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my entire life, i have loved movies. okay, i don't just mean "oscar worthy" movies either. and maybe this is normal for all kids, but i vividly remember being five or six, with my sister being about two years old, (and there is video evidence somewhere on a home movie) and we are sitting in my grandma's greenhouse, having a tea party, and reciting the words to a cartoon movie.

word for word.

inflection and all.

i remember growing up, there were a few movies that we could watch over and over and over. license to drive. the princess bride. adventures in babysitting. tommy boy. to this day, i know them by heart.

i always loved that phrase..."by heart."

one of the things that made me fall in love with my husband is his uncanny ability to insert movie quotes into conversations and make them fit. or his random impressions of movie characters (he does a great impression of ace ventura, without all the hair gel). even now, we can carry on hours-long conversations in nothing but movie quotes.

i am not a movie expert, by any means. i don't claim to know anymore than what i learned in a film class in college, which was mostly comparing american literature to on-screen adaptations. best part of that class...i took it my senior year so i got to write my senior thesis (despite being a biology/chem major) on the comparison of the book and movie fear and loathing in las vegas, and its accuracy as a portrayal of american culture.

apparently, this is a trait we have passed on to our children.

i swear to you, if i ever have to watch 101 dalmatians again, I'M going to break out with spots. that was piper's movie of choice when she was about 2 years old. we had to replace the original DVD because it was so worn. seriously. she has stuffed animals named pongo and baby pongo. still.

lately, dade's favorite is elf. okay, i do love this movie. i honestly could watch it on almost a daily basis. about a week or so before christmas, i introduced the kids to this movie. i thought, "gee, this will be nice. i can sit down with the kids and enjoy a movie that isn't completely animated for a change. rock on!"

a few days later, i heard dade upstairs playing and he kept saying something about "take the books back?!?" and he would just keep repeating it. (which, i know is another kid-ism. he repeats things about seven million times until you say "uh-huh" just to acknowledge that he's said it. there are no exceptions to this rule.) for about three hours, i couldn't figure out where i had heard that from. it was starting to drive me crazy until i finally figured it out. it's from the scene with walter hobbs (the father in the movie), and the nun. walter is telling the nun that he's taking back books donated to the church because no payment was received. and the nun says, "you're taking the books back? but the children love the books," and she sort of puts her hands together and crinkles her eyes for emphasis.

my son, who is three years old, has begun following in his father's footsteps. so he runs around the house all day long, usually shouting, "BUT THE CHILDREN LOVE THE BOOKS!"

i think it's safe to say that our talent for movie quotes has been genetically passed on. i hope he and piper someday find mates that enjoy that as much as jay and i enjoy each other's.