What we talk about when we talk about Dennis Quaid.
Two brothers use tools to build a homemade scooter in the driveway
Letter of the
Take your foot out of your mouth! I yelled at him.
He looked at me with the full attention of his 21 months, and slowly obeyed.
Thanks. I said. Keep your foot out of your mouth.
Sorry Daddy,
he said sincerely as he put his foot up his nose.
Overheard
There are a lot things I expected as a parent. And I expected the unexpected. But one thing I did not expect, and, in fact, never saw coming, not even a tiny, was two boys, ages 2 and 4, sitting around, having a chat about Dennis Quaid. yes, Dennis Quaid the actor. I’m sure it’s a normal four-year old thing to want to educate your younger siblings about the Quaid family, but as I said above, I didn’t know this beforehand. So it was a surprise to me to hear them carry on about Mr. Quaid.
My 5 favorite Dennis Quaid films
Yes, these are in order. Also, I am not going to include ones in which he was a minor part, or even part of an ensemble (such as the fantastic Traffic). Also, I remember liking the Oliver Stone football film Any Given Sunday, but I don’t remember his role in it. So I’m not including.
Frequency
The Parent Trap
In Good Company
The Day After Tomorrow
The Rookie
Soul Surfer
Far From Heaven
D.O.A.
Innerspace
Dennis Quaid films I haven’t seen yet that I want to
That Special Relationship
Enemy Mine
Suspect
Flesh and Bone
The Right Stuff
The Big Easy
Reading
He read 1939 classic The King’s Stilts to his younger brothers. I believe it was the first Seuss story I experienced, along with Bartholomew and the Oobleck. I fell in love.
ee cummings
I don’t know how you don’t feel your heart go whump when you round the corner and your five-year old has moved on from teaching his younger brother Quaid 101 and is now teaching him how to memorize poetry.
“Now it’s your turn to read a poem to me,” he said, handing over the book of rhymes.
Observation
Your eyes look moldy! He said to his older sister as she came out wearing stage makeup in preparation for Theater rehearsal.
Parenting tightrope walks
Every parent develops a relationship with risk. For some, perhaps, there’s solid lines and boundaries. For others, it’s an evolving process that factors in many variables; the biggest variable being the question: what are the potential consequences?
I watched two boys engage in one of their favorite activities: tying ropes around things, and I continued watching as one tied it around the others’ bike and began pulling it up the hill.
I sighed, and thought about saying something.
