORM TROOPERS!" Huh? They are the bad guys, WTH? We knew then that SS would be just fine.

P and I were wondering which human character SS would identify with, and pretend play to be. Princess Le*a was immediately out of the running. Luke Skyw@lker had my vote, because S talks about light sabers all the time. H@ns S0lo had P's vote, "because he's a scoundrel and SS loves scoundrels." If the latter is true, we are locking SS away until she is 45.

When the movie ended SS requested more St@r W@ars, and luckily for her we had the trilogy. I was concerned about the scene when D@rth V@der slices Luke's hand. P said he would closely monitor and just stop the movie if SS became upset. We were involved in a rather interesting discussion, when we heard SS say in an upset tone "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I told P to turn off the player and to reassure SS that it was make believe, pretend. We were not expecting what happened next. SS's outburst was not caused by a violent scene, it was caused by the DVD battery running out. We had the DVD plugged to an AC source, but did not realize that it disengaged at some point. Once we corrected the situation SS was back in zombie mode.

Who knew our girl would turn out to be a rabid St@r W@rs fan. We did not hear a peep out of SS for the remainder of the drive. At a point P tried to get her attention, because he was worried that we had not heard from her. SS responded without looking at him, "I'm watching." SS could not be bothered to leave the van during our rest stops. I opened the back door, and before I could ask SS to go to the bathroom with me she said "I'm watching." She did not even bother to look at me. SS was watching Return of the Jed* when we arrived home. When P reached to turn off the DVD player SS fell apart. He quickly promised that she could watch in the house. That is why SS was up at 2:36 a.m.

Yesterday I recalled our conversation regarding which character SS would fancy. I asked my girl and was not ready for her answer.

Me: SS did you like the St@r W@rs movies?
SS: Yes Mama, I liked them very much.
Me: Did you like the Ewoks? They are my favorite.
SS: Nah. (How can anyone not find those furry creatures adorable? What is wrong with our
child?)
Me: Which was your favorite in the movies?
SS: The black one.
Me: D@rth V@der (In a high pitch, incredulous tone)!!!!???????
SS: Yeah Mama, he is the best, he is soooooooo goooooood, really goooooood.

OMG, my daughter is into a dark creature that cut off his own son's hand. What happened to my hypersensitive child who is scared of her own shadow? During the drive home I was thinking that SS may want to be a St0rm Tr00per for Halloween. Now I'm afraid she is going to want to be DV. Talk about an unexpected turn of events.

P and I are interested in SS's reaction to the prequels. She has no preconceived notions, and is unaware about people's opinions about their lackluster quality. Can't wait to see what happens. I found SS's case buried under the towels and blankets. We are glad we could not find it, otherwise we would have stumbled upon our now secret weapon.


Product placement, SS sucking on her glow in the dark Star Wars Slurp Saber Gogurt. I showed SS three different flavors and she made a beeline for this one.