My not-quite 2-year-old daughter said the word “movie” for the first time yesterday.  My heart swelled.  Actually, what she said was “voovie”… but the implication was clear: she wanted to see a movie… and she knew which one….  She owns half a dozen Brainy Baby VHS tapes and some Baby Einstein DVDs; at the end of the day, when she’s having her milk before her bath, we often ask if she wants to watch one of her “movies.”  They’re fun little shows, full of light and color and animals, both domestic and wild and they provide us with 30 to 40 minutes of catch-up time in which to wash dinner dishes, pick up toys, or get the garbage out.  Historically it’s been our suggestion but yesterday Vayda Jane announced, a propos of nothing, “A gudda gudda gudda gudda… voovie?”  It goes like that in this house – multiple syllables of unintelligible gibberish with a slight Norwegian cast capped by a single word that ties the whole sentence together.   

But what movie to watch?  Vayda was very specific:  “Mawnkey, eeeeee, ah-bay-see.”  Allow me to translate.  She wanted to see a movie with monkeys and elephants and she wouldn’t mind at all if they worked the alphabet in there somewhere.” 

Not many parents would celebrate this milestone but it’s meaningful to me because I spend so much of each day watching movies, thinking about movies, researching movies and writing about them.   It’s what I do, it’s who I am… and I’m that way, I guess, because many, many years ago movies became a priority to me.  I crossed a line.  I chose movies over sunny days, brisk exercise, superhero comics and tossing the ball with my Dad.  And yesterday, in the middle of having some other kind of fun, Vayda stopped what she was doing and demanded a voovie. We put it on.  She squealed in anticipation.  She sang along with the theme song.  (I do that sometimes.)  She pointed at the TV.  “Cow!” she announced to my wife when that animal appeared on the screen.  Even though she’s seen this tape many times she still gets excited when she sees the cow.  I get the same way when I see Strother Martin’s bit part in Kiss Me Deadly or Owin Howland in… anything.  I get that excited.  Sometimes I scare my wife.  “OH MY GOD!” I’ll shriek, knees off the floor, as my Barbara jumps out of her skin.  WhatwhatWHAT?!!”  I’m pointing feebly at the TV as Owin Howland does his bit in Them! and Barbara just rolls her eyes. 

Vayda’s first word?  I’m thinking… early 2006.  Her first step?  Last summer, probably June… but don’t quote me.  These milestones are fuzzy.  Yet June 3, 2007 is a date I will remember as the day my daughter decided she would rather be watching a movie than doing anything else.   

That's my girl.