The Bee Movie and Reading Lips

This past weekend, I took 17 teenagers to the movies. Before you think I was totally out of my mind (which I am on very rare occasions), I had 3 other grown-up chaperones with me. Ok, Ok… I realize that may not make me less crazy, but let me get on with my story!

Chloe, of course came along… and as per the norm was “good as gold“. She’s not a stranger to the movies, but I do believe this was her first animated one.

There was one scene where the main bee character found himself on a tennis court and stuck to a tennis ball. As tennis balls on a tennis court do not normally just “lay there”, he found the ball to which he was “stuck to”, picked up and SERVED. I hope my mouth was not the only one hanging open in awe that he survived the serve and several hits back and forth! (Of course, had he been squished, the movie would have been over and thousands of kids traumatized!)

Now let’s stop and think about it from a working dog’s point of view! I wish I had a camera to snap a “kodak moment” of Chloe’s astonishment at the size of that tennis ball on the big screen. If HER jaw could have dropped open when the ball began to volley back and forth on the big screen… all the while SCREAMING (due to the “stuck” bee), I’m sure it would have. Needless to say I’m glad the tennis match was quickly over. It took Chloe a full 5 minutes to settle back down in a “down/stay”!

The movie was good, but I have to admit I struggled some through it. After calming Chloe, I found myself trying to listen… by reading the bee’s lips. Before you laugh out loud, think about it for a second! Could YOU read an animated bee’s lips? Do they even HAVE lips? (groan)

So I forced myself to ignore the bee’s … ummm… “lips”, and concentrated on what my CI was picking up. It took me a few minutes to sort of “tune in” to what I was really hearing (and not seeing), but it DID work! I could hear the bee talk.

I’m sure my audiologist will be glad to hear I have a new “CI moment” to share with her. I would imagine the last time she mapped my programming, she didn’t envision that I would be able to hear a bee talk!